For exactly 100 years, Culver City-based H. Savinar Luggage was a family-run business that sold luggage, briefcases and various paraphernalia – most of that time from a literal brick and mortar store in Los Angeles’ Mid-City neighborhood.

Then, in its centennial year of 2016, the Savinar family sold the store to a long-time employee, Joey Diamond. And since taking over as the new owner, he’s had to steer the venerable luggage store through a pandemic that shut down much of the retail and travel industry for more than a year, as well as ever-increasing challenges from online retail competitors.

Through all this, the company has remained decidedly old-school.

“Our focus is on the customers who come through the doors of my store,” Diamond said. “If someone is looking for a bag and wants to ‘kick the tires’ so to speak, we help them do that with a great selection and service.”

Roots before World War I

That has been the formula for Savinar Luggage ever since Harry Savinar, a Ukrainian immigrant with little money, established the store in downtown Los Angeles in 1916. It was a year before the U.S. entered the First World War.

At the start, Harry Savinar apparently had an eye on making the business a family legacy. His first son, Hyman, was born the same year the business was founded. According to family lore, Harry quickly named the business H. Savinar Luggage so that when Hyman came of age, he could take over the store without having to change its name.

Five years later, Harry Savinar’s second son was born. He was named Harold to keep the store’s H abbreviation intact.

Not much is known today about the first few decades of the business as almost all the Savinar family members with that knowledge have passed on, and there are no detailed written histories of the store.

Skipping forward to the late 1940s, the Savinar family struck a deal to sublease space in new Los Angeles-area stores of the now defunct Ohrbach’s department store chain. Ohrbach’s, which was based in New York, launched a West Coast expansion after World War II. The flagship store was on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile district. The setup apparently worked for Savinar; the sublease deal survived well into the 1970s.

Ohrbach’s then faced its own struggles in the 1970s and 1980s amid a glut of department store chains. By 1987, it shut down all stores nationwide.

The next generation

In the early 1950s, Hyman and Harold Savinar gradually took over the business from their aging father. The sons inherited ownership of the company when Harry died in 1967, with Hyman assuming the role of president.

Somewhere around 1955, the Savinars moved their business into a brick building at 4625 Washington Boulevard in the Mid-City neighborhood of Los Angeles, where it remained right up through 2022.

According to photos from those mid-century years, the store shelves were full of boxy black or brown briefcases – nothing like the multi-colored spinner luggage sets and gear on the shelves today.

San Fernando Valley expansion

In 1986, another longtime employee, Mark Stern, decided to go into partnership with the Savinar family to open a new Savinar store in Canoga Park in the west San Fernando Valley. Stern, who started as a floor salesman at the Mid-City store in 1972, became one-third owner of the new store, with the Savinar family retaining two-thirds ownership.

“The store was technically under majority control of the Savinar family, but they let me run the store,” Stern said.

Not wanting to mess with a successful formula, Stern kept the store format virtually identical to the Mid-City Savinar location. Even when Stern became 100% owner decades later, he kept the Savinar name.

“You ask anyone over 50 in L.A., and half will say either they personally or someone they knew shopped at Savinar, so it made no sense to change the name,” he said.

Both stores carry recognized brands in the luggage industry, including Samsonite, Travelpro, Briggs & Riley and Tumi.

Transitioning out of business

In 2003, Hyman Savinar, the eldest son, died. That milestone began a 15-year transition period that resulted in the Savinar family completely exiting the business.

Seven years later, in 2010, Lewis Savinar, Hyman’s son, died unexpectedly at age 61. That’s when Diamond stepped up and started running the day-to-day operations of the Mid-City store.

Diamond said he immediately set about making a significant change in the business model.

“I decided that Savinar would become the authorized repair shop for all the manufacturers whose products we sell,” Diamond said. Until then, he said a bag had to be sent back to the manufacturer when it needed repair.

The repair policy was also extended to bags that were not bought at Savinar, including those sold through online retailers.

While repair work could be labor intensive, he said the move brought multiple benefits. Not only did it keep current customers satisfied, but it also brought in new customers. People who bought bags at other stores or through other online channels like Amazon.com would bring their bags in for repair, instead of mailing the bulky suitcases back to the manufacturer.

While in the store, Diamond said people would often discover Savinar’s other products. Many would eventually become repeat Savinar customers.

In 2016 – the store’s centennial year – Hyman’s younger brother Harold, who was then 94, decided to give up any ownership stake in both the Mid-City and Canoga Park stores. With no one else in the Savinar family willing to take up the mantle, the decision was made to sell the stores.

Diamond purchased the Mid-City store, while Stern assumed 100% ownership of the Canoga Park store.

New challenges

Diamond said that as owner, he had little time to enjoy his new status. With more luggage sales moving online and the Covid-19 pandemic cutting sharply into in-store sales, Savinar joined the rush – albeit briefly. He started selling merchandise on Amazon.

“Amazon made moving merchandise easy,” he said.

But in 2022, all that changed. Amazon began kicking off third-party retailers and dealing exclusively with the luggage manufacturers. Also, margins were thinner with online sales, since Savinar had to absorb most of the shipping costs.

“I decided at that point it was better to return to in-store sales exclusively,” Diamond said.

The Covid-19 pandemic and its fallout also posed other challenges, including sourcing parts for the repair business and keeping sufficient inventories of luggage on hand.

Making a move

Even though the Savinar family sold the two stores in 2016, they still held onto the real estate. But Diamond said that around 2020, a developer made an offer on the 4625 Washington Boulevard building and the family eventually accepted.

“I rented from this developer for a couple of years,” he said. “But I knew his long-term plan was to redevelop the property, so I began looking elsewhere.”

In 2022, Diamond settled on a location about five miles west along Washington Boulevard, in the heart of Culver City. By early 2023 the store reopened at its new location.

With Savinar now established in Culver City, Diamond said he is focused on sticking with the basics. He noted that over the years, many luggage retailers have gone by the wayside as people turn more to online channels.

“Customer service is our forte,” he said. “That has helped us to survive where these other stores haven’t.”