As is the eventual fate of all pop-ups, locally owned boutique Park Story could be relocating from its Mosaic District home.

Owner Meghan Evans launched her own clothing line in August 2017 and opened the store in the Mosaic District in October 2018.

“I am hoping for a more permanent home that caters to local designers and independent caterers,” said Evans. “Something permanent than a pop-up. I’m expecting to be here through July.”

Evans said she’s currently in discussions with the Mosaic District about trying to stay in that area, but either way, she hopes to remain somewhere in Northern Virginia.

Evans started her clothing line after being frustrated with the lack of selection for tall women. The Park Story boutique was designed to not only showcase her collection, but work from other local and independent creators. Evans said the store hosts everything from local lipstick to jewelry and art.

“People are surprised there’s such quality on the local market,” Evans said. “People don’t expect to find us here. We’re surrounded by bigger box stores, but we’re local and independent.”

Evans’ clothing line is manufactured in D.C. She knows most of the other vendors at her store following years of building connections and seeking out brands that she believes are complementary to the shop aesthetic.

“We are clean and modern with a feminine touch,” Evans said. “The shop has more of a minimalist feel: light, bright and airy.”

Evans said she hopes to know by April whether or not the store will be moving so she can begin to let her customers know her plans.

Photo via Facebook

As the national women’s clothing chain files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the Charlotte Russe in Tysons Corner Center is closing up shop with some heavy sales.

Nearly half the store is now empty, but there are discounts of anywhere from 30-50 percent on items remaining in the store. Store merchandise ranges from jumpsuits and dresses to smaller items, like makeup kits.

Store fixtures, furniture and mannequins are also on sale — in case you’re a local business looking for cheap equipment or just a normal person who collects mannequins.

Staff at the store said they were not told specifically when the store would be closing, but that it would be gone by the end of the month.

The Charlotte Russe stores in Dulles and Springfield are also scheduled to close.

With Tesla’s announcement that it will be closing most of its retail locations, two Tysons locations remain in jeopardy.

One store is located on Tyco Road near Leesburg Pike. This location was the first Tesla dealership in Virginia, opening in 2015 in a former warehouse.

Tesla also has a showroom inside the Tysons Corner Center mall. The store in the mall includes interactive features to help customers configure their own Tesla in the design studios.

Brick-and-mortar locations are expected to be closed over the next few months, but a list of stores to be closed has not been released. Staff at the Tysons Corner Center showroom said they could not comment on whether or not that location will close.

Business is hurting in Vienna. The Maple Avenue Market closed last week, as did the GameStop, with an employee there citing increasing rents as the leading cause.

As store after store shuts its doors, there are questions swirling around town about whether local businesses can stay competitive with new developments surrounding Vienna — and if so, how?

At a town council meeting in January, town business liaison Friderike Butler said businesses on side streets were being hit particularly hard.

“If they’re not on the main street, they’re struggling a lot more,” said Butler. “Even on Church Street, it’s not easy. The economy is doing well overall, and if we have small businesses struggling as the economy is doing well, what is going to happen if there is a recession? It’s something to really think about and make sure our business community is strengthened and supported.”

Peggy James, executive director of the Vienna Business Association, told Tysons Reporter that two big challenges are facing local stores.

“It’s very expensive and we’re pretty tight on parking,” said James.

What’s driving up the rent? It’s an old maxim anyone in real estate will be familiar with.

“Location, location, location,” said James. “It’s always been an expensive place. With Mosaic District just two miles away and Tysons building up like crazy, the competition for brick and mortar is tough.”

Over the years, James said the Saturday morning shopping at mom-and-pop stores that had turned Vienna into a local destination disappeared as sales went to big box stores and Amazon.

“The challenge in this age of Amazon is double,” Frank Shafroth, director of the Center for State and Local Leadership at George Mason University, wrote in an email. “You don’t even have to leave your home or apartment to purchase, and Amazon has such size and distribution that it can undercut in price on almost anything one would purchase at a small business.”

But all three experts noted that there are ways to help local businesses survive.

From a policy standpoint, Butler said the Town of Vienna can help make parking more accessible.

“We need a comprehensive parking map,” said Butler. “Culpepper has a beautiful parking map distributed everywhere in stores and people know where to park. For visitors who have never been in Vienna, it’s very confusing where to park. A comprehensive map would be helpful.”

Town Councilmember Howard Springsteen also recommended the Town Council consider hiring a full-time economic development specialist, an idea that’s been tossed around the council for two years.

