A class act in Omaha Story By Susan Pyle Dickenson - 01/01/2007
Marilyn Hansen's career as an interior designer and retailer began 36 years ago when she decided to apply her artistic talents in a different area. "I grew up in Spencer, Iowa, singing, acting, even training in opera, but when it came time for college, I asked myself, how can I take this love of music, art and theatre and turn it into a job?" Hansen chose to study interior design at Iowa State ...
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Creative retailers offer multiple channels to reach consumers By Becky Boswell Smith - 12/01/2006
In a year when American consumers faced grim news of a prolonged war in Iraq, escalating conflicts with Iran and North Korea, soaring gas prices, a slowed housing market and a surprising mid-term election, the economy is managing to do very well, thank you. What should have been felling blows to the economy seem to have glanced off the side.
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Reinventing the mill By Susan Pyle Dickenson - 12/01/2006
About 12 miles southeast of downtown Hanover, Deb and Ray Gass just celebrated their very first year as retailers with a holiday open house. Their store, The Stone Mill, is located a few miles north of York County's southern boundary, which is also where Pennsylvania meets Maryland at the Mason-Dixon Line.
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York's link in the Wolf chain By Susan Pyle Dickenson - 12/01/2006
Michael Warren manages the York location of Wolf Furniture, a family-owned retailer that has furnished homes in Central Pennsylvania and Maryland for more than 100 years. The York store opened in 2002 and is the largest home furnishings showroom in York County. Warren estimates accessories account for about 1.
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The woods at the county crossroads By Susan Pyle Dickenson - 12/01/2006
Within York County lies the Greater Hanover region, made up of Pennville, Parkville, Heidelberg Township, Manheim Township, West Manheim Township, Conewago Township and Hanover Borough. The region has a population of about 55,000 residents and is home to the state's seventh largest retail area, known locally as The Golden Mile of stores and restaurants along Eisenhower Drive.
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Flooring and furnishings from a family fixture By Susan Pyle Dickenson - 12/01/2006
Market Street runs from East York to West York, linking the city's Revolutionary past with its present day industrial, agricultural and retailing achievements. Most of the factories and shopping districts lie outside the central downtown area, home to the historic district, narrow one-way streets and limited parking.
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Country Chic in a Connecticut Village Story by Susan Pyle Dickenson - 11/01/2006
Earlier this year, J. Seitz & Company celebrated its 20th year of operation in the town of New Preston, a picturesque Connecticut village at the junction of the East Aspetuck River and Lake Waramaug in Litchfield County. J. Seitz occupies two floors of a renovated 1930s garage in the center of the town that is home to a sophisticated yet adventuresome set of weekenders from the city, second...
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Simple, straight and soft By Susan Pyle Dickenson - 10/01/2006
"One for solitude, two for friendship and three for society," is how Thoreau described the three chairs in his home. "He was speaking about his little home on Walden Pond that he built for under $100," explained Susan Monroe, owner of Ann Arbor's Three Chairs Company. "I just like the simplicity of this idea.
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Beyond middle earth By Susan Pyle Dickenson - 10/01/2006
Elaine Selo and Cynthia Shevel opened the Selo/Shevel Gallery in 1982 when downtown Ann Arbor was changing from a traditional shopping environment with mainstream department stores into the eclectic mix of cafes, specialty shops and entertainment venues that define the area today. "There were no chain stores and many of the small businesses were owned by women with no previous retail experience...
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Goode seasons on Plymouth Road By Susan Pyle Dickenson - 10/01/2006
In 1991, Allan and Cheryl Goode purchased and began renovating a 150-year-old building just outside Ann Arbor in the hamlet of Dixboro. It didn't take long to bring the place to life, an historical compound that included a general store, merchant's residence and a couple of barns. "We took a vacant, rundown property and renovated it, preserving as many of the original assets as possible," Chery...
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Unique, classique and antique By Susan Pyle Dickenson - 10/01/2006
Bay Design Store occupies a point of land formed by the intersection of Division and Detroit Streets on the north end of Ann Arbor's Historic District. Susan Bay is the very organized owner of the building, an attractive, renovated structure that was once a Mercedes-Benz dealership but now is home to her high-end furnishings showroom, office, design studio and warehouse.
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Ann Arbor Story by Janice Chamberlain - 10/01/2006
Ann Arbor, Mich., home to one of the nation's top universities, is also a standout when it comes to spending on home accents products. In fact, Ann Arbor blasts past nearly all of the United States' more than 900 metropolitan areas in expected percentage increases on home accents spending from 2005 to 2010.
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Comfort Food for the Home Story By Susan Pyle - 09/01/2006
In 2001, after 15 years of life as a New Yorker, Judy Olson Dunne decided it was time to give life to the store she'd imagined for so long. Certain that she wanted to stay downtown close to her home in Soho, Dunne inquired about a Tribeca address on West Broadway, off Chambers Street. It was within walking distance of her home and just a few blocks north of the World Trade Center, making it a c...
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The Top 50 Home Accent Retailers 09/07/2006
Home accent sales for the nation’s largest home accent retailers jumped 6.7% last year to reach the $35 billion mark. The Top 50 sold home accents through 33,214 stores and account for a staggering 52% of the entire home accents universe.
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Stores grow with Las Vegas By Cinde W. Ingram - 07/01/2006
Growth in double-digit figures has marked the two years since Craig and Donna Staack opened their first Lane Home Furnishings store in the Henderson area of Las Vegas. That was the couple's plan as they looked at the fast-growing metro area's demographics and selected sites. They also saw double-digit growth in their second dedicated Lane store, which opened in December 2004 in Las Vegas.
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Shopping as entertainment By Cinde W. Ingram - 07/01/2006
Luana Murphy talks about talented friends, set changes and uses the word "evolve" to describe what's happening at her store, LG Gallery — Liberty Glenn, a Las Vegas home accents haven. "I think my best business idea ever was to just continually evolve the store," Murphy said. "We are certainly not what we started out to be and we are not the store that we were five years ago.
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Inspiring upscale nests By Cinde W. Ingram - 07/01/2006
Nest Featherings is a fitting name for the mid- to high-end retail store providing fine furniture and interior design options to feather the nests of Las Vegas area homeowners. Last month, Nest Featherings owner LaRayn Sorenson was overseeing renovations of her 40,000-sq.-ft., two-story freestanding store in preparation for her showroom's reopening event this month.
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Taking home treasures By Cinde W. Ingram - 07/01/2006
Wander through the homelike setting of LVNV the Home Store at the Wynn Las Vegas resort, see icons of the five-star resort hotel available for purchase and expect to find a treasure affordable enough to take home. Those shopper impressions are key to the strategy of Frank Schipano, senior retail buyer, who brought along his experience as a home shopping channel's director of product development...
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Stores optimistic for 2006 By Kay Anderson - 06/01/2006
Retailers selling home accents are looking forward to healthy sales in 2006. More than one-half project higher total store sales this year than in 2005; about one-third say their sales will be even with last year. Only 15% anticipate a sales decline. These projections come on the heels of an only moderately successful 2005.
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Southern charm flows in Birmingham stores Story by Lisa Casinger - 06/01/2006
Birmingham, Ala., nestled between the rolling foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, is home to Talladega Superspeedway, the Birmingham Zoo, Vulcan Park and Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark. Considered a young Southern city, celebrating its 128th anniversary this year, Birmingham has a colorful history.
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