Jackson Jambalaya

Here's your window into the future of Costco on HCP. 15 years, developers make their bank, then leapfrog and repeat the process. Residents are left holding the turd.

"enhanced retail options" means safe and business friendly

Sad. Soon there will be nothing left of Jackson except for a couple of desperate White Islands clinging on for life, repeating to themselves how great Jackson is.

My partners and I will be opening a business in that space called Whole Electronics. We will sell locally sourced, fair trade, LGBTXYZ friendly, conflict free electronics for the discriminating Jacksonian. Sure you can buy a laptop for less than $2799 or an Android tablet for under $1100, but can you be certain it is responsibly sourced and manufactured?

Like Whole Foods? You'll love Whole Electronics!

Imagine the possibilities, Jackholians. Perfect Oxford House staging area.

Best Buy in Jackson was saddled with a low-wage customer base, poor employee production and most likely, huge losses from employee and customer theft. The city got what it deserved.

3:15. Probably should just avoid economic development altogether, barricade HCP, and let it just be one big bike path. I've not met a rational person who disfavors that development.

City of Jackson increases the sales tax by 1% and this is the result

Jackson is the new Chicago. Bennie Thompson is doing a wonderfull job keeping jobs in his district. He went with Obama to Africa to get ideas to improve the delta.

3:36, we already have one of those north of Madison on the east side of I-55.

Hahahhahhahaaa!!

-Circuit City

At least when the thugs go to steal from the Rankin or Madison county stores, the DA will press charges and juries will hold them accountable.

One has to love this republican welfare, only the most wealthy & well connected need applying. Taxpayer money to the rich & powerful to cannibolize retail. This is Mississppi economic development at its best. With leadership like this, we will always remain in last place economically but first in graft & corruption.

@3:36 Whatever you say Gene.

Jackson has it's problems, but Best Buy has its own. I have been to Best Buy 3 times and each time they were out of stock of the thing I wanted. And Amazon gave me a better price with free delivery. The Best Buy model has run its course. It will work well for a few years in Madison for the people that impulse shop for $1,000 items....but eventually somebody will con the state out of $100 million in tax gimmicks to open a new center in Gluckstadt and we'll do press conferences celebrating our "growth".

Just follow I-55 north from downtown, its not like this northward progression started this decade. This has been the path for 50 years. Build it, the newness wears off, move a mile north and start over. Leave a trail of abandoned strip centers in your path. Madison's day will come too.

I wonder where the developers of the Sam's/ Best Buy shopping center are today?

After witnessing the actions of mayors & developers, Mississippi needs to apologize & release those at Parchman.

I stumbled in there last week for the first time in about a year and can say I am not the least surprised. I was struck by how much "green space" there was in the store. The normally full shelves and crowded aisles were no more. Shelves had been pushed much farther apart and many taken out. TV inventory looked to be about a third at the most of normal stocking levels.

Best buy has been hurting for years. Why is this stores closing news to mock?

Target on I55 will be the next to leave. There's so much customer theft that it's pathetic. Home Depot is the same. Once witnessed a generator being cut off a chain, thrown into the bed of a truck and the thief drive off. Employees did nothing. One guy said he was on break and would tell somebody when he punched in. That was was 3 years ago and I've never been back.

I don't go in those stores on County Line Road because I fear for my life. Don't even drive on CLR at all. Much more pleasant shopping in Rankin and Madison counties. And I shop local whenever possible. However, I do hope that Costco will come to this community in spite of the cool and hostile welcome they received a week or so ago.

This is not about Jackson. It's about a box store that sucks what it can out of a venue and then leaves town. Happens all over the country.

6:55 sticks the landing. Big boxes don't care whether it's Jackson or Ridgeland they ruin.