“There’s a limit to how much we can rely on volunteers,” said Springsteen. “We just really need to bite the bullet and do it.”

For businesses, Shafroth said survival hinges on finding a niche that can’t be as easily replicated by bigger stores or by Amazon.

“Retailers have to carve out a niche that makes them indispensable: whether shopping for a stroller, car seat, crib or mattress,” said Shafroth. “For instance, new parents want to walk into a physical store and speak with a retailer who can field multiple questions and direct them to the products that best suit their needs — even if those products are available through a different vendor.”

As part of that, Shafroth also said smaller stores should capitalize on the advantages physically touching merchandise offers.

“It’s hard to be certain–especially if you are shopping for a small child, for instance — what will work,” said Shafroth. “A parent wants to feel and touch something: is it baby soft? If it’s a toy, is the mechanism simple enough and safe enough for a tot?”

He continued: “According to Forrester, 43 percent of millennials respond they would rather shop at small local stores, as opposed to big national chains. According to Cassandra, a trend forecasting, research and brand strategy firm, 78 percent of parents in the U.S. would rather shop in stores than online. And, according to the National Retail Federation, today’s young parents spend as much as $1 trillion on items for kids — and this generation values good service more than convenience: they want to be certain that what they purchase will be appropriate — and safe.”

And at the individual level, there’s an obvious answer for how locals can help small stores survive.

“The best thing people can do is give local businesses the first shot at a sale,” said James. “I had a lot of loyal customers at Artful Gift Shop. They’d come to us first. You don’t have to find what you want, but give us a shot.”

James also noted that it can be too easy for locals to blame new developments, like those coming in with the Maple Avenue Commercial zoning changes, for the hardships local stores are facing.

“We can’t stay small and survive,” said James. “We can’t stay as small shops if we can’t keep customers. New spaces [are being developed] on Maple Avenue. Citizens don’t like it and I can understand it, but it kind of has to happen.”

If you had a game on pre-order at the Vienna GameStop (203 Maple Ave E), you might be surprised to show up and find the store completely boxed up.

According to an employee sitting in the otherwise empty storefront, the chain closed last week and consolidated with the store in the Tysons Corner Center mall, where customers can go to pick up games they ordered.

The employee said rising rent prices in the shopping center — at the corner of Maple Ave and Park Street — forced them to close and relocate.

Two doors down, the Starbucks is also on the way out. An employee said that both of the existing Starbucks locations in Vienna are being closed in April, with staff consolidated to the new drive-through location one block away.

Between the two is Cold Stone Creamery, but a manager at the store said the location is on a 10-year lease for the location. The manager did not know how far into the lease the chain was but said there were no immediate plans for it to leave.

After nearly 10 years in downtown Vienna, Maple Avenue Market closed for good on Sunday.

The market was a farm store run by Sara and Chris Guerre, farmers with a 10-acre property in the Shenandoah Valley who sold their produce and supplies from other small farms throughout Virginia.

According to a post on Facebook:

It is with great sadness to announce that we are closing our beloved Maple Avenue Market after nearly 10 years in business.

For the past decade we’ve been humbled by your patronage, and by your belief in our mission of envisioning solutions to help reinvent our local food system and creating change from “the ground up” in our community.

Growing, cooking, and sharing good food with all of you, and with local public schoolchildren, for so many wonderful years … will perpetually encourage us to see the world, not for what it is … but for what it might be … and for that, we are grateful.

In the comments, many people, including several local politicians, shared their stories of what the market meant to them.

“Chris and Sara, thank you for your service to our community over the past decade through Maple Avenue Market and beyond,” said Fairfax County School Board Member Ryan McElveen, who is also running for Board of Supervisors Chairman. “You have nurtured young students in our region and taught them the importance of accessible, healthy food. For that, we are all immensely grateful!”

“Thank you for being a great community business for the past 10 years,” said Vienna Town Councilwoman Carey Sienicki, “and especially for your noble mission of providing quality ingredients and supporting our schools in finding the good ways that our children can think about their food and how it gets to the table.”

Photo via Facebook

Merrifield Oriental Rug, located in Tysons for seven years and in the area for the last 30, is closing within the next three months.

As the store prepares to close, it will be offering oriental rugs at steep discounts, some at below their cost to the store.

“We’re lowering prices to 50 percent,” said Merrifield Oriental Rug’s owner Sayeed Hasanzadah. “Often adding a 20 percent additional discount, some are as low as 80 percent.”

