Belmar will see several new businesses opening in time for the holiday shopping season, including:
Hot Mama
Ame Bridal
See's Candies
Kismet Accessories
This continues the trend toward boutique shopping that we've been seeing in Belmar for a while. Gone are the big chains stores, like Gap and Banana Republic. In their place, we're seeing smaller, less ubiquitous chains, like Charming Charlie, Fusion Federation, and Remnant.
All in all, I think it's a good trend.
Employees at Belmar's former Gap used to tell me that customers would always call them, unable to find the store. The Gap's location on the plaza (and out of sight from major roadways) was apparently a major headache for their customer base. But a Gap is a Gap. If one's hard to find, there are a dozen others locations to choose from in the metro area, mostly inside the major malls found off the major highways.
The big chain retailers were never a good fit for Belmar-- possible because Belmar was never meant to be a mall!
So again, I think this new interest in Belmar by these relatively smaller, boutique retailers is a good thing. They compliment Belmar's steady evolution into a true downtown space.
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