Hispanic Home Furnishings Retailer Plans Anaheim Store
By JENNIFER BELLANTONIO
La Canasta Furnishings Inc., a retailer of furniture, electronics and appliances geared toward Hispanics, plans to open a 23,000-square-foot store in Anaheim on Lemon Street and Orangethorpe Avenue in March.
Frederico Uribe, the Corona-based company’s vice president of sales and marketing, said La Canasta also is scouting out other spots, including in Orange County, for another new store, which the company expects to open sometime this year.
La Canasta opened its first store in Santa Ana about 12 years ago. The company’s second OC store is set for a largely Hispanic area on the Anaheim-Fullerton border next to a Food 4 Less supermarket.
“Hispanics (in the area) have a little bit more money to spend,” he said. “They seem to have higher incomes than other areas.”
The Anaheim store stands to mark La Canasta’s eighth location in Southern California, with most being in the Inland Empire and Los Angeles. Rivals include Los Angeles-based La Popular Furniture Co. and mainstream chains such as Sears.
“We’ve been growing,” Uribe said. “There’s been new chains of stores (that have opened) in the same areas (as our stores) and we haven’t seen our numbers decrease.”
One reason, according to Uribe: “There’s definitely more and more Hispanics.”
The U.S. Census Bureau confirmed that observation last year with its 2000 population figures. Orange County, which already counted a sizable Hispanic population, saw a 55% gain in Hispanics in the past decade to 875,579 people, or about a third of the county’s total population.
La Canasta markets its stores by running print and broadcast advertising in Spanish, Uribe said. It also staffs its stores with bilingual salespeople and runs a Web site that can be converted to Spanish or English.
Uribe said customer service is important to Hispanics, who are the main drivers of La Canasta’s growth. Uribe declined to offer sales figures for the chain. Recent arrivals to the U.S. are more comfortable doing business in Spanish, he said.
