California Apparel News

Devastation from the recent Jesusita fire in Santa Barbara, Calif., forced one-third of the city’s population of 90,365 residents to be evacuated. Santa Barbara retailers are forecasting heavy losses from the fire, which started May 5 and burned 8,733 acres of the county and city of Santa Barbara, a year-round destination for tourists. More than $13.5 million was spent to fight the fires, and 78 homes were destroyed.

Marty Bebout, co-owner of the prominent chain of Blue Bee contemporary stores on Santa Barbara’s State Street, said the fires turned the once-crowded downtown area into a ghost town. While his six contemporary stores were not touched by the fires, news of the disaster scared away crucial tourist dollars and reliable local business. He estimated he lost tens of thousands of dollars in missed sales. “There is no way to make it up,” Bebout said.

No commercial buildings were damaged by the fire, according to a Santa Barbara County spokesperson. But devastation from the fire left Blue Bee’s staff of 37 with sometimes little more to do than dust and sweep the fire’s ash out of the store. Other Santa Barbara stores closed temporarily. Fires forced retail center La Cumbre Plaza to be closed the afternoon of May 8, when Santa Barbara authorities placed it in an evacuation zone.

No buildings were damaged for this Macerich Co. property, which is the location of a Macy’s, Louis Vuitton and Tiffany & Co. Firefighters set up a command post May 8 in the center’s parking lot, located on Highway 101 and Hope Avenue. La Cumbre management workers delivered water and Powerbars to the firefighters and evacuees. On May 9, business went back to usual, according to Phil Vise, Macerich’s vice president of marketing.

The city’s restaurant business was not affected as much during the disaster because evacuees needed places to eat, Bebout said. Some people whose homes were destroyed or damaged have shopped for clothes to replace their wardrobes. Retailers will be crucial in boosting the city’s morale, Bebout said.

“Our job as a boutique is to provide entertainment,” Bebout said. “Retail therapy includes listening to people’s stories and helping keep them positive.”

Blue Bee will donate $100 gift certificates to 100 fire victims and offer 20 percent discounts on apparel and accessories.

Anxious Santa Barbara residents also hung out at the Wendy Foster contemporary boutique to warily view the flames with binoculars and to trade news on the fires, said boutique co-owner Wendy Foster. “The store was open to keep people’s good humor up,” said Foster, who has run the store as well as three others since 1963 with her husband, Pierre Lafond. Foster and her staff put the boutique’s computers, paperwork and expensive jewelry in storage in case the flames reached their boutique, located at 516 San Ysidro Road in the Santa Barbara suburb of Montecito.

The fire’s devastation is difficult to bear during an already weak economy, retailers said. And it is more painful because it follows two other major fires that temporarily drove away many of the town’s tourists and shoppers. Bebout estimated his stores suffered a 30 percent loss in business during the Zaca fire of July 2008. During the Tea fire of November 2008, he estimated that retail traffic dropped by 50 percent.

Bebout remains committed to the area, however, saying there are loyal and affluent town residents, as well as a tourist season that runs year-round but is particularly strong in July and August. Jon Regehr, manager of the Esteem Surf Co. shop, said most of the town’s retailers will find success after the flames have been put out.

“I don’t think it will affect us permanently,” Regehr said. “It’s bad when it’s raging out of control. But people keep coming back after the fires.” —Andrew Asch