Coach plans to open store in Miller Hill Mall in Duluth

Upscale luxury shopping is coming to Miller Hill Mall.

Coach Inc., a leading maker of handcrafted handbags and other accessories, plans to open a store at Miller Hill Mall this summer, according to Katie

Altrichter, the mall’s general manager.

The new store will open in mid- to late summer in the mall’s Fountain Court, in the 2,000-square-foot space currently occupied by Motherhood Maternity. That shop will relocate in late March to a space across from Ulta Beauty, Altrichter said.

Coach is considered a pre-eminent luxury handbag retailer in the country, with its purses typically selling for a few hundred dollars. It also sells luggage, briefcases, wallets and other accessories for men and women.

The new store will carry a full line of men’s and women’s accessories with the exact line-up yet to be determined, Altrichter said. Plans for a Coach store at the mall have been in the works about a year, Altrichter said.

The store won’t be the company’s first presence at Miller Hill Mall. In October, Younkers opened a Coach boutique at its mall store in response to customer requests.

“It’s been fantastic,” said Younkers store manager Bryan Brown. “It exceeded all our expectations. It’s high quality, a great product that’s become very fashionable. It’s been a big win for our store and for Coach. And now a lot more customers will be exposed to one of the hottest products around.”

Brown said he’s not worried about the competition.

“Competition is good,” he said. “It’ll only help. Coach is hot, and we’re doing really great. Everyone who walks through the mall walks through our store. I’m confident that in the end, we’ll get our share through our deals and the service we offer.”

Based in New York, Coach has more than 500 stores in the United States and Canada and boutiques in several hundred department stores. Its six other stores in Minnesota are in the Twin Cities area.

Andrea Resnick, a Coach spokeswoman in New York, declined comment on the company’s plans for a Duluth store, saying they don’t confirm store openings until it’s been publicly announced on their website.

As of Monday, it had not yet been announced.

Tags: news, business, duluth