Bye Jhonny: Nob Hill boutique to close
Owner blames shift to online shopping
Changing consumer behavior is about to deal Nob Hill another blow.
Hey Jhonny, one of the neighborhood’s signature boutiques, will close next month after more than 20 years.
Nob Hill has seen a number of deeply rooted local retailers fold in recent years, including the A Store, Elsa Ross and Papers!
Hey Jhonny owner Tom Ford said brick-and-mortar stores are hard-pressed to compete in an online world in which even his suppliers sell through their own websites.
The digital shift has been felt at retailers as large as Macy’s and as small as the local mom-and-pops.
“I’d say for the past four or five years (business has) been dropping, and this past year was the biggest, for us and for the Nob Hill neighborhood,” said Ford, noting that Central Avenue was mostly empty even during the peak of the recent holiday season.
U.S. Census Bureau data shows that e-commerce represents an ever-growing portion of all retail spending, accounting for 8.4 percent of total retail sales in the third quarter of 2016.
Ford said he had considered closing his lifestyle store for some time but waited to take stock after the holidays. He said sales dropped 12.5 percent from 2015 to 2016.
While many businesses have bemoaned the city’s Albuquerque Rapid Transit project — which will run through Nob Hill along Central Avenue — Ford did not blame the project’s construction for Hey Jhonny’s struggles, though he said it might have scared shoppers away from an already-ailing retail scene.
“The downward trend in Nob Hill has been going on for several years now, and I think it’s just the last thing we needed,” he said.
Jean Bernstein, who owns the Flying Star restaurant next door to Hey Jhonny, said she has watched Nob Hill morph several times in the last 45 years. She is not a fan of the current incarnation, which has seen many vacant boutiques repurposed for restaurants, breweries or bars.
The mounting retail losses have hurt Flying Star because fewer people come just to wander and browse, she added.
“I don’t think (the present mix is) healthy, but I don’t know what the actual answer is,” Bernstein said.
She suggested that Nob Hill leaders embrace what has naturally occurred and fully rebrand itself as a “dining and entertainment district.”
Ford, who started Hey Jhonny in 1996 with his late partner Carl Latino, has a sense of accomplishment as he prepares to shut down.
“All in all, we’ve had a really great run. We had great response and a great reputation nationally. I can only look at the good side of it,” he said. “Change happens, and now I need to reinvent myself.”
Hey Jhonny will start discounts on Saturday and is set to close for good on Feb. 18. The 1,200-square-foot store is located in the heart of Nob Hill, at 3418 Central SE.