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6 days ago | 
businessofhome.com | Warren Shoulberg
Less than two months from the opening of its first store, Perigold is coming down the home stretch in developing a physical representation of its online shopping experience. The debut location is set to open in Houston in June; that will be followed by a second outpost in West Palm Beach, slated to open this fall.
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1 week ago | 
giftsanddec.com | Warren Shoulberg
The old saying about “everything that’s old is new again” is going to have to be updated. I’m thinking maybe “everything that’s old is good again.”While the average consumer loves new stuff, increasingly they have more interest in what’s old too. I’m not talking used, second-hand, gently repurposed or any of the other euphemisms floating around there these days. This is about vintage and the ever-growing number of retailers that are mixing in some of this merchandise into their assortments.
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2 weeks ago | 
businessofhome.com | Warren Shoulberg
This is a rotten week to be in the furniture business. And coming just two weeks before the industry gets together in High Point, North Carolina, for Spring Market, the timing could not have been worse.
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3 weeks ago | 
therobinreport.com | Warren Shoulberg
It was supposed to be about toasters and towels. But instead, it was all about just one thing: U.S. import tariffs. At two recent major national trade shows for the $60 billion housewares and $30 billion home textiles industries, the activities are typically about the buying and selling of home products that are destined for retail stores and websites later in the year.
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3 weeks ago | 
businessofhome.com | Warren Shoulberg
With the passing of George Foreman last week, it’s an appropriate moment to reflect on the role branding plays in home products—and how sometimes the most outrageous choice turns out to be a winner, while far more obvious marketing partnerships fall flat.
George Foreman is known to sports fans as a two-time heavyweight world champion with a vicious knockout punch who took on some of the best boxers of his generation, including Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier.
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1 month ago | 
hometextilestoday.com | Warren Shoulberg
If any store is in retail purgatory it has to be the Macy’s Union Square location in San Francisco. Once a brand flagship, it is now scheduled to be shut – but without an actual closing date. We figured we’d pay a visit before the end to see just how far a once-mighty store had fallen. The GoodWith windows facing the park how nice it is to see natural light inside a store – and with chairs too for shoppers to sit in when they want to take a break. So many downtown stores could do this… but don’t.
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1 month ago | 
businessofhome.com | Warren Shoulberg
Over the past week, Canadian department store giant Hudson’s Bay Company filed for creditor protection (the country’s equivalent of bankruptcy) and announced plans to liquidate its 80 stores and lay off more than 9,000 employees. Unless a white-knight investor swoops in unexpectedly, Hudson’s Bay will be added to the surprisingly long list of Canadian retail brands that have closed, collapsed and gone out of business over the past decade.
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1 month ago | 
therobinreport.com | Warren Shoulberg
They say you shouldn’t dwell in the past. Apparently, Brian Cornell didn’t get the memo. In its latest mea culpa on why its business is not so terrific, Cornell once more fantasized about getting Target’s mojo back and returning to the days of yesteryear when it was everybody’s darling. That was the heyday of its fabled “Tarjay” persona, epitomizing cheap chic to the max… or the minimum…or whatever. But listen up: The last thing Target should do is get back to being Tarjay.
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1 month ago | 
giftsanddec.com | Warren Shoulberg
There’s a great urban legend about the then-head of the U.S. Patent Office in the late 19th century, Charles Holland Duell, infamously proclaiming that “Everything that can be invented has been invented.” It made for quite an auspicious prediction – even as years later when researchers confirmed he never said such a thing and, in fact, was pretty high on future inventions.
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1 month ago | 
hometextilestoday.com | Warren Shoulberg
If you have this haunting feeling that you’ve seen this movie before, you’re not alone. Regardless of your politics, if you’re in the business of dealing with products for your company that come from foreign suppliers you have to be saying, “Oh no, not this again.”As this is being written shortly before the home textiles industry gathers in New York for its spring market week, the situation of tariffs on imports can change from one day to the next.
