Missing link to fashion

So far, Atlanta hasn't landed H&M

By CHRISTINE VAN DUSEN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Minneapolis — Visit the new H&M store in Minneapolis' monstrous Mall of America, and you'll jockey with stylish 20-somethings and stroller pushers for first dibs on racks and racks of low-priced high fashion.

With chart-topping hip-hop thumping in the background, you'll coo over a Victorian-style blouse with delicate lace for $24.90, a pair of trendy men's trousers for $39.90, a chunky green bead bracelet for $4.90, a slate-blue velveteen pencil skirt for $34.90.

You'll find similar stuff and a similar scene at any one of H&M's 84 other super-hot, super-trendy stores in the United States. They're located in Manhattan, Chicago and Boston, among other cities. There's even one near Utica, N.Y.

But not Atlanta.

Wait a minute. There's no H&M in Atlanta, but there's one near Utica? Tiny, economically struggling, nowhere near New York City Utica?

Residents of that small city — along with others including Exton, Pa., Gurnee, Ill., and Taunton, Mass. — get access to H&M's brand of runway-inspired sweaters, skirts, jewelry, jeans, corsets and kidswear, while Atlantans don't. Unless you've left town, you missed out on couture king Karl Lagerfeld's one-time, lower-priced 2004 collection, and you'll probably miss out on superstar Stella McCartney's designs this fall.

You can't even get the goods online; H&M doesn't do e-commerce in this country. The buzzworthy retailer likes to make consumers yearn to visit a store.

It's enough to bring a thrifty fashionista to tears. Local leasing agents want to help, and say they are trying to lure the store to Atlanta. But for now, H&M isn't coming.

What gives?

Representatives of H&M won't say. They promise they have no problems with the market, and that they haven't ruled out Atlanta. "We're looking throughout the country," said company spokeswoman Lisa Sandberg.

'Best shopping district'
What H&M looks for in a market, she says, is space that ranges from less than 10,000 square feet to about 40,000 square feet. The company likes free-standing buildings but would go into a mall. It's willing to open near competitors, or pioneer a new development. It likes major metro areas but has stores in smaller towns.

So, yeah, H&M will go pretty much anywhere.

"We have people in the expansion department homing in on certain metro areas first. And then, in the city, the area that is most popular to be in," Sandberg said. "Once there we look at the best shopping district, best street, best storefront. It's not uncommon for the son of our founder to come out from Sweden and look."

It's time for that guy to make a trip to Atlanta, said Mark E. Speece, chief executive of 800 Degrees, a branding firm.

"I think Atlanta has reached the point, given the influx of Northeasterners and others, where it has become a very metropolitan and diverse city," said Speece, whose firm is based in Atlanta. "It absolutely has the money and the size to support [H&M]. I would think Atlanta has got to be on their short list."

And where would H&M set up shop in this market? Retail consultant Paco Underhill believes Midtown's Atlantic Station, where a new retail district opens Thursday, would be ideal. IKEA, another enormously popular Swedish retailer, is part of the development.

"I think it would be a great home for H&M," said Underhill, author of "Call of the Mall: The Geography of Shopping" and chief executive of Envirosell, a New York-based consulting company.

In May, leasing reps from Atlantic Station said they were trying to get the retailer to sign on. These days the developers won't return calls for comment about it.

High-fashion retailers, in general, have been slow to come to Atlanta, local leasing executives say. Outsiders often view this market's consumers as less trend-savvy, less stylish and less willing to spend on these kinds of goods.

That perception appears to be changing, however, as evidenced by recent entrants to Buckhead's Phipps Plaza: Jimmy Choo, a shoe store for the very well-heeled; Barney's New York CO-OP, a fashion-forward boutique; and department store star Nordstrom. Bloomingdale's arrived in 2003, after years of courting.

H&M's merchandise appeals to a customer who shops in these pricey places but doesn't want to pay big bucks for, say, a camisole she'll wear under a $300 jacket. While low-priced chains like Target and Wal-Mart sell such basics, their merchandise is viewed as less cutting-edge, more generic.

"The problem with all the other discount fashion or style sources, like Target, is you pay a low price but you don't want the clothes to identify you as shopping there. With H&M you don't run that risk," Speece said. "The merchandise changes so frequently, you're not going to see your clothes on everyone else. H&M gives back door access to a fashion show."

In-house designing
H&M keeps costs down by designing in-house and dealing directly with manufacturers. Looks can go from the studio to the sales floor in just six weeks. Inventory changes every day — a rarity in the retail industry — giving H&M the ability to cycle in new styles and move products out before trends go stale.

On the strength of this approach, the nearly 60-year-old company has grown to more than 1,100 stores in 22 countries that do sales of about $9.4 billion a year.

Industry experts admit that's impressive, but some question the way H&M goes about adding stores in the United States. They think it's odd the company grows state-by-state — opening in Manhattan and then in Utica, Syracuse, Victor and Hicksville, N.Y. — instead of targeting one major retailing city after another.

"Most national chains don't do that, going into smaller cities with troubled economies," said Steven B. Greenberg of the Greenberg Group, a real estate advisory firm that talked to H&M but didn't end up working on the account.

His company helped other international retailers expand in the United States, and "we went to New York, Miami, L.A., Atlanta and Dallas. Now we're up to San Antonio and San Diego. We have no stores in upstate New York. We're not even in Baltimore yet," he said.

It's an odd strategy, Greenberg said, but one that seems to be working for H&M so far. "H&M is a great company," he said. "They obviously have terrific buzz."

You don't have to tell Kelly Friden that. She shopped H&M in New York, Paris and London before the retailer came to Minneapolis. The day the store opened at Mall of America, she arrived two hours early — and saw a line that stretched down a long hall and "around the corner," she said. "I decided to come back later."

Now Friden, a 34-year-old stay-at-home mom in Minnetonka, is a regular shopper at this H&M.

"It's cheaper stuff, but it's fun," she said, inspecting a sparkly tank top. "It's OK that it probably won't last more than a couple of years."

Emily Foster, in trendy gray trousers, camel-colored heels and a shrunken sweater, made her first visit to H&M last week during a lunch break from work.

"They have newer styles, a lot of things other companies don't have," said Foster, 20. "And it's cheap, but you can't necessarily feel that."

She held up a swingy tweed skirt.

"Are you getting H&M in Atlanta?" she asked. "No? That's too bad."