“We decided to close the store after the seven-year contract expired. We signed for a specific price at first and even though we have renegotiated the rent with the owner over the seven years, and it did drop, it was not adjusted to the conditions on the market,” says Denisa Radian, one of the shareholders of Nissa, who started the fashion business with her mother and sister.
The entrepreneur would not say how high the rent was, but as ZF found out, it varies with floor area and position. It can be estimated at EUR50/square meter in Piata Romana on average. Piata Romana is also home to a Stefanel store in a heritage building. Other retailers like Zara and H&M looked for space in the area but eventually did not rent anything due to the lack of large space. Moreover, about 99% of the shopping in Romania is done at the mall, which is why the local market does not actually have a main street as Western countries do.
“A street front store like the one we had in Piata Romana would have only been good for the visibility you get from the people pass through that area in their cars. It wasn’t a profitable store, though.”
Denisa Radian says she wanted a street front store in a central location to serve the customers who usually do not shop at the mall. However, there are no parking spots near the Nissa store in Piata Romana and pedestrian traffic was not enough to keep the store going.
“We saw that those who came to the store were mostly our loyal customers, but even some of them migrated to online or to malls.”
The entrepreneur added that retail space owners in Piata Romana and on Calera Victoriei nearby keep rents high, even as high as they were before the crisis at times, which is why she quit looking for a street front space.
“We will open a store in Bucuresti Mall in about a month. We talked with the customers who came to Piata Romana and many of them live in Piata Unirii and Vitan areas, so we’ll open there.”
Nissa no longer has any street front store, after having closed the stores in Brasov and Craiova, for the same reasons as in Bucharest.
In all, Nissa has 14 stores in the major cities of the country and an online store. The Bucuresti Mall store will be its 15th.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)