Archives: News
GLM Partners with Whereoware to Create Online Catalog Galleries
White Plains, NY – For the first time, retailers will lead fellow retailers during the Daily Demos at the National Stationery Show (NSS), as select exhibitors team up with one of their retail customers to take participants step-by-step through an interactive demonstration. Presented in partnership with Greetings etc. magazine for the sixth consecutive year, the series of 45-minute Daily Demos will each feature a make-and-take project for attendees of the 2008 market, taking place May 18-21, at New York City’s Jacob K. Javits Convention Center.
GIFT SHOP Magazine Announces Winner of March Retail Forum Giveaway
Hanover, Mass. – GIFT SHOP magazine is happy to announce that Robin Marshall Clark of the online store C’est Papier, is the winner of GIFT SHOP Forum’s March raffle. She wins a video iPod Nano from GIFT SHOP magazine.
The Retail Forum at GIFTSHOPForum.com is GIFT SHOP magazine’s newest online venture and is meant to bring gift store retailers, vendors and other industry professionals together.
For Arteriors Home founder, business and pleasure cross paths
Get Mark Moussa talking about his business, Arteriors Home, and it’s hard to resist a smile. He’s surely one of the few CEOs in history to sport a shaggy, surfer-boy haircut and just-back-from-the-beach tan, talk animatedly about recent Paris flea-market finds, or refer to his job as “my gig.”
Then again, Arteriors isn’t your typical company. Walk into any Crate and Barrel, Pottery Barn, indie home boutique or impeccably chic friend’s well-decorated home, and you’ll likely come across a lamp, side table or unusual objet created by the 21-year-old Dallas-based business.
Pines woman opens Selbyville gift shop
Selbyville — One Ocean Pines woman is hoping to liven up Selbyville’s shopping scene with her shop of gifts and home accents, Whysper.
About a month ago, Ocean Pines’ Beverly Sweitzer opened her shop on Route 113 in Selbyville.
“The whole reason I came to Selbyville is because there’s not much here,” Sweitzer said. “But I think Selbyville’s really going to take off.”
Sweitzer’s shop sells a variety of accessories and home accents, including jewelry, belts, hats, gifts and art.
U.S. Weekly Retail Chain Store Sales up 0.5%, Apparel Spending Depressed
Washington – U.S. retail chains store sales were up 0.5% on a year-over-year basis for the week ending March 29, but fell 0.2% from the previous week extending the prior week’s declining trend, the International Council of Shopping Centers reported Tuesday.
“The year-over-year pace was the weakest reading since April 5, 2003 and reflected considerable consumer worry and cautious spending,” the trade group said.
For the week, early store closures for the Easter holiday put a damper on sales, although the ICSC adjusted for seasonal swings.
Country Home Creations Launches Strawberry Dip
Goodrich, MI – An all-time classic will soon be hitting the shelves of retailers across the country, but this time it’ll be in the shape of new delicious dip. Country Home Creations has mixed the flavors of succulent strawberries with a sweetened vanilla cream to give you the taste you’ve grown to love with their new “Strawberries & Cream Dip Mix.”
“I wanted it to taste like that bowl of strawberries and cream my mom use to give me as a kid.
If the shoe fits
‘Mompreneurs’ supplement family income, balance home life. I didn’t know it before now, but apparently I’m a “mompreneur.”
I work as a freelance writer for various publications from home. By doing this, I get to keep a firm hand in my profession, supplement our family income and balance home life in a way that, for the most part, works for my family.
Until my conversation this week with Calgary shoe designer and mompreneur extraordinaire Jessica Jacobs, I’d never considered myself in this light.
To her, my mompreneur leanings are obvious.
Declarations of Independents
From great to slow to very, very bad, independent retailers provide varying reports of their environments. Regardless of whether they are “giddy” or painting a picture of “gloom and doom,” local retailers all finding that a bottomless well of creativity and continuous niche readjustments are imperative to survival.
Kristin Mastromarino, co-owner of the Organized Lifestyle Store in Guilford, has seen more and more retail businesses in Guilford going out of business. Her store is still in the growth stage. Still, she says, foot traffic has its slow days.
Wynne Home to introduce third area artist
Fred Hulser is not prone to painting images he has not personally seen and experienced for himself.
As an artist who receives inspiration from all aspects of life, Hulser finds his greatest subjects in the unique moments of a constantly changing world.
Hulser, a resident of The Woodlands, is the third area artist to be featured in the Wynne Home Arts Center gift shop.
A reception will take place on Friday from 4-6 p.m.
Linda Taylor store caters to all tastes
Portsmouth — If you like fine clothing and jewelry, personal shopper assistance, parties and patronizing a business that gives back to the community, then check out Linda Taylor on Deer Street, owned and operated by Linda Schuler.
