Santa Barbara Retailer Blue Bee Shutters
Blue Bee Inc., one of the most high-profile designer and contemporary specialty retailers of Santa Barbara, Calif., went out of business, said Marty Bebout, a co-owner of the Blue Bee compound of physical stores and e-commerce website.
The tough economy and changing consumer tastes were among the factors that forced Blue Bee to shutter its doors. Since 2000, the retailer offered fashions ranging from gowns to suits, premium denim and footwear from designer brands such as Paul Smith and contemporary labels such as Paige Premium Denim. The company has no assets, Bebout said, and he and business partner John Doucette had no immediate business plans. “We want to wrap up loose ends, rest up and get back to work. We are going to take a break from retail,” he said.
Blue Bee had been one of Santa Barbara’s most prominent fashion retailers. It employed more than 60 people in 2007 in a group of six stores: Blue Bee, Blue Bee Jeans, Blue Bee Men, Blue Bee Shoes, Blue Beetle and Honeycomb, all located on Santa Barbara’s State Street. By 2009, it consolidated to three stores: Blue Bee, Blue Bee Jeans and Blue Bee Men. Before it closed, Blue Bee employed 17 people.
The retailer was dealt a crippling blow when a series of firestorms in the residential hills devastated Santa Barbara in 2008 and 2009. While Blue Bee’s stores were not damaged, it lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales during the fires. Bebout and Doucette had no time to recover from natural disasters when the economic disaster of the Great Recession made business seem impossible.
“Those fires contributed a lot to our demise,” Bebout said. “They hit us at the beginning of the recession. They kicked us when we were down and when the economy seemed relentless,” he said.
State Street shopping also changed. Retailers such as Anthropologie moved out, and fast-fashion retailers and those offering more-popular price points moved in. Last year, Forever 21 moved into the space once held by Anthropologie. Off-pricer Marshalls will reportedly move into a former Barnes & Noble space. Blue Bee’s retail price points ranged from $40 for a T-shirt to $2,000 for a gown and $3,000 for a suit.
Competing against frequent department-store sales also made business tough for Blue Bee, Bebout said.
Blue Bee held a sale for its inventory a week before closing, but the retailer’s exit came as a surprise to many of its patrons. Abigail Hoppen Albers wrote on Blue Bee’s Facebook page March 10, “What!?!!? I went to your site this morning and you guys are closed??!?!???! No warning?!?!”
Another customer, Lisa McGuirk, wrote March 8, “I am devastated. Loved you guys and your stores so much. hellip; No matter how much one was willing to pay in the Newport Beach or Newport Coast stores, it was never as unique as the items I found at your store.”— Andrew Asch
