Sounds like a worthy new place. It would, of course, have to be a chain. In the wake of the university's 2003 sale of the Stanford Center to the Simon Group, the new owners a few years ago rather notoriously registered their lack of interest in independent locally-formed artisanal food retailers, by effectively booting out Teri Hope's Palo Alto Coffee Roasting Company. PACRC was a respected local importer-roaster that, with a few other shops, had established the Stanford Center by the 1990s as a regional destination for specialty ingredients shopping, like Berkeley's "Gourmet Ghetto" (which crystallized in the 1960s around the original, single-shop Peet's Coffee, among others). At the time, press reports said that the Center's new private owners preferred to lease such a location to a business with wider brand recognition (Starbuck's). A former manager at PACRC operates Dana St. Roasting Co. in downtown Mountain View.

Pressed Juicery sounds fabulous and a great addition to the center! The loss of PACRC, replaced by a Starbuck's was just the first blow to the center under Simon. The whole appearance of the center has steadily degraded. The beautiful glass at the Bravo Fono, one of the nicest architectural features of the center, was ripped out when a Children's Place replaced the restaurant. That formerly beautiful walkway is now plastered with a large Nike's sign. The front entrance at Bloomingdale's facing ECR was filthy, before the new construction started. It appeared to never have been cleaned since Simon took over. Similarly the top of the Macy's building as seen from the street market outside Max's is black, absolutely filthy. The whole north side structure around Max's is dirty and in need of repainting. Major new construction is taking place and it remains to be seen how this comes together. The appearance of the center has become very discordant. The new modern Apple store looks totally out of place in that location. The section around the new American Girl is a mishmash of styles and colors. Regardless of how the design elements turn out with the new construction it appears that Simon is most concerned with it's FFO (funds from operations) and that is how they run the center. Simon it appears is in over its head at Stanford. The first thing they need to do is give it proper maintenance, and the appearance and image of an upscale shopping center.

Max, resident: All great points on the evolving nature of the shopping center. It is absolutely a mall of chains rather than independent or local spots. Will be interesting to see how all this construction plays out (and as more new places move in).

Disappointing to read the further details that "resident" mentioned. I don't know how much press attention the Stanford Center gets, but in the eighties and nineties, before the sale, it was an impressive place, distinct from most shopping malls for unusual vendors, as well as general polish. Now, it's run by a firm, operating hundreds of shopping malls all over the continent, whose priorities do not appear to include the things that once made the Center so distinctive.