Orange County Retail

Babystyle shop in O.C. to close this month

Hang Nguyen — Sat, 17 May 2008 07:00:32 +0000

Babystyle at The Shops at Mission Viejo will close on May 27, said spokeswoman Kathy Emmons.

The discount earlier this week was 50 percent off all clothing and 30 percent off non apparel, she said.

EStyle, the parent company of Babystyle, filed for bankruptcy protection in late March.

Babystyle, which sells maternity, baby and kids clothing, also has a shop at Fashion Island in Newport Beach. That location isn’t closing.

According to the Babystyle Web site, its customers include celebrities Christina Aguilera, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Liv Tyler, Halle Berry and Brooke Shields.

For up-to-date discounts at the store, call 949-347-0543.

(Photo from Babystyle Web site.)

Related links:

For more O.C. retail news, see list of links on right-hand side of this blog.

Blockbuster to debut new prices for DVD rentals

Hang Nguyen — Fri, 16 May 2008 19:56:20 +0000

Blockbuster’s chief executive James Keyes plans to roll out new DVD rental pricing and terms probably this summer and test a digital download kiosk in June.

He recognizes that the physical distribution of DVDs is a mature business, according to a Seeking Alpha transcript of a company conference call held Thursday with analysts.

“In a mature business, price is important but the battle for incremental market share becomes incredibly expensive if we compete on price alone. We believe there are other better ways to satisfy the customer by providing better in-stock availability, improved customer service, and better product assortment, and we believe our customers will be willing to pay a price for that convenience,” Keyes said.

He added that the company has been re-merchandising the stores to feature seasonal content and exclusive content and also highlighting new releases.

Keyes said: “We put much less emphasis on aggressive pricing and discounting.”

He added that Blockbuster plans to test launch next month its digital download kiosk. It has signed a pilot test agreement with NCR Corporation, which provides self-service and assisted service technology.

Blockbuster reported domestic sales at stores open at least a year rose 2.9 percent in the first quarter. That’s the first time those figures grew in five years.

Is it possible that a soft economy is pushing people out of movie theaters?

More O.C. retail:

For more O.C. retail, see list of links on right-hand side of this blog.

Macy’s in O.C. to get FAO Schwarz store

Hang Nguyen — Fri, 16 May 2008 15:06:57 +0000

Updated at 11:36 a.m.

This fall, a South Coast Plaza Macy’s will get an FAO Schwarz store spanning about 1,000 square feet, according to spokespeople from both companies.

FAO Schwarz currently has only three locations: New York, Las Vegas (Caesars Palace) and inside a Macy’s in Chicago.

It will be FAO Schwarz’ return to South Coast Plaza. The legendary toy company, which filed for bankruptcy protection in 2003, once had a store at the O.C. mall but shuttered it in 2002, according to the shopping center.

It’s unknown if FAO Schwarz will be added into the Macy’s home store, men’s store or women’s clothing department store at South Coast Plaza.

FAO Schwarz plans to open up to 275 shops inside Macy’s this fall. About 75 of those will span 1,000 to 3,500 square feet. The other 200 will be about 200 to 300 square feet, according to the company press release.

Macy’s, which has a total of about 850 department stores, plans to have FAO Schwarz inside about 685 stores over the next two years. Macy’s has 10 stores in Orange County.

The FAO Schwarz store-within-a-store concept has been tested successfully since fall 2007 at Macy’s on State Street in Chicago.

At the nearly 50,000-square-foot store on Fifth Avenue in New York, human toy soldiers, pictured above, stand in front of the shop to greet guests.

The store’s first floor has enormous, life-sized stuffed animals. The second floor houses the “Dance-on Piano,” which was featured in the movie “Big” with Tom Hanks.

Macy’s is teaming up with the oldest toy store in the U.S. that was founded in 1862.

(Photo courtesy of FAO Schwarz.)

Related links:

For more O.C. retail, see list of links on right-hand side of this blog.

Nordstrom selling makeup for $1. True or bogus?

Hang Nguyen — Thu, 15 May 2008 21:25:01 +0000

Apparently, there’s an e-mail circulating about Nordstrom selling e.l.f. makeup for $1.

Nordstrom said it’s false.

I first saw a story about this e-mail on WCPO.com. It was written this week.

So I contacted Nordstrom. The department store’s spokesman Michael Boyd said today the e-mail is fraudulent. Boyd referred me to a company statement online that was released last September. That’s when Nordstrom first heard about the e-mail and has “heard about it surfacing again lately,” Boyd said.

The statement said:

“We have learned that some of our customers received e-mails from an unauthorized and unknown source regarding the Web site eyeslipsface.com. We want you to know that Nordstrom and Nordstrom.com are not affiliated with eyeslipsface.com or the e.l.f. product line, nor with any e-mail regarding that Web site or product line. Nordstrom does not sell e.l.f. products.”