Bed Bath & Beyond and Kirkland's are going to the new part of Grandview. County Line Walmart is going to be moved to the new Lake Harbor extension. I have been told Academy Sports and Toys R Us are already working on new locations; Academy is supposedly looking at a spot in the Costco development. This is really bad news for County Line Road. And, wherever these new stores wind up, I am sure they will not be producing sales tax dollars for the host city for a while, since that seems to be an automatic giveaway in Madison and Rankin counties these days.

As much as I like online retailers, like Amazon, they really take a lot out of communities and don't pay sales tax. (Yes, they employ people, but not here). This isn't the reason Jackson is losing Best Buy. But it probably is a factor. And it hurts Madison and Rankin counties as well.

6:35 what a genie weenie. You shop locally whenever you can, but you want a Costco Warehouse. Double trash talk.
As for as your tainted view of Costco Warehouse's reception, maybe you should have attended the first town meetings where voters were lied to & deceived & learned their mayor had covertly & secretly been lying for months. This has turned into a far bigger issue than a stupid Costco Warehouse. This is not some third world dictatorship! The mayor & BA are a disgrace to a free, civilized society! There is NO justification for their actions. If shopping at a Costco Warehouse is more important than moral character, u r one sick puppie!

Uh, where in the hell are those 1,000 jobs that have been created since May 2014?

8:07 Tony Baloney thinks people actually believe him.

They're probably Temp Jobs, Summer Jobs for kids and of course they hold weekly job fairs at the Medical Mall for different company's who have a few openings. That's not creating longterm gainful employment. They (try to) justify everything and ignorant residents believe them. Talk about screwing your own citizens with double talk they can not comprehend.

I remember when Best Buy had two stores on Lake Street in Uptown (Minneapolis) across the street from each other. One sold hardware (TVs, stereo receivers, VHS recorders, etc) and the other sold content (records, CDs, cassettes, videotapes). It was an original concept, and I never dreamed it would become a nationwide chain.

This story just has to do with a deteriorating neighborhood around a formerly busy store. The ones in Madison & Flowood always seem to be busy and well-stocked.

Cowboy Malonies is local, in every town, stocks the same sheets, for cheaper, and pays local taxes. Best Buy and Costco and "resorts" in Pearl and Madison can go to hell.

Best Buy model has been broken for a while. Read any stock analyst report about it. Once all of the more recent tax gimmicks expire, watch the rest of them close.

Jackson is the new Chicago? The murder rate in Jackson is about three times that of Chicago. Jackson is the new Beruit.

@ 10:50

Dear God you are so uninformed/naive.

Jackson does not have a murder rate anywhere near Chicago, please check the statistics before you type. Also, Beruit is classified as a Beta World City. I don't expect you to know what that means, so Google that while you educate yourself on 2015 U.S. city murder rates.

Looks like you're batting 0/2 (thats a baseball reference).

Sincerely,
A facepalming 26 year old Jacksonian

So, a retail establishment, where 90-95% of the employees earn only part-time minimum wage constitutes economic development?

Forget about business, get out while you are still alive..

Dick's Sporting Goods in Madison is a joke. I really couldn't wait for a place like that to shop without driving to Flowood or Jackson. The place is out of everything except rubber worms and golf shoes, which nobody buys. Nobody is EVER behind the gun counter, sizes of most college logo stuff stop at large, and, checkout, if you managed to find anything, is a nightmare.

What are we going to do with all these rectangular buildings full of faux sporting equipment, dish towels and blenders when another form of shopping overtakes the business model?

A facepalming 26 year old Jacksonian

In other words, a nobody.

Daaaaang, 26 y.o. 12:04... you're a hi-tech-y one!

I think Baltimore would be a better comparison.

The Charm City > Beta World City

Palm it, young bruthah!

Let's get to the real issue....what is going to happen to Krispy Kreme. That's all I really care about.

For convenience, KFC is on the wrong side of the road. You gotta Recruite them in a hurry, Tony! That-will-be-like-12-new-minimum-wage-part time-jobs! What an economic boom!

