Something is wrong with Walnut Street. Nowadays, taking a stroll through the heart of Shadyside, one cannot help but notice the number of empty or soon-to-be empty storefronts. Posters seem to be on nearly every building, advertising retail spaces, some of which have now been empty for several years.
Two years ago, William Sonoma, albeit as part of a broader corporate reshuffling, closed its doors to customers. Around the same time, Shadyside Market and Deli closed after sixty-nine years of business. Acorn, a new American bistro, closed in June of last year. The Walnut Street Athleta location closed just last week, and both E.B Pepper and Footloose, small businesses of some four decades, will also soon close. Even businesses in the surrounding area have not escaped the epidemic; Ellsworth remains a restaurant graveyard and Round Table Coffee closed in August.
Why has there been so much turnover on Walnut as of late? It is not as if a series of trendy, risky stores are closing; stalwarts that have withstood decades are shutting down. I should admit that even before the pandemic, turnover was high on Walnut — American Apparel replaced by Patagonia, J Crew replaced by J. Jill, and so on — but many storefronts are now remaining persistently empty. The Rene Furterer Paris storefront has been empty for nearly four years, and several upper-level storefronts have also yet to be filled
One reason is certainly the exorbitant rent charged by Walnut Capital and the other property management companies. According to the owner of E.B. Pepper (vis-à-vis my mom), renewing the lease was simply too expensive. The issue of a decline in retail is not unique to Walnut; it is a problem across the nation, as brick-and-mortar stores struggle to compete with online vendors like Amazon. The result is that only larger companies, subsidized by online sales, can afford to have retail locations — mostly to have a presence on the ground. It is much harder for smaller businesses to maintain a retail location.
Even when storefronts are replaced, it is usually not with a business that anyone actually wants on Walnut. Pam Eisner Designs was replaced by Moda, a luxury goods store selling polo shirts for nearly two hundred dollars, while True Runner was replaced by a Chase Bank location. The newest addition to Walnut is a CoHatch location — a members-only coworking space similar to the now-collapsed WeWork Inc. The crowning jewel will be the new Starbucks location, moving from a narrow slot on Copeland St. to a much larger corner space on Walnut and Ivy.
The question must be asked, what sort of businesses do we want on Walnut? I would argue that main streets like Walnut — of which Pittsburgh has very few — should remain as local and, for lack of a better term, “quirky” as possible. The pinnacle of this quirky ethos is Kards Unlimited, a store selling books, cards, and a wide variety of knick-knacks. If any store could be described as having character, it is certainly Kards Unlimited, and with relatively affordable wares, it is the sort of store where you would actually buy things with some frequency (I do, at least). The same cannot be said for many of the pricy, designer clothing stores that fill Walnut.
Quirky-ness, in this age of online shopping, is to me the main attraction of local retail stores. You can find things that you would not otherwise come across online, and the experience of shopping at these unique stores is an enjoyable thing in and of itself. At best, they are not nearly as bland and sanitized as so many corporate stores are wont to be.
If it remains so difficult to run a business on Walnut — owing largely, it seems, to extortion by property management companies — then all that we will be left with is corporate-branded cookie-cutter stores. It has become something of a cliche to say that we should “support local businesses,” but it is nonetheless true. For instance, I try to buy books at Kards Unlimited whenever I can. I know how fragile these businesses can be, and it would be sad to lose another local business.
I confess that I’ve never been to E.B. Pepper (my mom has though), but it is still sad to lose such a longstanding local business, and does not bode well for those that remain. They bring great character to the neighborhood.
I asked students at WT what sort of businesses they would like to see on Walnut, and most respondents agreed that they wanted to see more local businesses. 70% of respondents wanted to see a new thrift store on Walnut, while 63% of respondents wanted a new bookstore and 53% wanted a budget clothing store. Tea and coffee shops were similarly popular, as were bakeries and cheap food locations. These are the sorts of “quirky” stores that Walnut needs more of. It is clear that, at least for the students at WT, it is stores with “character” that are most desirable. Nearly every respondent agreed that Walnut needs less expensive designer clothing stores, banks, and other corporate stores.
I recognize that WT students are but one of many demographics that spend time on Walnut Street, but I imagine that we are quite representative of most young people, who do not have excess funds to spend money on luxury goods. Main streets are hardly an attractive place to spend time if you can’t afford to do anything on them.
And for another grievance I would like to raise: contrary to intuition, I don’t think Walnut Street has enough coffee shops. In a world short on public spaces, where people can gather and spend time for little or no cost, coffee shops are an essential part of a local community. Georgie’s Corner Cafe was a welcome addition to Walnut Street, bringing a charming space where people can get meet friends while enjoying coffee and baked goods.
Most essentially, Georgie’s has character, something that cannot be said for the other corporate stores; the owner can often be seen working in the cafe, casually talking with all of the customers. There is little character to be found in Starbucks.
Please support your local businesses, for, I fear that many of them are not long for this world. And to the small businesses, stay quirky. I should be sad to see you go.
