Paramount Bootery Closes

Two years ago, the Paramount Bootery shoe store chain was a thriving, six-store concern with outlets in Thousand Oaks, Oxnard, Ventura and Santa Maria.

The company had two stores--Paramount Florsheim and Cobbie Shop--in The Oaks mall in Thousand Oaks. It also had Paramount Booteries in The Esplanade mall in Oxnard, the Buenaventura Mall in Ventura and the Santa Maria Town Center, plus a successful specialty store, the Wide Shoe Shop, in Oxnard.

Then a combination of problems hit Oxnard-based Paramount, which on July 25 closed its stores after 62 years as a Ventura County retailing mainstay. The company was founded in 1930 as an Oxnard department store concession by Paramount co-owner Matt Pavin’s grandfather, Irvin Pavin.

“It wasn’t just the recession, although we might have survived if it hadn’t been for a steep turndown in our business,” said Matt Pavin, 37. In recent months, volume in some of the stores was off as much as 25%, he said. This created a cash-flow problem, making it difficult to maintain the extensive inventories that shoe retailers traditionally must have.

Other factors compounded the troubles, Pavin said. “Some of the malls raised our rents steeply when our leases ran out. Some also demanded that we pay for remodeling our stores.”

On top of all this, Pavin said, traffic patterns changed. “A lot of people are now bypassing the malls and doing most of their shopping at Price Club and other stores that offer deep discounts. Even though these places may not sell shoes, they hurt us. People have just so much money to spend.”

Right now, Pavin and Jack Ross, his cousin and partner, are concentrating on a going-out-of-business sale in rented space at the Wagon Wheel Plaza on Wagon Wheel Road in Oxnard. About half the firm’s 30 employees are still on the payroll, assisting with the sale.

When the merchandise is gone, the employees and the owners will be out of work. Neither of the partners has definite plans, though Pavin said he may seek a job in marketing.

“We gave it our best,” Ross said. “Now it’s time to go on to something else.”