Brian Carroll

1 week ago | homenewsnow.com | Brian Carroll

In the last column, we dug through some of the 1,200 or so court filings in the Franchise Group bankruptcy to add a few more pushpins to the “crazy wall.” One of the interesting finds was that no fewer than six groups of Buddy’s Home Furnishings stores have made claims of “incurable” defaults of their franchise agreements specific to the noncompete language in those agreements, with most of them filed at the end of January.

1 week ago | homenewsnow.com | Brian Carroll

RH CEO Gary Friedman has often declared that difficult retail climates can end up helping the upscale retailer. The tough sledding winnows out weaker competition, and it tends to reward sound long-term planning. In the case of a tariff war, the reward goes to those with significant pre-tariff inventory, Friedman said during RH’s fourth-quarter earnings call last week, and RH is on solid ground with respect to inventory.

2 weeks ago | homenewsnow.com | Brian Carroll

You might recall that 15 months ago, we used this space to erect a metaphorical pinboard or “murderwall” like those found in procedural crime dramas. Our quest was to find out why Franchise Group would dump Badcock Home Furnishings for nothing more than about $3 million in stock (estimated) just two years after acquiring it for $580 million. How did a once-great, family-owned chain turn into curb fruit?

1 month ago | homenewsnow.com | Brian Carroll

The measles outbreak in Texas got my attention, if for no reason other than the fresh memories of Covid and that horror’s continued haunting. The pandemic’s residues always seem to be hiding behind a fern or secreted in a closet waiting to lurch out and scare the bejeesus out of us. If there is any salve for the social wounds of Covid, it might be the refuge we found in family and in our homes. This is intuitive, because where else were we going to go?

1 month ago | homenewsnow.com | Brian Carroll

In late January, speaking to Therapedic manufacturers at the Las Vegas Market, I presented on how to re-humanize generative AI. My goals were to de-mystify and de-stigmatize this powerful, controversial collaborative tool that is creeping into our work whether we want it to or not.