Lose some, win some

Sadly, many that did not go online — either in whole or in part — have closed up altogether.

Although paper catalogs played their part, for nearly all of us, shopping generally involved traveling to a mall, shopping center or standalone store. As retailers moved online or went out of business altogether, however, storefronts became empty and malls started closing. Today, evidence of the shift to online can be seen just by looking at where we shopped in the past.

Before online shopping, when a retailer vacated an existing location it wasn’t too difficult for the landlord to find another retailer to fill that slot. With so many fewer retailers able to make a buck from a physical store these days, finding a different retailer to fill an empty storefront is increasingly difficult. Thus, the long-term vacancies we are seeing in places like Redwood City’s Sequoia Station shopping center. The current owner of that center is working to make it more attractive to shoppers, and I believe they have — or plan to — increase security to make it safer as well. More shoppers in the immediate area makes an empty storefront more attractive to retailers, so hopefully those empty spaces in Sequoia Station — some of which have been empty for years — will soon fill and bring even more shoppers to the center.

With fewer retailers in the hunt for space, landlords are having to get creative. Fortunately, there are a number of businesses that can’t fully function online, such as restaurants, gyms and many service businesses. Thus, the shift in downtown Redwood City away from retail and toward more dining establishments. In my walks around the city, I’m seeing a large number of nail salons, hair salons and men’s barber shops replacing retail. And I’m discovering countless new places where one can workout in a variety of ways.

Of course, one way to deal with the dwindling demand for retail spaces is to simply reduce the number of those spaces. Assuming that the office project planned for 901 El Camino Real — directly across from Sequoia High — gets built, it will eliminate the existing AutoZone store (which will be empty; AutoZone is moving to where Bed Bath & Beyond used to be), along with the empty restaurant building that formerly housed Yumi Yogurt and the taqueria on the corner of El Camino Real and James Avenue. Also, if the 300-400 Walnut St. townhouse project reaches fruition, a whole swath of storefronts along Walnut — from the empty Sizzler restaurant building up to but not including Redwood City’s Kohl’s store — would be eliminated. Those retailers would have to close or relocate, hopefully filling empty storefronts elsewhere in Redwood City.

Sometimes, a landlord gets lucky. A while back, the owner of the mixed-use building at 2421 Broadway lost their ground-floor tenant — a mobile phone repair service — and then won a new one. Ironically enough, their new tenant is in the very business that Amazon originally set out to conquer: new book sales. By the time you read this, Fireside Books & More, a retailer of books and gifts and cards with a focus on local- and California-made items, will have opened its doors. Fireside doesn’t plan to sell used books, noting that the Historical Society — through Encore Books on the Square, Savers and, I should add, the public library — sells used books in Redwood City.

Fireside’s location — up against the Caltrain tracks where Broadway curves toward the heart of downtown — is fairly good-sized, and the shelves I’ve observed being assembled and filled with books are attractive. Thus, I expect this to be a nice place to shop. As someone who maintains a very large collection of books, I’m anticipating doing a lot of my new book buying — which in the past I’ve done primarily at Kepler’s in Menlo Park — at Fireside. And I’ve already set up an account with Bookshop.org, through which I can order online both physical books and e-books while giving Fireside a cut.

It is too early to tell, but I’m hoping that Fireside Books is a sign that the shift to online has reached its limit and the pendulum is starting to swing back the other way. Many retail businesses may never go back, but hopefully our downtowns in particular will once again be vibrant places to work, live, eat and, yes, shop.

Greg Wilson is the creator of Walking Redwood City, a blog inspired by his walks throughout Redwood City and adjacent communities. He can be reached at greg@walkingRedwoodCity.com. Follow Greg on Twitter @walkingRWC.