We recently visited Great Barrington, Massachusetts. The Berkshires is one of our favorite places and we visit several times a year. Because of Covid, we had not been there in several months.
There have been changes on Railroad Street in Great Barrington, a commercial street off of Main Street. Bizen, the Japanese restaurant (owned and operated by our cousin), is the focal point of the one block street. Soco, the best ice cream around, is the first store you pass as you turn up the street. It’s been there for a long time and survived Covid.
Others also survived but some did not.
This is by no means a scientific survey, but the empty spaces and changes seem to me to be a microcosm of the fate of retail though recent challenges.
Twigs, a women’s casual clothing store, has been around for a while and survived (as did its companion store in nearby Lenox). Creatively, the art store is still in business.
Other clothing stores have closed. One replaced by a coffee cafe and the other by a furniture and gift store. The toy store is gone, replaced by a wine store. A restaurant from around the corner opened up in larger space left behind by a restaurant that didn’t make it. The Chef’s shoppe is gone and has a small presence in a large supermarket nearby.
Survival of the fittest? Luck? Good planning? The landscape on Railroad Street has changed as I am sure it has in so many other places.