BUSINESSES, LANDLORDS AND RED BANK

It was around 1960 when I got my drivers license and remember driving past the Eatontown Circle where a large area of land was being cleared. A house was being burned in the center of that area; it would become the Monmouth Mall. At that time Red Bank was the center of commerce. The Red Bank merchants enjoyed being the destination for shoppers but that was about to change. As the Malls in our area developed over the coming years the drop in sales and business started to affect Red Bank's downtown. Sales were off and over the next 10 years or so the town muddled through with businesses like Pep Boys and discount stores with unattractive store fronts became part of the town's facade. Around 1974 to 1975 Monmouth Mall started a major expansion. Strip malls were being built along major highways and like many small towns across the country our downtown was losing business to outside interests. I had only been in business for about six years at this time when
Lou Vieti from Sal’s got me involved with the Red Bank Chamber of Commerce. There was a rally by the merchants in town to do something to compete with Monmouth Mall. I remember going to meetings where different merchants got on a “soap box” so to speak preaching how “these Malls really meant business” and we needed to compete with them.

The problem as I saw it was that the Mall was controlled by one management team and used joint advertising and promotions to generate sales. The businesses there had little or no say over hours, advertising and promotions. I was a little too young at that time to really step up to the plate and help to change the town's outlook on business. Out local merchants were all independents with the old mentality of nine to five business hours and getting them to contribute to joint advertising fell on deaf ears. This was the beginning of Red Bank's slide to being Dead Bank by the eighties. (To be continued)