The Yard

Doggy models what you could find at the Yard!

 I first heard of The Yard through the print edition of The Daily Orange. It's run by Andrew Rainbow and Steve Davis out of their house on Madison Avenue east of Syracuse University around the corner from Thornden Park. It's all used goods from mainly the '90s-'00s, but not strictly SU. Vintage shops are big now, and Syracuse has a few. However, The Yard only runs on weekends, but with the weather we have, they must be looking into a permanent store front and more convenient, central location closer to campus and accessible for students and townies alike, especially those of us who can't drive. Shirt Worlds closure last month left a void, even though they sold new merchandise, and there are still local options (the bookstore at Schine was just sold to Barnes & Noble, like the one at leMoyne a decade ago). Champs & Scholars downtown are The Yards closest competitor since they also specialise in second hand clothes, but primarily old school Orange, and they're not the cheapest, mind. Hungry Chucks last location on Marshall Street would make a great spot since it's available and can fill the vacuum in a way, even though the Yard was a rival to Shirt World too. Even the former Marine Midland Bank/Key Bank on East Adams Street might work since it'd be less red tape than another bank or restaurant. The old Bank of America on Nottingham and Tecumseh Roads past South Campus may be a longshot if right on the hill is not an option, but running it like a car boot sale just doesn't work all year. 

I have read, as well was told by a staff member at 3fifteens Camillus store how at the end of each semester how students may leave behind goodies they only needed for the big game at the Dome (fast fashion CNY style). While the Yard may not want anything too new, it opens the door for finding recent purchases for less, since run of the textile mill clothes wind up getting binned, but ours are as desirable as Comfrt or Armani here. At least whatever's in tatters can be recycled now if it's too much a state to be fixed. Champs and Scholars even have a few things that look like my cats had a go at them (they know better) only because it's otherwise rare, and flaws are part of the charm, perhaps, since repairing it would make it look patchy. It's like on these shows about appraising and flipping everyday items for quick cash (that's more for the sister blog, although I don't care for that kind of show myself).

Two nearby churches have started their own charity shops, and could also have some SU lying around, while competing with the Rescue Missions monopoly that dominates this third of Upstate. To think one would look for this many places in other cities. The Yard isn't a thrift store per se, rather a vintage shop also appealing to bargain hunters and collectors. I just hope I can afford to get something there at some point since I barely got a few from the other place over the past several years before they were gone.

A too-good looking and literal AI prompt pop-up SU sale

More of a nicked photo of a new goods sale on campus.

AI photos courtesy Meta Platforms, Inc. May depict actual people or buildings (my inner solicitor is making me tell you).

Haraz Coffee House

Future Syracuse location

    As I pointed out before, Shirt World on SU Hill will be replaced soon by Haraz Coffee House, a chain based in Dearborn, MI in the Detroit-Windsor area, founded by Yemeni immigrants. Not knowing the first thing about Mid-East coffee myself, this seems interesting, and I know this will do well once it opens. The only current locations in New York are in Buffalo (only one on their site so far) and SoHo downstate. Malls aren't really suited for this kind of place. You know the rule about properties.

New Hartford    NY 5A, former Blaze Pizza, Consumer Square

Rochester            NY 15, Strong URMC Ties Neighborhood (TBD)

Albany            US 20, former CVS/pharmacy if Kinney won't come

Syracuse            Marshall St, former Shirt World (pictured and confirmed)

Stop & Shop: 32 former stores

2014 usual store, likely in Connecticut, courtesy Mike Mozart (we love you, Mike!).

 Stop & Shop have closed a whooping thirty-two locations in the tri-state, New England and New Jersey that were considered underperforming. Others have already closed in the recent past, with a few vacant to this day, while former sister chain Tops* bought several in the Hudson Valley that overlapped with Hannaford after the Ahold Delhaize merger in the Benelux, while Weis acquired some Food Lions in DMV/Delmarva that were too close to Giant (Landover)* and other chains had in the mid-Atlantic (some stores were likely from another former Ahold division, BI-LO, which we covered a while ago). I remember seeing a Food Lion in Maryland leaving DC a couple times heading home from hols on coach trips, which would be a Weis by now. Back up north, only a handful of S&Ss have been taken over by others like Food Bazaar. Here in New York, it's more downstate, with Coram, Long Island being one that became a casualty. It's too exhausting to submit that many closing stores to Bing and Google since it's not automatic, although some locations are already marked, being in a big area.

I've only gone to Stop & Shop when I lived in Dutchess County in the mid-Hudson Valley on occasion, as well as when I last visited. They bought the newer ShopRite in Hyde Park a year after I left, and later built a new Stop & Shop across US 9 where the old ShopRite was. It wasn't right near a Hannaford, yet the Rhinebeck store up the road near the old Grand Union* was considered to be and was sold to Tops (Hannaford was across the bridge in Kingston in the old days, initially as a Shop 'n Save franchise), as was Wappinger Falls going the other way. It was a nice, big store on US 9 (south of Poughkeepsie), while Arlington (east of Poughkeepsie) was a bit smaller. Never went to Stop & Shop on either of my Boston trips since there was no time and Star Market near the Pru (sister to Shaws) was much more convenient since I was on another package bus deal (same group as the beltway stay, as well as WNY and the tri-state, but not for the public), which is much less expensive than a flight to Logan Airport.

The chain are just one of many businesses that have suffered over the past five years. To make it worse, Stop & Shop are a union shop to boot, so it'd be better to come up with another to fill the vacuum if one isn't nearby already. While a new local store would be even greater, it's more uphill to come up with that, especially in an area which you don't know personally, so I'd just have to think of chains that serve each region, whether they're still expanding or not. It's more Stop than Shop now, you could say.

Acme* (tri-state/NJ)

Market Basket (Massachusetts and Connecticut)

Big Y* (Connecticut stores)

ShopRite*/Price Rite (same as Acme)

PathMark* (see earlier post)

Whole Foods/Amazon Fresh/Amazon Go (all areas where one or the other isn't yet)

Wegmans (even though they usually only do up other peoples buildings in big cities with tight infrastructure, only open so many a year, and have recently expanded beyond the Northeast)

Tops* (just the two heading up the Hudson. Carmel is the closest store to the City [post-merger])

Thrift stores (if another supermarket is off the table, then this is a plan B)

Food Bazaar (tri-state indie with multicultural selection)

Indies/local business (missus in Maryland would love that one)

*UFCW Union Shop