Shoes and boxes litter the floor, making it virtually impossible
to take a step without trampling a pair of Reeboks, All Stars or
flip-flops.
Throughout the Copeland Sports section of the UCLA Store, dozens
of students crowd around the 75-percent-off signs in a chaotic mix
of grabbing shoes, flinging boxes and squeezing past the long lines
to the register.
The chaos is due to the Copeland Sports closing sale, which
began Tuesday and has been attracting large crowds.
The Copeland Sports athletic goods store, which has been
operating for four years, is to leave its UCLA location when its
lease expires on April 30, said Richard Delia, chief financial
officer of Associated Students UCLA.
“Copeland is leaving for two reasons. They decided that
their sales levels at UCLA were not achieving what they needed to
be profitable. Secondly, the model for their stores has changed to
a larger square-footing,” Delia said.
The UCLA division of Copeland Sports is 4,400 square feet, much
smaller than the 20,000 to 30,000 square-foot department stores
Copeland desires.
Several students have expressed regret over the retailer’s
departure because some believe there are few conveniently located
athletics stores near the UCLA campus.
“Copeland is the place to buy stuff you need without
having to go to Foot Locker or something off campus,” said
Shannon Acklin, a first-year chemical engineering student.
Jackie Waldman, a third-year English student, knows several
friends who would be disappointed about the store leaving.
“One of my friends is on a club sports team, and she comes
here to get her sporting goods a lot,” Waldman said.
The ASUCLA Board of Directors is negotiating a new lease with a
prospective tenant to replace Copeland Sports.
Though he declined to identify the prospective tenant, Delia
said the replacement store will also sell shoes as its primary
merchandise.
“Probably 80 percent of the merchandise sold at Copeland
is shoes, so we want the shoes retail to still be provided to
students,” he said.
Delia estimated that the gap between the retailer’s
departure and the new tenant’s opening will be three to four
weeks. ASUCLA plans to recarpet the area during the lag time.
The prospective tenant also will have to put in new wall
fixtures and transfer its merchandise into the UCLA Store.
Some students who do not usually shop at Copeland are optimistic
about the prospect of a new athletics and shoe store.
Ron Chanou, a second-year biology student, said he does not
regularly shop at Copeland and would not be significantly affected
by its departure.
“I’ll be a little sad when Copeland leaves, but not
if they replace it with something better, like another sports
store,” Chanou said.
Other students are skeptical about the new shoe store. Acklin,
who has purchased several items at Copeland, is uncertain about the
quality of the replacement.
“It will all depend on what kind of store the new one
is,” she said. “If it’s Foot Locker or something,
that will be good, but not if it’s Payless.”