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SCOOPED!

WOMEN’S FASHION CHAIN INTERMIX HITS THE WEST COAST AHEAD OF ARCHRIVAL SCOOP

By Molly Knight

Intermix, a New York City-based women’S apparel chain, opened its first West Coast store — and in the process, upped the ante in its rivalry with Scoop, an equally trendy New York City women’s chain. Before this, neither retailer had gone any farther west than The Forums Shops at Caesars, in Las Vegas, where both operate stores.

In September Intermix opened a 5,000-square-foot unit in Los Angeles, on celebrity-trafficked Robertson Avenue. And that could only mean that Scoop, too, is probably eyeing the West Coast, sources say, because where one of them goes, the other is sure to follow. Gearing up for a long-term battle, for instance, Scoop in February rolled out a 10,000-square-foot flagship store on Broadway, in the New York City SoHo district, two blocks from the boutique that Intermix had opened on Prince Street in 2005. Intermix opened its first store in 1993, in New York City’s Flatiron district, and currently operates five in Manhattan. Scoop, too, opened its very first store in Manhattan, in 1996, and has three there. Further, each chain has a unit on Collins Avenue, in Miami Beach, as well as boutiques in Chicago and Dallas.

The similarities don’t end there, though. The two offer similar fashions from upscale designers such as Diane von Furstenberg, Marc Jacobs, Graham & Spencer and Helmut Lang, so shoppers often find it difficult to differentiate between them, sources say. “Even as a person who covers this sort of thing, I don’t see any real difference between them,” said retail consultant Jeff Green, president of Mill Valley, Calif.-based Jeff Green Partners. “And the question going forward as they seek to open up new stores in centers and on street locations is, are they differentiated enough to have a memorable brand? Will a customer be able to separate the two stores in her mind and be loyal to one and not the other? I simply don’t know.”

The Los Angeles store is the 19th in the Intermix fleet. In July CEO Khajak Keledjian said Intermix plans to open still more stand-alone stores soon on premier shopping streets and in luxury shopping centers on the West Coast, including one at South Coast Plaza, in Costa Mesa, Calif., which at press time was slated to open this month. Intermix operates in eight states, now including California, and in the District of Columbia. On average, its stores generate about $2,000 in sales per square foot each. Scoop operates 11 boutiques across seven states, and they post roughly $1,800 in sales per square foot.

Chains like these rely largely on word of mouth rather than formal ad campaigns, says Green, which makes it hard to speculate how quickly a brand will grow by observing its promotional activities. “It’s going to take awhile for either of these brands to mature,” said Green. “It takes several years for young concepts to gain mainstream national acceptance, so they should expand at a conservative pace.”

Green sees potential for the companies on the coasts, with further room to grow in fashion-forward, affluent areas in the middle of the country, such as Chicago, Dallas and Denver.

Intermix and Scoop target women between 18 and 35 who are willing to pay top dollar for trendy fashions, Green says. Consider: At Intermix a Helmut Lang hooded parka retails for $1,195, and a Stella McCartney silk baby-doll blouse goes for $745. At Scoop a Marc by Marc Jacobs wool twill coat sells for $628, and a print tunic by Miss Davenporte costs $545.

“When it comes to selecting locations for potential stores, demographics aren’t as important as psychographics,” said Green. “In other words, finding an area where the average household income is $100,000 doesn’t mean anything if the women there don’t care about dressing young and hip. This is why it might be more important for them to continue to identify urban areas filled with young women, like New York and Los Angeles, who might bring home $70,000 a year, but who are spending a good chunk of that money on their wardrobes.”

The 4,157-square-foot Intermix store at NorthPark Center, in Dallas, which opened in September 2006, has become a top destination for the well-heeled young Texas shopper, center officials say. “The store attracts the be-seen crowd, and the people who aspire to be in that crowd,” said Christine Szalay, NorthPark Center’s director of marketing. “I see women in their 20s and early 30s who are very urban-chic trendsetters flocking to the store.”

“Scoop and Intermix share a customer, because they have exactly the same clothing and jewelry,” said Robert K. Passikoff, president of Brand Keys, a New York City-based retail consulting firm. “The fight for customers has completely become a real estate game.”

And yet the two chains do have their dissimilarities. The Scoop flagship in SoHo is divided evenly between men’s and women’s apparel, and it also carries footwear, fragrances and children’s clothing. Intermix, by contrast, has yet to introduce any men’s apparel or children’s clothing. “For that reason, Scoop seems to be a little bit ahead of Intermix, even though Intermix has more stores,” Passikoff said.

To help its own expansion game, Intermix announced in July that it had sold a minority stake to Goode Partners, a New York City private equity firm that also holds an interest in Rachel Ashwell Shabby Chic.

Opting to make its first dent in the California landscape on paparazzi-packed Robertson Avenue was a smart move for a company that targets women who wish to be seen, sources say. But in Los Angeles Intermix will encounter still more competition, from some formidable local names, including Fred Segal and Kitson. Scoop and Intermix are well known among New York City hipsters, to be sure, but there are those who wonder how they will fare in Los Angeles, where they are unknown to many women. Still, some say a popular New York City boutique is likely to be welcome among a generation of stylish women informed by Sarah Jessica Parker’s designer duds on Sex and the City.

For a brief while, Intermix can test the terrain in Los Angeles by itself. But if the history of this particular high-stakes game is any indication, Scoop is virtually certain to call the raise.