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Don Oakes had a familiarity with Connecticut's "Gold Coast" retail enclaves back in 2015, having worked early in his career in Darien. But when it came time to expand his nautical tote bag chain to Connecticut, he followed the footsteps of another New England brand to the opposite side of the state — to Mystic, where The Black Dog's logo was already a downtown fixture.
Sea Bags has since outstripped The Black Dog's growth to become one of the faster-expanding retailers in New England, adding its 50th store this year and having since tacked on a second Connecticut location at the Clinton Crossing Premium Outlets heading into the holidays.
"I remember driving into town and parking in front of The Black Dog's store and looking around and saying, 'Yup — this is where I want to be,'" said Oakes, CEO of Sea Bags. "We can be pretty flexible on our store size, and Mystic's a good example."
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If storefront leases are the surest currency for the vitality of any retail destination, heading into Black Friday weekend Connecticut offers a rich array of shopping options for residents and visitors, with a number of malls and downtown districts near capacity. But for every chain like Sea Bags looking to expand here, there are plenty more that take a pass on Connecticut, despite the state ranking among the highest nationally for household income.
That includes at least a few that have a strong familiarity with Connecticut. The Wilton-based toy designer Melissa & Doug chose The Westchester for its first retail store. Timepiece manufacturer Breitling, which oversees U.S. distribution from a Wilton office, has no Connecticut boutique today, despite several in the Northeast otherwise including its newest location planned for The Westchester mall in White Plains, N.Y.
The luxury holding company Tapestry has yet to announce a Connecticut toehold for its Stuart Weitzman shoe brand based in New York, despite the fellow Tapestry brands Coach and Kate Spade New York having locations in Connecticut. Tapestry is in the process of acquiring Capri Holdings, which has a similar profile in having multiple Connecticut locations for its Michael Kors brand, but none yet for its Jimmy Choo and Versace boutique chains.
Luxury giant LVMH has likewise been hit and miss in affluent Connecticut, with a Louis Vuitton store at the Westfarms mall in Farmington, but other retail "houses" owned by LVMH having locations in New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts.
Some continue to see Connecticut as the best springboard to the U.S. market, to include The Frenchie Co.which chose Westfarms recently for its first U.S. accessories shop. And outside of the boutique world, a number of chains on the National Retail Federation's list of the 100 largest continue to expand in Connecticut, including TJX which has been opening Marshalls and HomeGoods stores in Connecticut; and Burlington, which had the biggest percentage increase in U.S. stores of any traditional retailer on the NRF list.
Burlington added about 85 stores in all last year for a 10 percent increase from 2021, including a new Cromwell store in a former Kmart location. Burlington could see a similar jump on Kantar's updated ranking for 2023, after taking over more than 60 leases from bankrupt Bed, Bath & Beyond including at Ridgeway Shopping Center in Stamford. Burlington also opened a new store in Port Chester, N.Y., about a half-mile across the Greenwich line.
The Burlington expansion is occurring despite the company admitting last summer it is anyone's guess how consumer spending will go for the 2023 holidays and the year ahead, given the hit they took during runaway inflation that is now showing signs of easing.
"This economic cycle has been unusual in that while low-income shoppers — our core customers — have been impacted by inflation, ... higher income groups have been relatively unscathed," said Burlington CEO Michael O'Sullivan, speaking with investment analysts in August on a conference call. "Coming into 2023, we thought it was possible that if the overall economy slowed down then we might see more trade down traffic in our stores, and this could potentially offset some of the weakness among our lower income customers."
Back at Sea Bags, Oakes said inflation has affected revenue and that the company plans to offer markdowns for the holiday season this year on its tote bags and other products fashioned from sail cloth, including a "Love Lewiston" line that will benefit victims of last month's mass shooting in Maine.
Oakes can point today to having more stores in Maine than the state's legendary retailer L.L.Bean, where Oakes worked before joining Sea Bags. Sea Bags beats out L.L.Bean's store count as well in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maryland, Michigan — but not in Connecticut, where Bean's has stores today in Danbury, New Haven and South Windsor.
"We got to get more stores in Connecticut," Oakes said.
Includes prior reporting by Christine DeRosa, Robert Marchant and Luther Turmelle.