By Roxana Popescu | The San Diego Union-Tribune
PIRCH, the Oceanside-based purveyor of high-end appliances, has abruptly paused operations, according to an email sent to employees Wednesday.
“Based on the current business conditions we are experiencing, we are going to pause operations in our showrooms and distribution centers beginning tomorrow as we chart the best path forward.
“This means the showrooms and distribution centers will be closed starting Wednesday 3/20/2024. No employees should be scheduled in either distribution centers or the showrooms until further notice. Non-exempt employees may use available PTO to fill in hours that will not be worked for the remainder of the week,” Jan Sangl, PIRCH’s chief human resources officer, wrote in the email, which was shown to the Union-Tribune.
In all, there are six Pirch showrooms scattered throughout Southern California, including stores in Mission Viejo, Costa Mesa, Glendale, Rancho Mirage and two in San Diego County. All are temporarily closed.
Gene Hodges, Pirch’s vice president for Marketing and Corporate Communications, sent a statement to the Union-Tribune in response to an interview request.
“As of Wednesday March 20th, PIRCH is temporarily closing all our showrooms through this weekend. This is a pause of business to give management the opportunity to complete a go-forward plan. We are navigating through various options. We take this situation very seriously and are working diligently to resolve it. We appreciate your patience while we work to find a path forward. We intend to share the go forward plans sometime next week.”
The statement was also posted Thursday on PIRCH’s Facebook pages.
Immersive luxury retail
The company opened in 2009, a year into the global recession and housing market downturn.
While other home and garden brands struggled — that same year, Home Depot and Z Gallerie shuttered some stores and Smith & Hawken shut down — PIRCH stood out for its luxury goods and experience to match. Instead of the hard sell, customers were greeted with handcrafted espresso drinks and an invitation to test its merchandise in the stores.
Its showrooms presented kitchens and bathroom “vignettes” that seemed plucked out of magazines, offering a lifestyle blueprint for shoppers who clinched a home in the right zip code and still had the means for upgrades. Over the years, it sold everything from freestanding pizza ovens to digital grills to a handmade statement oven that cost as much as a year of tuition at a private college.
But after expanding across the U.S. from its first showroom in San Diego, in 2017 it restructured and closed most of its stores.
“Pirch has made the strategic decision to refocus its footprint and pace of expansion,” it said in a statement then published by the Chicago Tribune. “Our California stores are performing well and profitable, and we remain focused on growth in this region.”
Challenging landscape
More recently, the tough retail landscape that has consumers increasingly pulling back and trading down has produced mixed results for kitchen and bath retailers, said Marshal Cohen, the chief retail analyst with market research company Circana.
One reason is saturation: If people renovated during the COVID-19 pandemic, they’re done.
“The kitchen industry hasn’t convinced us we need a new mixer every two years,” he said.
That’s even more the case for high-end products, he said: “When you buy a $5,000, $10,000 range, it’s going to last, probably, in most cases, almost a lifetime.”
Another factor could be at play, he added. Home sales have slowed, leaving fewer home buyers sketching out their dream kitchens.
“Now we’ve got to wait for the home sector to rebound, before the kitchen sector rebounds, and appliances — particularly high end, premium appliances — rebound,” he said.
A report published this moth by Frontdoor, an app that connects homeowners and repair professionals, analyzed the cost of home renovations.In San Diego, a kitchen remodel costs just over $29,000. The most expensive city for this kind of project was Chicago, at $33,944. The least expensive room to redo, across 10 sample cities including San Diego, is the bedroom.
For customers with existing orders:
This story originally appeared in San Diego Union-Tribune.
