Deep discounts drew Liz Conroy, 25, to Montana Avenue recently. Just four years out of college, Conroy, a political consultant, said she is "struggling with the job market" and has plenty of company.
"All my friends who graduated with me are going through rounds of layoffs," she said. "Everything's blowing up around them."
By contrast, Dori Weisberg -- who helped launch the Television Food Network and whose husband, Robert, co-founded HBO -- could have afforded to pay the full $185 price for a Shabby Chic sheet but was pleased to snag it for $45.
Having returned recently after several months in New York, Weisberg was stunned by the number of "For Lease" signs on Montana. "I'm used to changing stores, but not empty stores," she said. The downturn was perhaps the inevitable result after years of easy credit. "People were way overspending, almost mindlessly," she said.
The recession's effects are rippling out to a wide range of entrepreneurs.
For Randy Fuhrman, a Los Angeles event planner whose clients have included Barbra Streisand, Steven Spielberg and Walt Disney Studios, business began heading south last October. Private and corporate clients canceled holiday parties that had been months in the planning, in some cases forfeiting thousands of dollars in venue deposits. Even now, Fuhrman said, some customers who have money despite the stock market dive seem too embarrassed to spend it.
"They just don't want to throw it in their friends' faces," he said. "Corporate is the same way, afraid to do anything that looks extravagant."
Like many competitors, Fuhrman is trying to reinvent himself. He has offered to teach private cooking classes in homes, prepare small dinner parties and produce scaled-down events for scaled-down fees.
"I did one wedding that I kind of gifted because they had only a $1,500 budget," he said. The burly brownie baker also recently pitched himself to a cruise line as the "Bear Chef." (So far, no nibbles.)
Katie Leede McGloin, a Santa Monica interior designer, said her clients have been redoing one room at a time rather than an entire house. There's a sense, she said, that "the party's over, the bubbly times, and it's a time to draw in."
"Everyone has become much more conscious of the bottom line," she said. Commercial brokers say they are seeing signs of life. Vacant storefronts on Beverly and Canon drives in Beverly Hills are filling up, and, nearby, South Robertson Boulevard in Los Angeles is coming back, said Jay Luchs, executive vice president of CB Richard Ellis.
But on Montana, high rents continue to force the shuttering or downsizing of strapped stores. Selling European imports remains a challenge at Melange. Sprenger recently posted a big "inventory sale" sign.
"We will be moving a couple of blocks west," she said. "Same street, but at a markedly reduced rent."
--
martha.groves@latimes.com
