PHOTOS: Fin-Alley supplies Athenians' fish needs | Multimedia - Red and Black

PHOTOS: Fin-Alley supplies Athenians' fish needs | Multimedia - Red and Black

PHOTOS: Fin-Alley supplies Athenians' fish needs | Multimedia - Red and Black

Posted: 22 Sep 2020 12:00 AM PDT

Athens native and University of Georgia alumni Tebias "Troy" Brookins has been interested in fish since his first job at a pet store. 

In December 2015, Brookins took his interest in fish to the next level and opened his own one-stop shop for all aquarium needs, Fin-Alley, in Baxter Center on Baxter Street in Athens, Georgia. "It was hard getting opened but that's what I wanted to do," Brookins said. 

Unlike big brand stores, the local shop aims to be different by marketing fish to novices and experts alike.

Fin-Alley brings in an estimated 400 fish a week. The fish come from across the country, including saltwater fish from California and freshwater fish from Atlanta, Georgia and Florida.

Although Fin-Alley, an essential store, has stayed open during the COVID-19 pandemic, many aquarium manufacturers and suppliers closed. This caused Fin-Alley's stock of fish, coral and handmade tanks to drop. As suppliers have begun operating again, Brookins hopes to be back in full stock soon.

Brookins offered advice to other small businesses during this time. 

"Do what you got to do," Brookins said. "We all have a story. Keep going."

 

It Took 17 Years, But American Dream Mall Is Finally Opening Some Retail Stores - Forbes

Posted: 30 Sep 2020 12:00 AM PDT

It took 17 years to get there, and many stops and starts, but the American Dream mega-mall project is scheduled to open its first group of retail stores tomorrow.

Still, the project in the New Jersey Meadowlands has a long way to go before it achieves its stated dream of being "the world's greatest shopping, entertainment, and dining destination."

When the mall reopens, only a tiny fraction of the space built to house more than 300 retail stores will be occupied.

The delay-plagued project is still being mysterious about releasing the full list of tenants that will be operational when the mall reopens Thursday after a six-and-a-half month shutdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

A mall spokesperson responded to inquiries by saying the complete list was still being finalized, but posts on the mall's Instagram account as of Tuesday night listed 33 retail stores that will debut Thursday.

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Most of the stores are mall mainstays like H&M, American Eagle AEO , Bath & Body Works, or Sephora. Most can be found in nearly every mall in America, and have multiple locations nearby, in other regional malls in New Jersey, and New York, and in street locations in Manhattan. (Full list of the stores below).

Even retail imports on the list like Primark and Zara that were seen as exciting newcomers when they were first announced as Dream tenants have since opened multiple locations at other nearby shopping centers.

(IT'SUGAR, a candy department store, opened at the mall in December and closed when American Dream shut down in March, but that store, located next to the amusement park, is more of an entertainment feature than retail.)

Only a few stores on the list give American Dream something shoppers can't easily find at another New Jersey mall. They are:

  • Aland, a Korean fashion and lifestyle brand that opened its first U.S. store in Brooklyn two years ago.
  • SJP by Sarah Jessica Parker, the fashion brand of the Sex in the City star, which has eight stores, mostly in tourist locations, including two stores in Abu Dhabi and one in Dubai.
  • Mulberry and Grand, a fashion accessories store with four locations in Manhattan and one in San Francisco.
  • Rache by James Paul Cheung, which appears to be a new retail venture by designer James Paul Cheung.

More than a dozen retailers that were supposed to be the foundation of the developer's retail vision for American Dream either went bankrupt and died before the retail wing of the mall was ready to open, or decided to dramatically scale back their retail operations.

Those ghosts of American Dream's retail past include Toys 'R' Us and FAO Schwarz, Barney's, Lord & Taylor, Century 21, and Microsoft MSFT .

Toys 'R' Us, which owned FAO Schwarz at the time, had, according to marketing materials produced by the developers in 2014, planned to make the FAO Schwarz location at American Dream the world flagship of the brand and create an experiential destination that would be a tourist attraction on the scale of the original Manhattan store.

The FAO store would stand next to a Toys 'R' Us flagship that American Dream's developers promised would rival that chain's Times Square showplace.

That plan died when Toys 'R' Us filed for bankruptcy in 2017 and liquidated in 2018.

The project's developers, Triple Five, who also own the Mall of America in Minnesota and West Edmonton Mall in Canada, said in 2014 that American Dream's luxury retail wing would be flanked by flagship stores for Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord & Taylor.

At the time both of those retailers were part of the Hudson Bay Company. Lord & Taylor was sold off to e-commerce retailer Le Tote in 2019, and Le Tote filed for bankruptcy this year and announced in August that it was closing all of the Lord & Taylor stores.

Hudson Bay apparently dropped plans for a Lord & Taylor at American Dream as it was looking to shed the chain. The Saks Fifth Avenue store is still on the tenant list, but it isn't expect to open before next spring, according to Women's Wear Daily. Saks Fifth Avenue did not provide information about its opening date when asked this week.

The 33 stores listed as opening on Thursday are a far cry from the 350 stores Triple Five previously announced would be ready for shoppers this past March, when American Dream originally planned to unveil its retail component.

The directory on the project's website lists over 100 brands, most of them labeled "coming soon," but it is doubtful it will have 350 stores any time soon.

Triple Five has said that it has shifted its plans for the complex from a 50-50 entertainment-retail mix, to something more like 70% entertainment, 30% retail.

The Nickelodeon Universe amusement park opened last year, in October, the Big Snow ski slope opened in December, and the DreamWorks water park is scheduled to open Thursday.

Two other entertainment attractions – the Sea Life Aquarium and the Legoland Discovery Center – announced Tuesday that they will not open until spring of 2021, despite construction being nearly complete at the beginning of this year.

Merlin Entertainments, which operates the Sea Life and Legoland Discovery Center businesses, said it made the decision to postpone the openings until next year because of the need to implement additional safety measures due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The 33 stores American Dream says will be open October 1 are:

  • Abercrombie Kids
  • Aerie
  • Aland
  • Aldo
  • American Eagle
  • Aritzia
  • Baggallini
  • Banana Republic
  • Bath & Body Works
  • Box Lunch
  • Build a Bear Workshop
  • Dream Riders
  • Eddie Bauer
  • Express
  • Fabletics
  • H&M
  • Hot Topic
  • Lovepop
  • Lush
  • MAC
  • Morphe
  • Mulberry and Grand
  • Old Navy
  • Parfum Europa
  • Primark
  • Rache by James Paul Cheung
  • SJP by Sarah Jessica Parker
  • Samsonite
  • Scotch & Soda
  • Sephora
  • Swarovski
  • Ugg
  • Zara

The New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, as reported by NJ.com, says it has issued certificates of occupancy for a number of other retailers not listed as opening by American Dream, including DSW, Uniqlo, Urban Planet and Columbia Sportswear COLM .

It isn't normal for a mall to be so mysterious about which stores will be open on its opening – or reopening day. But as has been said many times before, this isn't a normal mall.

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