Shopping Centers Today is the news magazine of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)
Issue link: https://sct.epubxp.com/i/122387
r e t a I l I n g t o d a y fashion sense bohme boutique knows what its customers want — before they do By Kimberly Pfaff Tchang I " f Buckle were to meet forever 21 — that's Bohme." So says one of the co-founders of Bohme (rhymes with rome) Boutique, a women's apparel chain that is growing fast in the central and mountain u.S. states. Bohme Boutique is based in Sandy, utah, posts about $14 million in sales per year and operates 17 stores across Arizona, colorado, Idaho, Nevada, South Dakota and utah. the company is planning to open five additional units this year and 15 more next year, mainly throughout texas and the midwest. the chain's co-founders, sisters fernanda and Vivien Bohme, are 132 SCt / m a y 2 0 1 3 of an uncommonly determined spirit. they are uncommon in other ways too: first, they are from Brazil and came to the u.S. as children. Second, they are mormon. And they seem to accomplish just about anything they take a mind to. collier reid, senior leasing director at Salt lake city–based woodbury corp., has seen it. He opened their first store, in 2008, at university mall, in orem, utah. the Bohme sisters were, he recalls, hardly the ideal prospective tenants. for starters, they were in debt after losing money in the real estate crash, and they had maxed out their credit cards buying inventory — a pile of merchandise that was sitting in their garage. But they projected a certain something, and so, with reservations, reid offered them a spot at a five-yard-line location. "I put together a one-year deal where both sides have a parachute out of this if it goes bad," he said. "we did put a storefront on for them, something generic, so that if it didn't work out, we could use it for someone else." the Bohmes transformed the space. they installed chandeliers, stained the cement floors and hung up wall coverings. "we tend to be one of the most colorful stores in the mall," said Vivien Bohme, the one speaking throughout this article. "we did everything but razing one wall." It did not take the sisters very long to pleasantly shock reid. "from day one, they knocked it out of the ballpark," reid said. "they were doing … a rate of $1,000 a square foot, which for a center in utah is really something. from day two on, they were begging us for a better space." that was at the end of the day,