Linda Taylor carries the same designers that Bergdorf’s, Neiman Marcus and Sax Fifth Avenue have, but Schuler says her prices are probably less expensive — and there’s no sales tax.
Schuler also carries lines from European collections that only sell to high-end, specialty stores across the country.
This is not a store for one fashion type, howeve
Credit card scam requires no credit card
Before heading out for a weekend trip to Seattle with his wife, Aaron Reed checked his bank account online.
Puzzled by a credit card authorization from the Lloyd Center shop Things Remembered, Reed walked to the bedroom to ask his wife whether she had bought any jewelry or gifts lately. By the time he returned to his computer, more unusual transactions had popped up: a $15 Broadway cab fare and $270 for five nights in an Econo Lodge Motel.
“It weirded me out because I had my card,” said Reed, 35.
The Cost of Shoplifting
Sarasota, Fla.— Retail theft used to get little attention — and retailers were just fine with that.
Little press meant that potential thieves could not figure out how to steal from them and that the public would not learn that most of the theft was done internally, or that theft is widespread throughout the industry.
But Dan Doyle has spent the past few years talking about it with everyone who would listen: other retailers, law enforcement and even the public.
Carving a place in this world
When Gary Pettus hears young people make excuses for their delinquent behavior, he shakes his head in disgust.
“Many say they grew up in public housing, and they use that as an excuse for getting involved in criminal activity,” he said.
But Pettus, 46, who grew up in Clarksville’s Summit Heights neighborhood, said that’s no excuse. In fact, Pettus has never let the fact that he grew up in public housing stop him from pursuing his dreams.
Pettus is owner of Reddie’s Crafts, a family-inspired business.
SevenArts Local Artisan Gallery opens in Ellsworth
Seven colors in the rainbow. Seven wonders of the ancient world. Seven samurai, seven dwarfs, and seven days of the week. Good things come in sevens. So when the SevenArts Local Artisan Gallery opened last weekend in the old Masonic Hall on Main Street in downtown Ellsworth, it made sense, numerologically and business-wise.
SevenArts is run by seven Down East artists and artisans who banded together to both sell their works and help build the creative community in Ellsworth, with its burgeoning art scene.
New ownership for Log Cabin
The Log Cabin, a 25-year-old landmark business at the top of Highway 20 in Fonthill, has been sold.
Scott and Ursula Penner, owners of Fonthill Pharmasave, will take over the building on April 1, said Lois and Harry Schonewille, owners of the gift shop, in a news release.
“We will continue to own and run the Log Cabin Art Gallery at the back of the building to ensure that the transition of the new ownership is smooth and transparent to you,” said the Schonewilles.
Treasures celebrates 15 years
Since May 1993, one of Hanover’s best-known independent retailers has offered distinctive gifts and special service to its customers. Treasures, best known for Crabtree & Evelyn products, its signature white gift wrapping and friendly customer service, will celebrate its 15th anniversary this spring.
Ever since its opening, the gift store has adapted to customers’ changing interests and tastes.
Chandler Shop owner retires after 25 years
Main Street is losing one of its veterans this weekend. After 25 years of keeping The Chandler Shop stocked with the latest in candles, stuffed animals and collectibles, owner Monique Owen is retiring.
But not before taking care of every last thing.
Unwilling to leave downtown with a vacant storefront, Owen recruited the owners of the popular Blooming Iris gift shop in downtown Tilton to buy her store. That pair, Steve Russell and Michael Gagne, visited Concord this week and introduced themselves to their Main Street neighbors.
Florists take on various tasks, come back with stories to tell
Craig — A light snow falls, turning the sky gray Thursday morning.
Drivers switch on their headlights and wipers as they meander down Victory Way.
But, step inside Shirley Balleck’s business and the scene changes completely.
A light fragrance wafts through the air as Balleck moves about The Flower Mine & Gift Shop, a florists shop she bought three years ago.
The smell’s source: flowers, of various varieties and from various locations in and out of the country, including California, Holland, Ecuador and Grand Junction, Balleck said.
Eventually, she said, the blooms will find
Developers adjust to shifting retail landscape
The fundamentals of the public’s retail needs aren’t changing: People want fast service and convenient shopping options, and they want them close to home.
But retailers still face a changing landscape. In Michigan, that includes a shrinking economy – by more than 75,000 jobs since 2006, according to a University of Michigan study released late last year.
Up With Paper Introduces New Gift Embellishment Line
Mason, OH – Up With Paper announced that it would be introducing The Finishing Touch, a new line of three-dimensional, pop-up gift embellishments, in 2008. Everyday designs will be available to retail in July, and Christmas designs will be available in August.