I live on the San Jose-Campbell border in Silicon Valley near the House of Orient Restaurant. It must be a tough area for new small-business shop fronts, because there’s been a lot of store closures recently.
In one strip mall, The Blitz, a men’s exercise gym, closed last fall shortly after opening, and this month a Curves also closed. Next door the local video store is having a going out-of-business sale.
The former appliance repair shop morphed into Pandora’s Box Erotic shop, which has been turned into a head shop, with a large “Hooka and Tobacco” banner out front.
At another strip mall across the street, the “Asian corner restaurant” location has really gone through turmoil. In the past 6 months it’s gone from empty, to Nobu (a Japanese restaurant), to Bowl Bowl House (a Chinese restaurant) to Chef Ko (another Chinese restaurant – grand opening April 8.) We’ll see how long this one lasts.
And just about any non-bank real estate finance shop is already history.
Fry’s Campbell still has car line-ups outside the parking lot though.
I do my best to support the local businesses, but often they just blow it. I went into Nobu at 2 pm one afternoon and was told that it was only open for his family that afternoon. The erotica shop spent a few months remodelling before opening. And the Curves sign indicates that it was only open from 8 am-2 pm and 4 pm-7:30 pm 5 days a week.
Luckily I have one of the best Subway sandwich franchises I’ve ever visited right in my neighborhood: the owner still mans the counter himself, and his staff gets the order right.
Update July 1, 2007: the head shop closed. Chef Ko is up and running, though they’re doing some minor renovations this weekend.
