One inexorable factor in the trade in English antiques is the payment of premises rent. Mind you, the placement of one’s stock in trade in a rural barn makes operating somewhat cheaper than, say, Jackson Square or Madison Avenue in the mid 70’s, but, then, location is everything.
Or has been, and certainly luxury merchants have known this for centuries, if not millennia. However, the capitalization and consequent proliferation of international luxury brands, Prada, for example, has rendered these formerly boutique retailers as fierce competitors for retail space in the best venues.
So it has appeared over the last few years, but one wonders whether the worm has turned. That luxury brands have gone mass market has made their retail outlets mere showrooms. Why buy in Union Square in San Francisco and cart something around when you can order it online and have it shipped directly to you? Very little question, at-store sales are declining, with what is lost in-store replaced by online sales activity. Since it isn’t hard to determine that a virtual as opposed to an actual store is much cheaper to operate, so-called national tenants are bailing out of leaseholds right and left.
What might sound the bane of the commercial landlord should prove a shot in the arm for the art and antiques trade, with downward pressure on commercial rents making landlords somewhat, shall we say, tractable. Will this result in the rebirth of waning venues? Time, and a bit of optimism, will tell.