Overview:
The shopping district's appeal goes beyond being in one of the country's wealthiest enclaves. It's also because it's deemed safe and clean, one expert says.
Montecito’s Coast Village Road isn’t all that long — about a mile of shops, restaurants and services. But when it comes to shopping, its appeal is far and wide.
The posh retail row draws from “all of Santa Barbara, all the way to Goleta,” said Austin Herlihy, executive vice president of Colliers, an investment and property firm. “Coast Village Road is unique.”
As the holiday shopping rush nears its end, retailers along the road are touting their success. The road has few, if any, retail vacancies and business and appears to be booming, a contrast to the challenges that face the county’s traditional shopping hub, Santa Barbara’s State Street.
The boom comes amid holiday shopping data that shows what’s been called the K-shaped economy. The wealthy have continued to spend for gifts and holiday fare while those with less money are pinching pennies.
It certainly seems possible out on Coast Village Road, a busy thoroughfare through one of the nation’s wealthiest communities.
At $222,966, the median income in Montecito is more than twice that California’s as a whole, according to the U.S. Census. Forbes reported the median home sales price in Montecito rose to $5.4 million last year as new arrivals vied for the chance to live up or down the street from the likes of Oprah Winfrey or Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
Reflecting Montecito’s wealth, Coast Village Road has not only markets, wine stores and other necessities of modern living, but also no shortage of banks, brokerages and real estate offices. Yet it’s not just the affluent who shop there.
Herlihy believes what sets the road apart from State Street and gives it wide appeal is a perception of safety, including “the cleanliness and absence of homeless,” he said. That’s a contrast to State Street in Santa Barbara, which is studded with empty storefronts, particular at its north end. It can feel unsafe. “My wife and her friends don’t like going to State Street at night,” he said.
At Toy Crazy, a playthings emporium in the Montecito Country Mart, Assistant Manager Ethan Hicks said it’s been a busy but bountiful holiday season as shoppers have come in to snap up many of the historically popular items, but lesser-known ones like a Spiderman-like device that whips out a coil of string or newfangled board games.
“We get a lot of high-end clientele,” Hicks said. But he added it also includes a lot of “regular folks” and the occasional celebrity. The famous can generally feel comfortable ambling along Coast Village Road without being harassed. “People here don’t really care about celebrities,” he explained.
Other retailers in the shopping center, anchored by a Pavilions supermarket, also talk about friendly, neighborhood feeling.
“It’s a small community,” said Jennifer Williams, manager of the Emily Joubert boutique. “We see a lot of the same people come in.”
Some stop by to browse or say hello while dropping off their dry cleaning nearby or picking up a few items at the supermarket
It helps, Williams said, that her store carries a wide variety of gift and personal merchandise, from a $6 square of “salted crispies” to a $4,800 wooden European deer head mounted on a wall. As a result, she said business has been great this year, higher than last season.
Over at the Poppy Marché baby-clothes store, generous customers had donated a raft of toys and other new items as part a Giving Tree holiday donation drive. People picked a tag off a tree than bought an item that matched the description. A batch of gifts had just been delivered to the Unity Shoppe, a food distribution center in Santa Barbara, to give to the needy.
Manager Alex Carrillo said the customer base at her store has included not only the regulars, but those who lost their homes in the Pacific Palisades wildfire and have since moved north. She talked of the warmth that goes with retailing at her store.
“I have customers who come in just to hug me,” she said.
