Feb. 23, 2021

A Sioux Falls shop selling high-end Italian leather purses has closed its retail storefront on Phillips Avenue.

Luca Papini, owner of Luca: Made in Italy, got out of his lease early after a series of hits to the business, from personal health problems to sales lost amid the pandemic.

“This year was supposed to be the year in which we were supposed to be able to turn around the business, moving (on) from a startup,” Papini said.

Instead, he will move his inventory to a room on the third floor of the 8th & Railroad Center — the same building that housed his first brick-and-mortar location when he opened five years ago. The hope is that customers will be able to shop by appointment, but Papini ultimately is looking to start over with a new business plan.

He’s looking to move toward taking custom orders for companies that might want to order a number of purses with their logo to give as gifts for customers or employees.

Right now, he’s in limbo.

The past year has been a “perfect storm” of challenges, Papini said.

In September 2019, he had surgery after cancer was discovered in his brain. That went well, and he’s recovering, but then COVID-19 hit a few months later. All of a sudden, he saw two-thirds of his customer base dry up.

“Our clientele is composed of three slices of the same pie,” Papini said. “One is Sioux Falls. One is business travel. One is tourism.”

With the pandemic, business travel stopped almost completely, as did tourism.

“My sales were down more than 60 percent from the year before,” he said.

Then, his wife lost her job. The couple, who have two children, were without an income for about eight months, Papini said.

Papini also discovered he needed surgery again after cancer cells were found in his kidney.

At one point, he even considered bankruptcy.

“All options were on the table,” Papini said.

Ultimately, though, things started turning around. He got out of his lease for the space at 311 S. Phillips Ave. His wife found another job, and he found a much more affordable space to store his inventory and keep selling while he figures out the next step.

“The bottom line is that I am reconsidering, completely from scratch, my business plan,” Papini said, “and trying to understand what makes sense and what doesn’t.”