Kiehl's has closed at Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda. The windows of the skincare boutique are blacked out but cardboard packing boxes could be seen inside last evening. Westfield has removed the store from the Montgomery Mall website. Kiehl's was a tenant of the mall for just over eleven years, having opened its doors in December 2014.
The boutique appears to be the latest victim of the moribund Montgomery County economy, and the virulently anti-business policies of the County Council. Kiehl's is not closing stores elsewhere in the United States, and I've seen no reports of the company being in financial distress. In fact, Kiehl's just opened a new store in the more vibrant Washington, D.C., in a ravishing return to the elite Georgetown neighborhood.
We're in real trouble, folks, especially when you look at the structural budget deficits of Montgomery County and Maryland. Hard to believe, but D.C.'s lower tax and fee burden is attracting many businesses and Montgomery County expats to the District of Columbia. Meanwhile, MoCo leaders continue to ensure Montgomery County has the highest overall tax and fee burden in the region. Heckuva job, Brownie!
The store in DC Georgetown opened due to customer feedback. Customers were very upset when L’Oréal who owns Kiehl’s closed the Georgetown and Union Station locations. So the company decided to reopen the store in DC. Associates were told that once the new store in DC opened they would likely close the one in Montgomery Mall. Why…? Kiehl’s products are sold in Nordstrom and Sephora which are in the mall. Nordstrom has a counter dedicated to Kiehl’s. Both Nordstrom and Sephora ran better sales sometimes than the actual stand alone store and that hurt business. Hopefully they open a new store in the Annapolis / Baltimore area.
ReplyDeleteThe storefront seemed useless in the mall. It was often empty, just a bored employee sitting there waiting. And it even closed randomly for 15-30min. at a time mid-shift as the single employee needed a bathroom break, etc. Kiehl’s had a number of other direct competitors in the mall selling similar goods. And the store front was self-competing with their own products available at Macys, Nordstrom, and Sephora. This is less to do with a big picture of the area economy (regardless of one's view on it) and more to do with Kiehl’s basic business strategy.
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