
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. 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?!?!”Īnother customer, Lisa McGuirk, wrote March 8, “I am devastated. 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.Ĭompeting against frequent department-store sales also made business tough for Blue Bee, Bebout said.īlue 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. Off-pricer Marshalls will reportedly move into a former Barnes & Noble space. Last year, Forever 21 moved into the space once held by Anthropologie. BlueBee serves diagnostic and research assay manufacturers with fit-for-purpose data solutions that extend the go-to-market strategy for the assay manufacturer. Retailers such as Anthropologie moved out, and fast-fashion retailers and those offering more-popular price points moved in. They kicked us when we were down and when the economy seemed relentless,” he said. At Blue Bee Web, we run efficient digital marketing campaigns & develop timeless brands so you can stay ahead of the competition and get more leads that turn into loyal customers. “They hit us at the beginning of the recession. “Those fires contributed a lot to our demise,” Bebout said. Bebout and Doucette had no time to recover from natural disasters when the economic disaster of the Great Recession made business seem impossible. While Blue Bee’s stores were not damaged, it lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales during the fires.
#Blue bee inc series
The retailer was dealt a crippling blow when a series of firestorms in the residential hills devastated Santa Barbara in 20. Before it closed, Blue Bee employed 17 people. By 2009, it consolidated to three stores: Blue Bee, Blue Bee Jeans and Blue Bee Men. 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. We are going to take a break from retail,” he said.īlue Bee had been one of Santa Barbara’s most prominent fashion retailers. “We want to wrap up loose ends, rest up and get back to work.


The company has no assets, Bebout said, and he and business partner John Doucette had no immediate business plans. Youll look too good to stay in when wearing our BODYBASIX SKY BLUE BEE V-NECK BODYSUIT Designed in our Bodybasix single-lined fabric, this bodysuit is. 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 tough economy and changing consumer tastes were among the factors that forced Blue Bee to shutter its doors. 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.
