State Street Already Slipping Down COVID-19 Slope

Two big holes opened downtown this week with the departure of Plum Goods and Forever 21, both brought down by the commerce-killing power of the coronavirus. Their closures could constitute grim harbingers of things to come as Santa Barbara’s retail core ​— ​already beset with a high number of vacancies and a business community highly frustrated by lack of city leadership ​— ​attempts to weather the ongoing health crisis.

Amy Cooper opened Plum Goods 10 years ago on the 900 block of State Street and quickly established it as one of the few and one of the best locally owned stores that carried locally sourced merchandise, from artwork to jewelry to books to postcards. Cooper herself would also become one of the leading voices for downtown retail interests, pushing City Hall to help ​— ​or at least not hinder ​— ​business owners navigating Santa Barbara’s notoriously stingy and expensive permitting process.

Cooper said she saw the writing on the wall not long after she shut her doors on March 13 to comply with Governor Gavin Newsom’s lockdown order. “There was no way I could operate on such low margins,” she said. “My store was dependent on tourism, which stopped, and experiential shopping, which stopped.” Cooper also said Plum Goods, like many other retailers, relies heavily on a busy fourth-quarter shopping season, and she worried the state might be back under quarantine by that time.