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Commentary/One Shopper's Dream: What a girl wants
Monday, February 14, 2000 By Kim Germovsek, Post-Gazette Deputy Graphics Editor
Mayor Murphy, may I nominate myself as your poster girl for Market Place at Fifth and Forbes?
I'm a 29-year-old single homeowner seeking more places to shop. I have a bit of disposable income and, more importantly, credit cards with high limits. You may dismiss me as a shallow, material-type of girl, but I love to shop. LOVE it. Perhaps a successful shopping spree compensates for other areas in my life that are lacking, but that is a commentary for another time.
I come from a long line of shoppers. I spent my formative years exploring the malls of Northeast Ohio with my grandmother, mother and two sisters. The largest and nearest, Great Lakes Mall in Mentor, Ohio, was a 30-minute drive from my rural hometown, but it was nothing compared to the delights of Beachwood Mall, a day trip my family planned with all the precision of the D-Day invasion. A 14-year-old's first brush with Saks Fifth Avenue is not to be taken lightly, and it introduced all the females in my family to what shopping could be like.
Over the years, we (my mother and sisters remain my favorite shopping companions) have done our own version of the search for the Holy Grail, shopping in Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Seattle, St. Louis, Dallas, Detroit, Washington, D.C., Charlotte, N.C., and countless outlet malls in countless states.
Once, we drove for 13 hours to Myrtle Beach, S.C., because we heard new J.Crew and DKNY outlet stores had just opened there (well, we went for the beach and the seafood, too). And then came Sloane Square in London, and Rue de Faubourg in Paris...there is just so much for a shopper to see in the world.
You can imagine from this history that I was overjoyed to hear of Murphy's plan for the Fifth and Forbes corridor. But I was underwhelmed by Urban Retail Properties' initial "wish list" of retailers and restaurateurs. Planet Hollywood? Hard Rock Cafe? How passe. J.Crew is more than welcome, but, frankly, I get the catalog in the mail. How much foot traffic does a Tiffany's get? And woman does not live by The Gap alone.
So if it takes a certain concentration of stores to get me into the car, what will it take for the shopper who is, shall we say, less obsessive? No matter which building facades remain and which come down, it is the retailers and the shoppers that are going to make or break the plan.
So, from one humble, world-class shopper, a few suggestions as to what stores would help make Pittsburgh into a world-class shopping destination.
1. NORDSTROM. Lazarus and Kaufmann's are wonderful stores, but a Nordstrom, with that fabulous shoe department and even more fabulous designer bridge lines, would only increase traffic in other Downtown stores.
2. CRATE & BARREL. For the uninitiated, C&B is a warehouse of a store, chock-full of goodies for the home. There's something for every budget, and I don't think I've ever walked out without making a purchase in one. Plates, napkins, flatware, candlesticks, couches, slipcovers, picture frames -- I'm running away with myself. Imagine IKEA with tasteful colors and furniture that can be put together without that little funky tool that tears out your fingernails. On average, more affordable than Pottery Barn but still stylish. While we're on the subject, a Pottery Barn and a Restoration Hardware are always appreciated, even if Pittsburgh already has outposts of these stores.
3. ANTHROPOLOGIE Imagine a Parisian flea market, if everything found in a Parisian flea market was mass-produced and artfully aged before its time. Anthropologie's catalog offers the well-heeled neo-hippie chick lots of spangly, multilayered skirts and tiny cashmere tees but gives little hint as to what treasures can be found in the stores themselves. The India-inspired chic clothing takes up but half of the store. The other half offers all sorts of curios for the home: thrown clay pots "from England," "French" milk buckets, "Italian" bud vases, pressed leaves behind glass frames, "Arabian" silk pillows. The inventory turns over constantly. Hey, even if I instinctively suspect that the stuff all comes from the same factory in Malaysia, I can still appreciate the multicultural look it gives to my home.
4. CP SHADES. There are probably hipper clothing stores, but this one never fails to please me. The store offers a sharply edited line of clothing, usually only a few different styles of pants, skirts and tops, in only four or five colors and perhaps two or three fabrics. Everything matches everything else, and everything is comfortable, machine-washable and packs well. Indispensable for always being able to find the perfect black skirt. There isn't a store between Detroit and Philadelphia, and they don't offer a catalog or a Web site.
5. URBAN OUTFITTERS. Funky, fun, mostly affordable. In Manhattan, this store is open from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. every day, and there isn't a minute when the store isn't packed with young hipsters trolling through rack after rack of cargo pants, tiny tanks and sweaters. The more mature shopper might appreciate the large selection of clunky black shoes, oversized pillows or scented candles, if said mature shopper can tune out the pulsating techno rave music that blares morning, noon and night.
6. SMITH & HAWKEN. I assume that real "dirt" gardeners wouldn't be caught dead in here, but I personally love their selection of high-end gardening tools, clothes and outdoor furniture. Smith and Hawken stores are beautiful: blond wood flooring and cream-colored walls with little garden vignettes all over, bubbling fountains and pots of lavender they somehow manage to keep in bloom -- and thus in scent-- all year round.
7. DEAN & DELUCA. The cheese department alone would induce me to stop in daily. What hasn't been written about the fabled gourmet delights of this upscale grocery? Downtown is sorely lacking in any kind of shop where one could stop by on a whim after work and pick up a ripe camembert or side of prosciutto. It's hard to imagine D&D without its exhaustive wine selection, but I suppose that in Pennsylvania, one must be content with the state store.
8. J. CREW. Yes, the catalog is ubiquitous, but it's also rather heavy on wool sweaters and trousers. The stores themselves offer more of the sleeker, stylish end of the J. Crew line. Plus, the catalog rarely marks prices down, but the stores do quite frequently.
9. ARHAUS OR ZONA. Yet more purveyors of fine living at home, but both stores sell mostly furniture and little in the way of knickknacks. Arhaus is based in the Cleveland area, Zona is NYC-based, and both resemble Weisshouse Design Store of Shadyside a bit. Arhaus offers the most variety. Slip-covered couches, distressed pine armoires and coffee tables are styles that are seemingly going out on a national scale, but the quality is high and the twice-yearly sales are seductive. Zona is funkier, more colorful, offering pine dining room tables painted in cheerful shades of red or blue, sideboards constructed from old fence posts, lamps made from recycled glass bottles. Maybe not decor for everyone, but certainly fun to look at.
10. TOWER RECORDS Or, a VIRGIN megastore. The biggest selection of music under one roof. Great for tourists, even greater for lunch-time browsers who appreciate a larger inventory than NRM can currently offer.
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