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Direct to you from Janet Simons, author of the Colorado Smart Shopper and veteran Rocky Mountain News shopping columnist.
Tough retail times get tougher
Familiar independent stores make our neighborhoods feel like home. But storekeepers pay a high price for playing host to the public. There’s more to success than controlling such predictable expenses as inventory control and clean restrooms -- competitors open across the street; ambitious parking patrols punish customers for lingering over coffee; contractors fail; streets are torn up; rents stay high as business dwindles.
The past few weeks have been particularly harsh.
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| International Villa closes a couple of eras |
Through 55 years and three Cherry Creek North locations, International Villa, has purveyed the finest silverware, china and gift items to such Colorado luminaries as Supreme Court Justice Byron White, ambassador to Austria Swanee Hunt, Olympic skating champion Scott Hamilton, mystery writer Diane Mott Davidson and assorted visiting movie and television VIPs, among others. Its gift registry has served thousands of brides, many of them the daughters – or even granddaughters – of the store’s earlier customers. In 1991, the National Tabletop Association, an organization of manufacturers of china, crystal and silver, named International Villa among the three top retailers in the United States.
But Cherry Creek North’s oldest independent retail store is closing at the end of November.
“Retail’s just very tough right now,” said owner Don Friedman, who, with his wife, Jane, and sister, Barbara, has been in charge for the past 33 years.
The recession has been tough, but not as tough as the competition from bridal registries at national chains Bed, Bath & Beyond and Crate & Barrel, both of which operate within walking distance of the Friedmans’ store at 239 Detroit St.
So be there at 10 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 8, when the store-closing sale begins, and you’ll find unheard-of discounts on merchandise from such prestigious makers as Baccarat, Hermes, Lalique, Michael Aram, Mariposa, Nambe, Simon Pearce, Versace, Waterford and Wedgwood. And you’ll be able to pay tribute to one of Colorado’s great traditional retailers, too.
International Villa has a parking lot across the street for its customers.
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Daisy Sports, 3003 E. Third Ave., 303-298-8585, has been offering women’s tennis, golf, fitness and outdoor clothing in Cherry Creek North for six years.
Owner Jackie Schaible says the first three were “really good.”
But then…
“The first thing was the parking,” said Schaible. “Customers would get one ticket, and they’d feel very negative about coming back to Cherry Creek. And the Tattered Cover and Cooks Mart left, and more chain stores came in, and the area just seemed to feel less special.”
The economy dealt the coup de grace.
“It’s just one after the other,” Schaible said. “It’s just heartbreaking. In the last 16 months, it’s really been the economy. And when my lease came up, I decided not to renew.”
During the closing sale, shoppers who buy one item get a 10 percent discount. Buy two items and get a 20 percent discount on the total. There’s a 30 percent discount on the entire purchase of three items or more.
When things started to look bleak, Schaible started an online e-mail business on the Daisysports.com Web site. Through 2DayDash, she sells odd-lot premium women’s sportswear at a significant discount for just two days.
It’s been going gangbusters. On the site, she sold 144 chenille sweaters in two days.
“It took off much off faster than I thought it would,” she said. “But I’m really going to miss the store.”
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| Indulgences goes wholesale |
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Belvedere Belgian Chocolate Shop owners Ivan Fears and Laurie Martin left Cherry Creek North in June 2008 and reopened about a year ago as Indulgences, etc. across the street from the Capitol at 229 E. Colfax Ave.
Shortly thereafter, says Fears, “My American dream turned into a nightmare.”
If something could go wrong, it did. Fears and Martin sank their life savings into renovating their space, a gutted restaurant. Pipes burst. There were conflicts with the contractors. The rent remained high, but the sales never really materialized.
They’ve been moving their equipment and inventory out of the building for a couple of weeks, and have just a few more items to go.
Their magnificent handmade chocolate is gone, but they’ve still got some caramel corn, some Colorado Mountain Jam, shelving and some mugs.
They also still have “quite a variety” of hand-painted Lolita barware – even after selling $1,000 worth of the popular commodity to a woman who visited the shop last week to do some comprehensive early holiday shopping.
Indulgences will be open in the afternoons of Monday, Oct. 5, and Tuesday, Oct. 6. Everything that remains is reduced by 30 percent.
Then they’ll complete their transition into a wholesale and Internet operation, making candy and other confections and supplying Colorado’s microbreweries with Belgian chocolate and Belgian sugar.
“Wholesale is going to be a lot cheaper to run and operate, and we think we can make a go of it,” Fears said. “But I’m sure going to miss this. It’s sad to so many stores going out. I visited Europe recently, and when I went into the shops there, I recognized the America I grew up in. Everyone knew each other. We’ve lost that.”
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| Pinecones heads back to the hills |
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Pinecones co-owner Rondi Berge pulled down the signs and closed the doors of the Cherry Creek North shop of their family-owned European clothing boutique for the final time on Tuesday, Sept. 29 -- less than a year after opening the Denver extension of their long-established Avon shop.
She urges metro-area shoppers who bonded with the store’s selection of fashionable Alpine-oriented gifts and apparel to visit Pinecones Gifts & Interiors at 142 Beaver Creek Place in Avon, 970-949-4400.
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| Janet’s shopping calendar |
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Thursday, Oct. 8
Grand Opening of Baudine’s Shoes at Aspen Grove, 7301 S. Santa Fe Drive, Littleton, 303-730-3369, free wine and hors d’oeuvres, complimentary foot massages, enter to win one of four pairs of comfortable, fashion forward women’s shoes from Dansko, Naot, Helfinger and Beautifeel.
Friday, Oct. 9
Benefit Art Sale and Show for the Maxfund No-Kill Animal Shelter., Color and Light Galleria, 1422 E. 22nd Ave., 303-861-4777; VIP Buffet, 5-7 p.m.$15 per person, $24 per couple; Artists’ Reception, 7-9 p.m., free and open to the public, donations encouraged. Details: 303-861-4777, www.color-n-light.com.
Happy Hour at Blue Jeans Bar, 250 Fillmore St., 720-542-3756; wine and a 10 percent discount on non-sale merchandise; 4-6 p.m. Sales include 30 percent discount on any shoes with purchase of regularly priced denim; half-price clearance selection on jeans selected styles from Earnest Sewn, Union, William Rast and Cheap Monday.
Saturday, Oct. 10
Olde Town Littleton Market, Historic Downtown Littleton, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Gifts, jewelry, antiques, artisan items.
Denver Orchid Society Annual Fall Show and Sale, “Orchids of the World,” spectacular blooms from the region’s finest orchid growers, Echter’s Greenhouse & Gardens, 5150 Garrison St., Arvada, 303-424-7979, www.echters.com . Continues through Sunday, Oct. 11.
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This e-newsletter is an effort to help both consumers looking for great deals and small retailers trying to survive against the Walmarts of the world. Please tell me about the wonderful stores, fantastic deals and amazing shopkeepers you know about by sending an e-mail to Janet@bestcoloradodeals.com.
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