The Beach on Second Street store has closed its doors after 15 years in the Belmont Shore neighborhood of Long Beach.
The store closure was announced on the store’s website and officially closed its doors on Monday, June 19.
Within a couple of days, the store was completely empty with nothing more than a sign on the door to notify passersby that the store had closed.
The Beach on Second Street store was a part of the 49er Shops at the Beach family of stores, which includes the University Bookstore, the Art Store, the Nugget, the Outpost, the Caffeine Lab and residential dining. Before it closed, the Beach on Second Street store was the only off-campus store run by 49er Shops.
Rosa Hernandez, the Associate Executive Director of Administration for the 49er Shops, says that the non-profit group made the decision to close the auxiliary store to prioritize their focus back to campus.
“The pandemic really forced us to reevaluate our business models and to rethink what is really important to us, which is our campus and our students,” Hernandez said.
Hernandez also said that the store had been open for limited hours with limited staff, so when the decision was made by the 49er Shops Board of Directors and other leadership teams to close the outlet, all staff transitioned to the University Bookstore.
“No jobs were impacted by this closure,” Hernandez said.
Annie San Pedro, owner of LB Swag, the store next door to the former 49er Shops auxiliary, said she was surprised to see the store closed.
“It all happened in one day, it was very fast,” San Pedro said. “I’m really bummed they’re gone.”
San Pedro’s shop isn’t related to the 49er Shops store in any way, but since they are similarly themed, she’s worried that the store closing will take away some of her foot traffic.
Steve Mangold opened Shore Business Center about three years ago just down from the 49er Shops storefront. He also just had a daughter graduate from the university, so Mangold had been to the 49er Shops stores on campus as well as the auxiliary store near his business.
“We’d gone over there [Beach on Second Street] about seven or eight times since we’ve been here,” Mangold said. “It’s a nice store, nice people, but nothing unique.”
The Beach on Second Street store originally opened its doors on Dec. 1, 2007. In order to draw a large crowd, the store opening was on the same day as the Belmont Shore Holiday Parade, in order to draw holiday shoppers.
The shop was opened because CSULB Alumni had been proposing an off-campus store for several years. The purpose of the store was to provide school items, like clothing and sporting event tickets, for people who didn’t want to go all the way to campus, and it also served as a way to increase CSULB visibility throughout the Long Beach Community.