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More than 10,000 people attend Topshop opening at The Grove
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More than 10,000 people attend Topshop opening at The Grove
Mall developer Rick Caruso couldn’t be happier.
His firm spent two years wooing British fashion icon Topshop to LA shopping center The Grove. More than 10,000 people attended the store's opening on Thursday.
“It was certainly the biggest and best store opening I’ve experienced in my career,” said Caruso, CEO of Los Angeles real estate firm Caruso Affiliated.
Topshop enjoys a rock star following because of its reputation as a British style authority. Think of it as a British version of the Swedish store H&M, with clothes that are trendy, yet affordable. On its website, women's jeans start at $40.
On its opening day in L.A. the area around the 30,000 square foot store for Topshop and and its male retail counterpart Topman turned into a British street party, with celebrities like Kate Bosworth in attendance.
The Grove location is one of only four U.S. stores. The others are in Las Vegas, Chicago and New Year. Topshop operates more than 400 company and franchise locations in the UK and around the world.
The Grove store is Topshop’s first West Coast location. The company had considered other venues such as Beverly Hills, but Caruso’s shopping center won out. The developer said stores at The Grove generate a little bit over $1,900 a square foot in sales, about four times the gross of a traditional mall in the United States.
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“All of our retailers here do an exceptional amount of volume,” he said.
He fully expects Topshop to live up to its hype.
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