U Street Retail News: RCKNDY Closes, Match Clothing Arrives

The U Street retail scene saw a couple of significant changes this week--well, "significant" for those who keep track of this sort of thing.

As noted by Prince of Petworth, home furnishings boutique RCKNDY, located at 1515 U Street NW, has closed its doors. A victim of slow sales, rising rents, changing tastes...who knows? But RCKNDY and owner David Dennis will certainly be leaving a rather significant retail hole along the north side of the 1500 block.

Over on the south side, however, clothing boutiques seem to be spouting up like $600 designer belts. PoP also notes that Match Clothing, a new clothing boutique, will be opening soon to the space at 1526 U Street NW.

I'm quite happy to see the local retail scene continuing to do so well, or at least continue to provide paying tenants to fill U Street retail spaces, but I do have to wonder: is the market really that large for upmarket, designer clothing boutiques? Mrs. 14thandyou occasionally pops into one of the shops along 14th Street or U Street, but rarely comes out with anything because the prices for the Clothes are Too Damn High. But maybe that's just us?