7:24 AM couldn't wait for Dick's in Madison to open so he/she wouldn't have to drive to *gasp* Jackson or trek across the Rez to Dogwood, but then worries about what's going to happen when stores like Dick's leaves behind huge, rectangular buildings.

Thank you 7:24 for exemplifying pretty much every aspect of the problem within one comment. You're statement could've been "I'm lazy and shortsighted so I was thrilled until realizing Dick's is plagued with typical big-box store issues. Now, only prompted by personal unsatisfying experiences, am I concerned for how places like disappointing Dick's will impact the city/county that I call home."

Madison and Brandon are merely white-flight appendages to Jackson. The kornpones ignore The Fondren, The Meridian, The District at Eastover, The Westin. Jackson is the capitol city. As goes Jackson, so go the have-nothing, produce nothing burbs.

Jackson is LOST. Kaput.

12:58, "Jackson is the capitol city."

That doesn't mean anything. Ever been to Topeka? Springfield? Montgomery? Tallahassee? Harrisburg? Albany? Trenton? Hartford? Lansing?

"Capitol city" doesn't imply a shining jewel of a metropolis. Places like Austin, Denver, and Nashville happen to be exceptions to the rule.

To 12:58: Zat you Ben Allen?

Speaking of 'producing'.....give us your list of things produced in Jacktown.

4:15, that is the funniest thing I have read in a long time.

"As goes Jackson, so go the have-nothing, produce nothing burbs."
The only thing Jackson produces are illegitimate children to a majority of single mothers, who's own mothers were also illegitimate. As shown, brick buildings and their occupants can easily up and move anytime they want. This includes State Offices. Unfortunately, business in Jackson died a a long time ago. For the last twenty years, those of other races besides black were chased out of the city. That must be what was wanted, as it was thoroughly done. The suburbs were built one brick at a time by those who left Jackson. Why would Jacksonian's want help now, when all "outsiders" hear on evening radio talk shows and through various local publications how horrible outsiders treat them. If it's so bad, please stay on your side of the river. If you choose to commit crimes in Madison or Rankin County, you will be caught and heavily prosecuted and probably shot before the cops arrive. And that's the bottom line.

@ 8:25

So with that rationale you're saying that all the mid-twenties young professionals and law/medical school students living in Jackson are nobodies? Jesus you are some kind of a dumbass. But the sad part is, you're probably a miserable mid-forties male with a dead end middle management "career" that literally contributes zero to the betterment of this state and metro-area.

But hey, you don't live in Jackson! Thats something to be proud of! At least you're a somebody...

-A nobody

12:34; You must be a progressive liberal to point out that the real problem here is the customer who allows a box-store to open in the first place. Yes, it's the fault of the customer. It's OUR fault for wanting these places and actually expecting them to stock stuff we want. And when they pull up stakes and leave town, nine years later, we got what we deserved and what we axed for. Right? Ordered your Bernie Sanders bumper sticker yet?

@ 2:05 - 12:34 here. Your assumption of me being a progressive liberal couldn't be further from the truth. My opinion about this topic is different than yours, obviously, but that doesn't mean I can't be conservative. Voted Republican in every Presidential, Senate and HoR election since turning 18...stereotypically conservative on guns, welfare, govt regulation, etc.

Of the two of our opinions, a strong case could be made that my slant towards personal responsibility and being skeptical of things not ending as rosy as they might seem, show traits of a dyed in the wool conservative. Meanwhile, your victim approach, void of the due diligence to learn from how similar situations played out, seems mighty liberal.

9:35 et 12:34; You are trying awfully hard to gain some sort of respect and credibility but your post is nonsense, if not bullshit. What gave you the notion that I was or will be surprised when a box store leaves town? I expect it. It fits a pattern. Pay attention. There ARE no victims in that scenario. You can't be a victim when you willingly consent and participate.

I'm not concerned in the least re how another vacant slab will impact us. It's part of the drill. It works that way. See?