From Louis XV to Louie Louie? Glabman’s Loosens Up Its Line
Taking aim at the growing number of youthful millionaires, especially in Orange County, Glabman’s Furniture is shoving aside some of its more formal Louis XV furniture to make room for more casual styles.
Instead of looking for frou-frou options with curved legs and carved backs, today’s rich, young couples want furniture they can prop their feet on, stuff with “straighter, cleaner lines,” co-owner Jim Glabman said.
“This seems to be what the client base is asking for today,” he said. “Particularly in Orange County, there’s an awful lot of money in the tech industry. There are younger millionaires than there used to be, so actually our client base is changing.”
Though the company is scaling back its Louis XV-style offerings, it’s still no place for bargain hunters. This is a store where sofas go for $3,500 to $16,000, dining room sets cost about $50,000 and chandeliers range from $5,000 to $100,000. Still, if you can scrape together $2,500, you could pick up a lamp.
“We’re dealing with the upper 3 to 5% of the income bracket,” Glabman said.
The family-run business, started 100 years ago in Chicago by grandfather Morris and great-uncle Isadore Glabman, moved to Los Angeles in 1948.
But it was in Orange County that Glabman’s struck gold, selling in an area where homes sprouted like mushrooms and salaries began to shoot skyward.
Today, the 40,000-square-foot Costa Mesa store accounts for 40% of the company’s overall business, Glabman said. The other stores are in Pasadena, Woodland Hills and West Los Angeles. He declined to divulge sales figures.
Maintaining high-end products makes it tough to expand. So the company has grown by adding product lines, including patio furniture and a casual “country department.”
Its newest edition will be a 5,000-square-foot antique department, which will debut in the Costa Mesa store May 1.
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Leslie Earnest covers retail businesses for The Times. She can be reached at (714) 966-7832 and at leslie.earnest@latimes.com.