The African Marketplace Import/Export Emporium in the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza closed out July with its final sale, ending 15 years in operation as a specialty retail center that offered Afrocentric clothing, books and other merchandise to the local community.
"We could have closed three years ago but we were able to get by, and I thought we would be able to move through this year," said James Burks, founder of the African Marketplace Festival and Cultural Faire.
A struggling economy, escalating lease payments, a drop in vendors — all contributed to the store's closure, Burks said.
The boutique was spawned from the cultural faire, a festival held annually during the last two weekends in August and the Labor Day weekend as a way to promote the African American community and the African Diaspora.
With two locations at one point — the other was in the Fox Hills Shopping Mall in Culver City — the emporium served as a business incubator for aspiring black entrepreneurs and vendors. The store at Fox Hills closed about three years ago.
"The [Baldwin Hills] store is being closed because we're struggling to pay the monthly lease," Burks said. "We don't have enough vendors in there (the boutique). We closed the one in Fox Hills three years ago for much of the same reason."
The boutique was one of several projects birthed from the marketplace. Others included the Leimert Park Business Center Co-op, the African American Tourism Hospitality Council of Greater Los Angeles and AfricanAmericanLA.com, and the Global Cinema and Urban Media Initiative program, created as a network of independent black film festivals around the world. So far, the other entities are not being affected, Burks said.
But the cultural faire will not be held this year. There are plans to hold the faire's 25th anniversary kickoff and celebration next year.
When the Baldwin Hills store opened in the 1990s, it was on a month-to-month lease. At one time the place occupied up to 10,000 square feet, which enabled it to accommodate up to 225 vendors throughout the years. But in 2005, the boutique went to a permanent lease and a smaller space, which really set it back, Burks said.
"When we went on the regular lease program, the space size came down from 10,000 square feet to what we have now, which is roughly about 3,300 square feet. We could not take all the vendors to a 3,300-square-feet space," he said.
Burks added that the mall's failure to appeal to more wealthy shoppers was also a contributing factor in the store's closure.
"We also have a mall that's not attracting the people on the hill there in Ladera (Heights) and in Baldwin Hills ... who have the money to spend a lot on the type of things the African Marketplace sells," Burks said. "The mall has changed tremendously in terms of the audience that comes there. So, we were just there so that there was an Afrocentric presence in the mall. If we had closed the store a couple of years ago, I would not be canceling the African Marketplace and Cultural Faire right now."
Earl "Skip" Cooper, president of the Black Business Association, said it's a "shame" that the store is closing.
"It's a fantastic venue but they need support," Cooper said. "That's one of the problems we have as African Americans."
It's imperative during this economic crunch for African American consumers to make a much stronger effort in supporting African American merchants and African businesses, he added.
"Our ministers should be telling their congregations ... that it's important for them to go out and support black businesses during these tough economic times," Cooper said. "We need to go back to the way it was 30, 40, 50 years ago when we could only do business with each other. It's important that we go the extra step to support black businesses."
Chico C. Norwood is a writer for the L.A. Watts Times.
Photos by Marty Cotwright
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