Los Angeles’ retail scene has long offered a tale of two cities. While some districts boast blocks of luxury boutiques frequented by the rich and famous, others are known for their quirky vibe aligned with California’s laid-back reputation.

As e-commerce and changing spending patterns have cut into retailers’ bottom lines, the city’s retail landscape has changed. It’s still a tale of two cities, but now the dividing line comes down to customers: who gets them, who doesn’t and why.

The divide between the haves and have-nots is growing more extreme as economic and social factors play out following the pandemic.

“Retail in general has definitely slowed down a little bit, in terms of leasing activity specifically,” KWP Vice President Jaysen Chiaramonte said. “With that said, there are specific streets throughout the city that have remained very, very strong and continue to get stronger.”

On the flip side, there are areas that once drew shoppers in droves but are now increasingly desolate.

Larchmont’s main drag and the section of Fairfax around Canter’s Deli offer perhaps the starkest contrast.

Near wealthy Hancock Park, the core of Larchmont Village – a blocklong stretch between First and Beverly streets – has just a 0.4% vacancy rate, according to CBRE research.

The street, with wide, tree-lined sidewalks and plentiful outdoor dining offerings, is home to local favorites like independent bookstore Chevalier’s Books and LA-based stationery store Shorthand as well as Australian apparel store Flannel and a shop from beauty brand Malin + Goetz.

“Safety and security is a big thing,” CBRE First Vice President Ryan Gurman said, about a common thread running through the city’s most desirable areas for brick-and-mortar shops.

In Larchmont, moms push children in strollers, seemingly unattended children roller skate on the sidewalk and people leave their hazard lights on in the median to dash into stores for quick pickups. The small storefronts, shaded canopy and free-range kids make the area seem almost of another time.

“Larchmont is an area of the city that's in its heyday,” Chiaramonte said.

Owners are making some very modern investments in the area, though. In 2018, real estate investment firm Christina bought a 14-storefront retail property and hired Gensler to reinvigorate it. As Christina Chief Investment Officer Adam Rosenkranz sees it, the smaller scale of the storefronts is something that retailers are interested in.

Rosenkranz credits tenants more than his firm for the success of their stores, noting that those in the Larchmont Mercantile have all gone to great lengths and likely great expense to build out their stores in a way that creates a special experience for shoppers who enter.

“People yearn for interaction, and they like these experiential interactions that you can have in a store with the brand,” Rosenkranz said.

“We don't choose the tenants as much as the tenants choose us,” Rosenkranz said. “We try and create a canvas that is going to be desirable for a broad base of tenancies that are ultimately going to fit within what the community wants.”

The synergy between tenants, which he described as co-tenancy, as well as plentiful places to park, contribute to its success. In other words, retailers feed off each other’s success.

Whether it’s self-selection by tenants or the invisible hand of a broker and landlord, getting the right mix of soft goods, food, restaurants and other retailers is the rising tide that lifts all retail boats.

“If you have the best curation, you really create a great street with good synergy – a street where the businesses can be successful and piggyback off each other,” Gurman said.

The verdant street of Larchmont, on foliage alone, is a stark contrast to the stretch of Fairfax around Canter’s Deli, a city block once populated by a lively mix of streetwear stores, specialty grocers and the iconic 24-hour deli and adjoining venue.

A one-block section of Fairfax between Rosewood and Oakwood Avenue has a vacancy of 19.5% – well above the city’s overall vacancy rate of 5.8% and in another universe from the essentially nonexistent vacancy on a block in Larchmont.

Rows of shuttered storefronts are interspersed with trendy names like Jon & Vinny’s and Prime Pizza. Graffiti covers roll-up doors and vacant storefronts, and buildings bear “for rent” signs, sometimes three to a building. A metal roll-up door to one storefront was visibly crumpled, the result of a car hitting it on purpose, a neighboring business owner told Bisnow .

Fairfax was, for years, synonymous with streetwear – a nationally known spot for buzzy clothing companies to do pop-ups or open up a brick-and-mortar.

Fairfax’s vibe was always a little edgier, Gurman said. But it seems that maybe that edge is no longer what shoppers are looking for.

“We are seeing major transitions on Fairfax,” Chiaramonte said.

The Supreme streetwear outpost, a major draw and huge boost to the area that was often responsible for long lines blocking the sidewalk, decamped to Sunset Boulevard in 2023. When The Hundreds closed its Fairfax store in February, at least one fashion website proclaimed the end of an era , one that served as a significant boost to the reputation and, likely, occupancy on Fairfax.

Though the street still has trendy food offerings, not all similar tenants have had success: Chiaramonte pointed to a coffee operator that did not make it more than six months on the street. By and large, the area is seeing tremendous retail vacancies .

The area is still recovering from the worst days of the pandemic, and it’s taking longer than some other streets, Chiaramonte said.

This section of the street was hit by significant amounts of property damage stemming from protests and unrest in 2020.

“Everybody is focused on certain streets, they want to be in certain corridors, and if you're not within those corridors, it's just going to take a little bit more time” to fill space, Gurman said.