King’s Keyboard House, the city’s last remaining piano store, has closed after sixty-four years. Second-generation owner Jim King had hoped the business would continue in new hands, but he has retired and sold the building at 2363 E. Stadium, its home since 2008.
The displacement of stores by restaurants downtown is not a one-way street: on S. Main, a gift boutique has replaced a coffee shop.
Stores offering various mushroom-based products continue to sprout up around town, finding fertile soil in the city’s relative tolerance of entheogenic plants and fungi.
Atomic Trading Co., Alex Kent’s new vintage boutique in Nickels Arcade, is the furthest thing you’ll find from a market-analysis-based enterprise tailored to capitalize on consumer trends.
Your Media Exchange is returning to Ann Arbor to make a longer-term home in the basement of Kerrytown Market & Shops, replacing its sister business, Diggers, which opened last year.
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Sixty-three small-scale enterprises, intrigued by the prospect of affordable overhead downtown, vied for three retail spaces at the Ann Arbor District Library’s new “Lobby Shops.”
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Taybor Pepper knows that the National Football League’s initials can also mean “not for long,” so he’s diversifying his career beyond special teams into specialty retail.
Read MoreOffering mostly vintage fashions plucked from estate sales and the like, Torn and Frayed (its name evoking a deep cut from the Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main St.) took the spot long occupied by Stadium Pharmacy.
Read MoreThe departure of one longtime merchant from Kerrytown Market & Shops has made room for two newer businesses to grow.
Read MoreUpbeat music was pumping inside Briarwood Mall’s JD Sports store as employees busily stocked shoes and clothes in preparation for a late May opening. Romulus-based district manager Greg Gambrell agreed to step out for a quick chat in a quieter space, the mall’s main corridor across from the Apple store.
Read MoreSkechers has found its first foothold in Washtenaw County: the shoe chain opened May 10 in the Arborland storefront that has seen only temporary Halloween City tenancy since Arhaus moved up Washtenaw Ave. to Arbor Hills Crossing in 2013.
Read MoreAs the student high-rise building boom thunders on, four businesses were displaced in recent weeks from the northeast corner of South University and Church St. Only one of them is reopening elsewhere.
Read MoreLiquidation sales are well underway at Forever 21’s large storefront next to JCPenney in Briarwood Mall. The long-troubled fast-fashion chain is winding down operations both locally and at its approximately 357 stores nationwide.
Read More“It’s something other than video games, and it brings people together.”
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An offbeat brand of stuffed toys has grown from an online shop run out of a one-bedroom apartment to more than forty stores, including one on Briarwood Mall’s center court.
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Inspire Marketplace “was never set up for profit,” according to owner Nikko Davidson. “The business model is set up for shared expenses. I take all the risk for it.” A hearty laugh follows, perhaps concealing some nervousness.
Read MoreThe Kansas-based team merchandise retailer has since opened two more locations in town, adding stores on the west and south sides to complement its downtown and Arborland locations.
Read MoreA new Briarwood bookstore is geared toward those who have such titles as Solo Leveling, Chainsaw Man, Oshi no Ko, and One Piece on their reading or holiday shopping lists.
Read More“We’ve really been expanding so much lately that it was something that we’ve always had a hope for: to get a bigger presence in Ann Arbor,” says Colin Novick, media and production manager for Rally House.
Read MoreLongtime real estate agent Laurie Buys, a former flight attendant originally from Seattle, was a big fan of the Eve and Annie Boutique, which recently closed its storefront to focus online. She plans to open Downtown Chic Boutique there in November. “I kind of pounced on the idea of, ‘I can do this,’” she says.
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