Retailer Rounds Up Used Clothing in So. Cal.
Buffalo Exchange, one of America’s biggest used-clothing chains, opened a new store on March 20 at The Lab, the youthoriented shopping mall in Costa Mesa, Calif.
This 1,927-square-foot store tops off more than one year of Southern California expansion for the Arizona retailer, which has grown steadily since Swedish transplant Kerstin Block started the concept 30 years ago in Tucson. Block, now in her early 60s, is still the president of the company and runs the operations with her husband, Spencer, and her daughter, Rebecca.
The Orange County store opening comes on the heels of another store opening in the fashionable Belmont Shores district of Long Beach, Calif., where Buffalo Exchange has joined specialty shops including Lucky Brand Dungarees, Chico’s, Banana Republic and Gap. A third Buffalo Exchange opened last May in Sherman Oaks, Calif. There’s a fourth Buffalo Exchange on Los Angeles’ La Brea Avenue.
The stores cater to an alternative crowd searching for fashion at a fair price. Price points for Buffalo Exchange’s items generally range from $5 for a basic T-shirt to $50 for designer jeans.
Even though the company has no immediate plans to add another Southern California store, the retailer believes the area is ripe with possibilities, said Carla Mink, an area manager who oversees the Costa Mesa and Long Beach stores. “Southern California is so densely populated that many areas could support new stores and still not compete with each other,” she said.
Buffalo Exchange has 25 boutiques and six franchises in 11 states, and most of the stores are in the West. Annual sales totaled $29 million in 2003. The company may expand in the Midwest, Mink said. —Andrew Asch
