Kansas City Country Club Plaza Stays Losing Michael Kors

This afternoon the demise of retail persists in a formerly premier Kansas City entertainment district.

To wit . . . 

LUXURY RETAILERS ABANDON THE PLAZA AND LOCALS SHOULD PROBABLY BLAME THE 2020 BLM RIOTS!!!

To be fair, many activists claim that the "mostly peaceful protests" were "uprising" in an effort to express community outrage following the Minneapolis Police murder of George Floyd.

Either way, looting, burning police cars and then torching news trucks isn't good for business.

And so, here's the end result of an old school biz model that was crippled by the Internets and then killed by civil unrest . . .

Michael Kors store is listed as “closed” on the company’s website, the logo is off the building and an orange construction cone blocks the entrance. Corporate officials did not return calls or emails this week seeking comment on the closing.

A Plaza spokeswoman said: “A current list of retailers can be found on (the) Country Club Plaza website. Michael Kors’ parent company stated in 2020 that it would close a number of stores over the course of two years. This falls in line with the announced strategy.”

The luxury accessories and apparel retailer opened more than a decade ago in a prime corner spot at 4747 Broadway.

The note from the lesser blog goes on to lament the crisis that it helped to create by cheering rioters.

Meanwhile, it seems the the only future for retail to survive involves making a desperate deal with the machines.

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com news link . . .

There's a vending machine for that: Why automated retail is becoming more the norm | CBC News

Vending machines have taken a new, upscale form in the Canadian market, and experts say the pandemic, along with more innovative technology, have spurred this shopping trend. Most recently, "Cake ATMs" have been installed at 25 shopping centres. Most are in Ontario and Quebec, but four are in Calgary.