I wanted to know what this e-mail said exactly. I turned to Google.

According to Snopes.com, the e-mail said:

“The makeup line e.l.f. (Eyes, Lips, Face) has been bought out by Nordstrom and will be repackaged with the Nordstrom name on it. They are getting rid of all the makeup in e.l.f. packaging. They are selling everything for $1.”

Snopes also said that the e-mail in some cases identified Bloomingdale’s as the e.l.f. buyer. Bloomingdale’s has also issued a statement saying it’s not in any way connected to e.l.f. Part of the denial said:

“We are investigating the e-mails, which appear to have been the product of a party unrelated to either Eyes Lips Face Corp. or Bloomingdale’s.”

(Photo from e.l.f. Web site.)
Related links:

For more O.C. retail news, see list of links on right-hand side of this blog.

PC Club staved off bankruptcy, reopened stores

Hang Nguyen — Thu, 15 May 2008 18:27:12 +0000

Updated 5/16 at 1:15 p.m.

A venture capital firm has bought PC Club allowing it to reopen its 37 stores this morning, spokesman Alan Hunter said today.

NAOC Holdings, a Los Angeles-based company, purchased PC Club for an undisclosed amount. PC Club now plans to add additional stores, possibly in Orange County.

–

PC Club closed its Anaheim and Lake Forest stores on Tuesday but may reopen them on Monday, said Garrett Hall, Anaheim’s top store manager said Thursday.

Hall said the company, based in the City of Industry, notified him at noon on Tuesday that the store must close at 5 p.m. that same day.

Signs were put up at the store that read: “We regrettably want to inform you that PC Club filed for Ch. 7.”

Hall said the company with 37 stores had planned to file for Ch. 7 bankruptcy on Wednesday. But that was never filed, Hall said.

“At the 11th hour, an offer was made to purchase the company,” he said.

He added that while the purchase agreement has not been signed, a letter of intent to buy has been signed.

This morning, Hall put up new signs he wrote: “The process of new ownership, an owner that has supported PC Club for over a decade, is underway. Employees have already been notified that we are hoping to reopen on Monday (5/19) … Please check this sign this weekend for a further update.”

PC Club is a 16-year-old company with stores in eight states: California, New Mexico, Utah, Washington, Oklahoma, Nevada, Arizona and Oregon.

The retailer sells computer parts as well as computers it builds. It also repairs computers.

The original sign also said customers with questions can e-mail customerinfo@pcclub.com.

(Cartoon from PC Club Web site.)

Related links:

For more O.C. retail news, see list of links on right-hand side of this blog.

Eddie Bauer to close more stores

Hang Nguyen — Thu, 15 May 2008 07:00:37 +0000

Eddie Bauer has already closed 27 shops in the first quarter and plans to close up to two more outlet stores by the end of the year.

It’s unknown if Orange County would be affected. The company couldn’t be reached for comment.

The retailer has 365 stores, including an outlet shop in Brea and a regular store at Westfield MainPlace in Santa Ana.

Of the 27 stores the men’s and women’s clothing retailer has closed, three were outlet stores, according to a Seeking Alpha transcript of a company conference call released this week.

Sales at outlet Eddie Bauer stores open at least a year fell 3.1 percent in the first quarter. They rose 0.3 percent for the same period last year. These figures dubbed same-store sales are considered a key gauge of a retailer’s health.

Same-store sales at regular Eddie Bauer shops rose 2.9 percent in the first quarter. They rose 16.4 percent for the same time last year.

The retailer also plans to open four regular stores and another four outlet stores this year.

(Photo from Eddie Bauer’s Web site.)

Related links:

For more O.C. retail news, see list of links on right-hand side of this blog.

Brea Mall to get three more women’s clothing shops

Hang Nguyen — Wed, 14 May 2008 14:30:44 +0000

Brea Mall has signed leases with Michael Kors, Guess and Marciano.

The Brea shop will be Marciano’s only O.C. store and the sixth in California. This will be the second Kors shop in O.C. It also has a boutique at South Coast Plaza.

Kors and Guess plan to open in late May. Marciano, which was founded by the same person behind Guess, is expected to open in late July or early August, said Greta Smoke, spokeswoman for Simon Property Group, which owns Brea Mall and four other major malls in O.C.

The announcement of these retailers comes about a week after the fourth O.C. H&M opened at Brea Mall.

About 280 people waited for the Brea H&M to open at noon last Thursday, hoping to be one of 200 customers who got gift cards worth up to $250.

The Swedish cheap chic retailer opened its first O.C. H&M stores in April 2007.

(Photo of tunic and cigarette pants from Michael Kors Web site.)

Related links:

For more O.C. retail news, see list of links on right-hand side of this blog.