Hasanzadah says the store will be open for three months at most and says he plans to shut down by the end of April at the latest. After that, Hasanzadah says he will take a month to put the rest of their inventory into storage.

In the back of the store, Hasanzadah shows off a series of handmade rugs rolled against the wall. One, a four-foot by six-foot rug, is selling for $76. A three-foot by five-foot rug is selling for $49.

If you feel bad about taking advantage of the steep sales for the closing business, don’t.

“It’s a happy reason,” said Hasanzadah. “I’ve been working in wholesale [for years]. I want to travel. Life is too short.”

Although Hasanzadah did note that declining sales helped push him towards retirement.

“The last 10 years, the economy has not been cooperating,” said Hasanzadah. “Fifteen years ago business was booming. But after 2007, things started going down. So now is the time that I should retire.”

McLean Company’s $1 Billion Sustainability Plan — Candy maker Mars, Inc., based in McLean and the largest private company in Fairfax County, “has pledged to invest $1 billion over the next few years to support efforts involving renewable energy, food sourcing, cross-industry action groups and farmers.” [FCEDA]

Hunter Mill Candidates Skeptical of Development — “In the Hunter Mill District, home to both Reston and Vienna, current member Cathy Hudgins is retiring. The three declared candidates, thus far, all have platforms which argue the county has been too favorable to development.” [Greater Greater Washington]

Store Closing at Tysons Corner Center — Clothing retailer Charlotte Russe has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and is reportedly closing nearly 100 stores, including its Tysons Corner Center location. [Fox 5]

Vienna Inn Anniversary — “The Vienna Inn sells over 10,000 of its famous chili dogs every month, so it wouldn’t be easy to tally all the chili dogs sales since its 1960 opening. What we do know is the Vienna Inn has been open for 59 years and will mark its anniversary in February.” [Patch]

Teen Charged for Menacing Video — “A video showing a masked figure pulling a gun out of the trunk of a car in front of Wakefield High School has led to an arrest and charges against a Falls Church teenager.” [ARLnow]

The goal was never really to make money, but Fairfax News editor and publisher James Hood said the costs have just been too much to keep the local news site running. In one month, the website that’s been covering local news since 1998 will shut down for good.

“It’s a difficult market,” Hood said. “Between the city and the parts of the county, Fairfax is very amorphous. We’ve never been hyper-local, we wanted to do the kind of regional coverage the Washington Post does, but with Virginia on top rather than the District.”

Hood launched several successful online ventures including Consumer Affairs, but Fairfax News was never sustainable enough to pay for a team of reporters to run it on its own.

“I was never really able to give Fairfax News the attention it needed,” said Hood. “And revenue was increasingly difficult. Years ago, I could put up a couple Google ads up and the site could have earned a few dollars and I could put a few cents in my pocket, but not anymore.”

Hood said he put more of his focus on making the site technically smooth and functional, but looking back he said he wished he’d changed some of the priorities.

“I didn’t spend as much as I should have on the editorial side,” said Hood.

The end had been coming for a while. The stream of news stories dwindled over time and a few months ago, managing editor Ed Tobias departed from the site.

“I enjoyed working on the site,” said Hood, “but I’m in my 70s and I don’t want to have to do this every day. I couldn’t find anyone to sell it to and I didn’t want it to just wither away.”

Though the closure is much smaller on scale, Hood’s shuttering of Fairfax News is part of a nationwide spate of closures and layoffs at online news outlets.

“It’s hard right now,” said Hood. “Twenty years ago, if you were enterprising, you could make a living as a reporter covering Vienna. But those times are at abeyance. Will they come back? Who knows.”

Photo via Facebook

The Macy’s in Tysons Galleria is closing, but before it does there are discounts on all items in the store as the department store clears out its inventory.

Currently, most items throughout the store are discounted at 20 percent, though signs proclaim that some things are discounted up to 40 percent. Staff at the store said discounts could increase as the weeks progress. The exact date the store will close is currently undetermined.

As of yesterday (Monday), the store’s shelves were still well stocked, though diminished staffing meant longer lines at the store’s remaining registers. Discounts are applicable only at the Tysons Galleria Macy’s and items purchased at the store cannot be returned.

The Washington Business Journal reported that Brookfield Properties Retail could be replacing the three-story retail giant with some combination of an iPic theater, Balducci’s grocery store, Tiffany & Co. store or an Apple store.

There’s been a spate of unrelated, recent closings across Tysons, with similar sales at Pier 1 Imports and Performance Bicycle Shop.