I’m sad to report that Penzey’s in Santa Monica closed on November 6. We had taken a trip on the train to pick ups couple of things and found the store absolutely empty. There was a note saying that their Torrance and Anaheim stores will be open foreseeable future.
Oh no! Very sad to hear this…
This is why we can’t have nice things.
Had I known they were closing, I would have stocked up on some things. Sad.
I have to wonder if corporate considered other locations. The Santa Monica location was a hassle to access.
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When they opened their first store in Torrance, Staff said the criteria for placing a store was based on zip codes from their mail order business.
The funny thing is, for me, Penzey’s became more convenient when the Expo Line went all the way to Santa Monica. previous attempts to get there left me very frustrated circling Santa Monica for parking around Christmas time.
Yeah. Parking was torture. Still, going to miss the place.
For a brief period, SM had a Spice Station on Main and Penzey’s on 4th. Sigh.
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I can understand the logic behind their store positioning, but access is so important in LA. The Torrance store is where we go. Why? It’s further away.Getting from our home to their store takes longer, but it’s a relatively easier drive, and the store has a generous parking lot in front.
We only went to the SaMo store when we happened to be in the area AND wanted something from there. I’m guessing a lot of their shoppers approximately fit that profile. Or just order online - which is killing so many brick&mortar businesses for obvious reasons.
Penzy’s could probably reopen in a far more convenient location in a much lower-rent neighborhood in the general Westside and end up doing far better - as long as it’s convenient.
Agreed, a terrible location.
There’s always Spice Station in Silver Lake
“sigh” I do miss the spice station in SM very much…
I would walk to the Santa Monica Penzys after the farmers market Wdnesday or Saturday. Torrance or Silver Lake really is just too far. I guess William Sonoma. Their jars are quite large.
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It seems you can buy the same spices online: Spices | Penzeys
The internet probably has a lot to do with why this store closed. That said, I did like going there.
This was an interesting read. How does a spice shop have that much money to spend on Facebook ads?
For those behind a firewall. Penzey’s spent $92,000 last week on impeachment related ads on Facebook.
The week after Donald Trump was elected the forty-fifth President of the United States, Bill Penzey sent an e-mail to a few thousand people. “The open embrace of racism by the Republican Party in this election is now unleashing a wave of ugliness unseen in this country for decades,” he wrote. “The American people are taking notice. Let’s commit to giving the people a better choice.” The recipients weren’t friends or colleagues or the fellow-members of an activist group. They were customers …
In a letter addressed to “America’s CEOs” posted to his Facebook page that December, [Bill] Penzey wrote that, in the two weeks following his post-election e-mail, the “right wing firestorm” cost the company three per cent of its customers—but that online sales rose nearly sixty per cent in the same period, and gift-box sales increased by more than double that.
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They do a crazy mail order business. Even 10 years ago when I called them so I could get 200 small size spices as wedding favors sent to two different locations, they handled the whole thing like pros…
That and Bill kinda gets on these things, Those of us who are long time customer remember when Bill railed against salt…
–Dommy!
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There is a Penzey’s in Anaheim that opened a couple of years ago.