Conran’s Habitat to Close Its L.A. Stores : Retail: Slow sales and high long-haul trucking costs left the trendy home furnishing stores an endangered species.

Conran’s Habitat, which sells stylish home-assembly furniture popular among yuppies, will close its three Los Angeles area stores, becoming the latest victim of the Southland’s home furnishings sales slump.

The company--based in White Plains, N.Y., and controlled by the New York City-based Marvin Traub Group--will shut down its West Coast operations by closing its stores in Los Angeles, Brea and Burbank.

The Los Angeles Beverly Center store, which opened in 1989, will close Aug. 1. The Brea store, which opened in 1992, will close on Jan. 31, 1994, and the Burbank store will close in mid-1994, about two years after its opening. About 30 jobs at the three stores will be eliminated as a result.

Conran’s decided to close the Los Angeles stores because sales were not strong enough to offset the high operating costs, said Helaine Suval, executive vice president of Conran’s.

“We had difficulty moving merchandise across the country . . . because trucking costs are extraordinarily expensive,” Suval said. “Also, our sales were consistent with furniture sales in California--disappointing.”

When the Beverly Center store opened in 1989, Conran’s--which was enjoying strong sales on the East Coast--was owned by British retail giant Storehouse. The company, founded in London in 1964 by Sir Terence Conran, made its mark by selling moderately priced “lifestyle” furniture--European-inspired furnishings known for clean, symmetrical lines and black or monochrome color schemes. It also sells other household items such as lamps, cookware, china, linens and towels.

However, furniture store sales in Los Angeles had begun falling by the time Storehouse sold its 20-store U.S. operations to the Marvin Traub Group in December.

The lingering economic slump in California has created special hardships for Southland furniture retailers. A number of furniture chains have closed or retreated to Bankruptcy Court in recent years, including Barker Bros., RB Furniture, Ortho Mattress, W.J. Sloan, Furnishings 2000 and Stylus. Ortho and Stylus have recently emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

By closing its West Coast stores, Conran’s said, it will be able to concentrate more on marketing operations along the East Coast. The company--which has 17 stores in Eastern cities--will soon open a store in Boston and another in Greenwich, Conn., and is negotiating for two more Eastern sites.