From the rumor mill, these were forced out either by increased rents or similar. Staff were not happy at the move, and presumably Starbucks and Chipotle will find it hard to maintain a customer base without the anchors.

I was told by an assistant manager of one of these businesses that this property is now owned by Google and they plan to build employee housing here. Can anyone confirm this?

Mountain View needs more retail options. We are forced to order online or take our business to other cities. I am surprised to learn that they want to replace the retail tenants here, given the rumors that have been swirling.

Oh, boy! Holiday Joy!

What is best? Office, retail or housing by the freeway?

It will be interesting to see if a Tech Titan Santa grabs this present and runs with it!

The last time I visited any of these stores they were vacant of interested buyers. They can't stay in business if no one comes to buy anything. The people are buying on Amazon or at Cosco. I think this property is part of Google's North project. Great place for housing. The whole section on Charlston from San Antonio to the 101 on ramp is old commercial property that qualifies as prime for redevelopemnt. A lot of the buildings in the back section are "for lease'" and not viable as business locations.

BBB and BB were the two stores I visited most often at the Center, and I enjoyed interacting with staff. It's very inconvenient to have to drive further, so I'll probably be buying more stuff online. Oh well.

The rumors by staff and managers at the stores was that the leases were not renewed and that the owners wanted to get rid of the retail stores and develop housing. I was shocked when Bed, Bath and Beyond shut down the store. Then found out Best Buy was leaving. I am shocked to hear that the "real story" is that people could not or did not renew the leases??? this is all sounding shady to me.

"Greed is eternal."

Now, build some housing for essential workers there. Thanks.

The US has at least 40% too many stores. The closings are called "rationalization."

Both Best Buy and Bed Bath and Beyond have been struggling for years because their bricks and mortar store business models no longer are viable. Also for this site, sky high rents, the irrationally expensive govt-mandated & so-called $15 "living wage" for entry level workers, and a bad location far from other retailers dooms it. For we who live in MV, there are far better stores along El Camino Real --- in Sunnyvale and at San Antonio Rd, and NOT in Palo Alto.

My guess is that this is prime Google office land. Far better to have offices than building more rental housing that just will create a greater traffic and overcrowding mess for MV and South Palo Alto.

So, MV seems determined to turn itself in to a Google "company town". What happens to MV when Google becomes irrelevant, like Rochester NY when Kodak and Xerox died, or Pittsburgh PA, when the steel industry collapsed, or Detroit etc when the US auto industry collapsed?

We went to the new (?) REI in Sunnyvale last month. It was ironic that our route to get there went past the old one on Charleston. It's a much longer drive :-(

It will be interesting to see what goes into these stores.

I wish there was a better model for stores that would not eliminate the local jobs or the option to have in person customer service.

Not everything has to be displayed but maybe with smaller spaces, these vendors could get creative and have service options that would spare us the driving and still offer if nothing else promotion of their products.

Would be nice to have more restaurants. More and more people are not cooking these days. No more housing!

Those retail stores in that location need to go. Way over conjested area. besides Mountain View has another Best Buy on El Camino, it has been there for several years. So, I not sure where the leaving town chant is coming from.

I believe the PetSmart is leaving in February 2022 according to what an employee told me a couple of months ago.

Google. Petsmart closes Jan 15. A real shame but MV council is so whored out to Google it’s useless.

Google. Thanks MV city council. They’s so whored out to Goog it’s useless.

It's very disappointing to hear that these stores will soon be gone. I live in Menlo Park, which has become a desert. Most of the independent stores downtown are gone and have been replaced by small chain stores and many people do not realize that they are chains. I love shopping and do not enjoy buying things online. I find no joy in staying at home, sitting in front of my computer and ordering things online. I want to hold, touch, feel, smell items before I buy them. There is no joy in packing up wrong sizes and having to make a trip to the post office or ups. The business which I miss the most is Fry's Electronics.