L.A.'s troubled boutiques

Any number of them have been closing or consolidating, according to Women's Wear Daily, which offers a discouraging (and somewhat overwrought) assessment of local specialty retailers (no link available). Certainly, the list of shuttered stores is big: Tryst, Aero & Co., Magenta, Publik Park, Yellow, Presse, Diabless, Fred Segal Fun, Fred Segal Flair and Tracey Ross.

Southern California specialty retail has been slammed by a milieu of competitive pressures from retailers as diverse as Forever 21 and Zappos.com, a reliance on casual lifestyle apparel with unsustainably high pre-recession pricing and a debilitating economic downturn with a tight grip on the region that's yet to let up. "So many stores have closed in the past year," said Nony Tochterman, designer of Los Angeles-based Petro Zillia. "I don't think we are out of the red. We need to reinvent ourselves and find a different way to do business."

Well, first off there's no more economic downturn. The L.A. area has seen growth for many months now - even if it's been sluggish. Besides, I would argue that prior to the recession Socal was heavily over-stored with these pricey froufrou boutiques - some of them little more than vanity businesses. Recessions have a way of weeding out the less successful ones. As an example, WWD notes that M. Fredric had streamlined some of its operations, but is back adding stores.

Southern California multiline stores that have stayed afloat and very rare newbies in the genre (Thvm Atelier in downtown L.A., for example) could benefit from the fallout of their retail peers. They've strengthened their business models to operate more efficiently and distinguish themselves from the field to pinpoint their customer base. And they stand to attract customers loyal to closed stores when those customers shop elsewhere. [Mark Goldstein, owner of Madison Et Cie Inc.] is starting to detect mild growth. "I feel like L.A. is underperforming heavily," he said. "There will be growth. It is creeping back." Jeannie Lee, owner of the boutique Satine, has already seen a sales bounce of 30 percent this year. "It is a different market than it was before the recession," she said. "It is a market that is ready to spend on something discerning."