Barney’s New York has announced it will be retiring the Barneys Co-op brand name. Barneys ceo Mark Lee said all existing Co-op stores will be re-branded as regular but smaller Barneys New York units.
As noted by Women’s Wear Daily, the Co-op concept was introduced in 1986 as an edgier, lower-priced option for younger consumers – first on the seventh and eighth floors of the luxury retailer’s flagship store on Madison Avenue, later as its own branded freestanding stores.
In some of the former Co-op stores, such as the ones on Broadway and 76th Street in New York and at The Grove in Los Angeles, men’s merchandise will be eliminated to make room for expanded offerings and new designers in the women’s category. Some labels are exclusive to the chain, and all have been bought with specific locations in mind, WWD reported.
“These are neighborhood stores,” said Daniella Vitale, Barneys chief operating officer and senior evp. “We’ll try to curate the stores to reflect the demographics of the area. This is a local customer in the immediate trading area.”
Though the last reported figures showed that the Co-op stores were accounting for between 10 and 15 percent of Barneys New York’s total sales, the luxury retailer has been weeding out underperforming units. In 2012, it closed Co-ops in Dallas, Chevy Chase, Md., and San Diego. In 2011, it has closed stores at the Galleria in Houston, the Westchester Mall in White Plains, N.Y., and Phipps Plaza in Atlanta. This March, it closed the Co-op store on West 18th Street in Manhattan.
“We’re looking at our other seven [Co-op] stores,” Lee told WWD, referring to units in Philadelphia, Miami Beach, New York’s SoHo, Georgetown in Washington, D.C., and, in California, Glendale, Santa Monica and Costa Mesa.