Dec. 23, 2002 – The Main Street mix of shopping attractions has been moving in an upscale direction with the addition of several boutiques and stores whose names and lines of merchandise are internationally known.
Little Switzerland, now owned by Tiffany & Co., has five boutiques under its umbrella alone that have opened their doors to Main Street shoppers. Lalique, Tiffany & Co., Coach, Baccarat and Lladro all are operated by the same parent company as Little Switzerland.
And Monday saw the first day of business for the Crystal Shoppe's new boutique in A.H. Riise Mall — the third location to be opened on Main Street. The others are at No. 1 Main Street and in the Camille Pissarro Building across from Royal Dane Mall.
The boutique, owned by Dick and Ingrid Puig and their daughter Selwyn, carries Waterford crystal, Swarovski crystal and jewelry, and fine china.
"It's giving us the opportunity to expand our lines," boutique manager Barbara Briggs said of the new location. "We hope we're well-received by our St. Thomas visitors and our local residents and that we have a successful season."
The Lalique crystal shop opened in April but celebrated its grand opening on Dec. 4 along with the Tiffany jewelry and Coach leather goods stores. Just over a year ago, Little Switzerland opened the separate Lladro porcelain figure and Baccarat crystal boutiques.
"We had space that we had acquired, and we felt that the best use of the space would be to bring in these prestigious names that cruise customers would readily recognize," Little Switzerland's president, Robert Baumgardner, said.
Coach and Tiffany are publicly traded companies with stores all over the United States. Lalique is a private company out of Paris.
Baumgardner said that 65 percent of the boutiques' customers are cruise ship passengers, 30 percent are hotel visitors and the rest are local shoppers. "We are doing quite well this year," he said. "Business is good."
Longchamps, also a leather goods shop, is another recent upscale Main Street addition — the store opened its doors Oct. 21. It is owned by but run separately from Tropicana Perfume Shoppe Inc.
"We felt there was a need for leather goods; so, when the Legislature passed the law making these articles duty-free, we thought we'd bring the line in to add some diversity to Main Street," said Irene Lymon, president of Tropicana Perfume and Longchamps.
Longchamps customers are equally divided among cruise ship visitors, hotel guests and locals, Lymon said. "The local people have embraced it in a very positive manner," she said. "The Longchamps products are affordable, yet are of excellent quality."
Another relatively new entry on the Main Street shopping scene is the David Yurman shop located in the A.H. Riise Mall. The jewelry shop, which opened last season, is affiliated with Jewels, another Riise's Mall jewelry store.
"They just decided to give it its own identity," store manager Pam Benedetto said of David Yurman branching out from Jewels.
Benedetto said doing business on Main Street has its advantages, the flow of tourist traffic being the main one.
Joe Aubain, St. Thomas-St. John Chamber of Commerce executive director, said he thinks the growth of upscale, internationally known stores is good for the territory "because it adds to the products we have to offer, especially with those recognized names."
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