Consumer group warns about soft clogs (Crocs?) on escalators

Hang Nguyen — Wed, 14 May 2008 07:00:05 +0000

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said Tuesday it’s aware of 75 incidents since 2006 where ”popular soft-sided flexible clogs and slides” got stuck on escalators.

About half of these incidents resulted in injuries, CPSC said.

That shoe description sounds an awful lot like Crocs. So I asked CPSC spokeswoman Julie Vallese if the agency was referring to Crocs.

She said she couldn’t name specific brands.

How are these shoes getting stuck on escalators? The soft shoes can fold into the escalator as the steps move along, she said.

Do the holes in some of these shoes have anything to do with them getting caught in escalators? That hasn’t been something CPSC has looked into, she said.

Stories about Crocs getting stuck in escalators surfaced last year.

Four-year-old Rory McDermott got a Croc-clad foot caught in an escalator last year at a mall in Virginia. His mother managed to yank him free, but the nail on his big toe was almost completely ripped off, causing heavy bleeding, according to the Associated Press.

In that story, Niwot, Colo.-based Crocs Inc. said it does not keep records of the reasons for customer-service calls. But the company said it is aware of “very few” problems relating to accidents involving the shoes, which are made of a soft, synthetic resin.

“Thankfully, escalator accidents like the one in Virginia are rare,” the company said in a statement.

For CPSC tips on how to avoid injury while wearing soft shoes on escalators, CLICK HERE.

(Photo from Associated Press.)

Related links:

For more O.C. retail news, see list of links on right-hand side of this blog.

iPhones sold out at O.C.’s Apple Stores

Hang Nguyen — Tue, 13 May 2008 18:38:28 +0000

The sellout of iPhones at 5 O.C. Apple Stores and at least five others elsewhere in the country likely means a new model is on the way.

Analysts from Piper Jaffray checked 11 U.S. Apple Stores and found that five were sold out of iPhones, according to a report released Monday.

So this morning, I called O.C.’s five Apple Stores and employees at all these stores also said they were sold out of iPhones.

Apple has stores at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, Fashion Island in Newport Beach, Irvine Spectrum Center, Brea Mall and The Shops at Mission Viejo.

The Piper Jaffray report also said iPhones were unavailable at the online Apple Store in the U.S. and the U.K. Of the six brick-and-mortar stores that had iPhones, Piper Jaffray found that five shops had at least five iPhones in stock.

“The limited availability is one of several indications that the release of a new model is imminent … Apple’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference on 6/9 is a likely event at which Apple could announce the design and features of the new device.”

The analysts expect the 2nd generation iPhone to be slightly redesigned with 3G mobile data that allows faster Internet access.

(Photo from Apple’s Web site.)

More O.C. retail:

For more O.C. retail news, see list of links on right-hand side of this blog.

The Block to get O.C.’s only Nike outlet & more

Hang Nguyen — Tue, 13 May 2008 13:45:07 +0000

The Block at Orange has signed leases with The Children’s Place, LVLX and Nike Factory Store — O.C.’s only one.

Nike plans to open in August and Children’s Place, pictured right, is slated for September, said Greta Smoke, spokeswoman for Simon Property Group, which owns The Block and four other major malls in O.C.

LVLX is a girl’s and women’s clothing shop from the East. It’s slated to open this summer.

It has been more than a year since Mills Corp., The Block’s previous owner, agreed to sell its malls to Simon. Back in early 2007, Mills warned that a heavy debt load could force it into bankruptcy if it is unable to follow through with its plans to sell all or part of the company.

Since Simon bought The Block, it has added retailers like Foothill Ranch-based Wet Seal, Forever 21, Ecko Unlimited but lost Demo, the urban clothing chain that Anaheim-based Pacific Sunwear has shuttered. Wayne Williams, marketing director for The Block, recently declined to reveal the center’s occupancy rate.

CEO David Simon said the company is benefiting from the outlet shops at centers previously owned by Mills. He said demand from specialty retail and Saks outlets is “very, very strong,” according to a Seeking Alpha transcript of a recent company conference call with analysts.

Simon added that for the previously owned Mills properties, “we’ve got a lot of redevelopment that we’re focused on, we have some real interest on kind of re-tenanting some of the anchors … and we’re actually making a significant amount of deals in the Mills with the likes of Nike and Adidas and those kind of players. So the Mills side is actually, we’re very, very positive in terms of what’s going on there.”

Children’s Place sales at stores open at least a year rose 5 percent for fiscal first quarter. The company recently announced it’s looking at possibly putting itself up for sale.

(Photo from Children’s Place Web site.)

Related links:

New O.C. mall getting Ann Taylor, Hollister, Body Shop & more

Irvine Spectrum is latest O.C. mall to expand

Huntington Beach Strand to open Oct. ‘08
Westminster Mall to get $10 million-plus makeover

For more O.C. retail news, see list of links on right-hand side of this blog.