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South Shore growing into the place to shop
There was a time when builder Guido Passarelli referred to his Veterans Road West property as “nanny goat” country, a desolate scrub overlooking the West Shore Expressway where, yes, goats could once be spotted.
Today, Passarelli is finishing work on a 135,000-square-foot shopping center in former nanny goat country and he’s signed up national tenants such as Ethan Allen, Famous Footwear, Panera Bread, Payless ShoeSource and Ruby Tuesday.
Customers not deterred by Christmas Creep
Lisa McGinty said it still felt like summer when she went shopping at Westfield’s West County Center, a mall in Des Peres, about two weeks ago. So she was unprepared for what she saw: Christmas trees.
“It seems too early when it’s 80 degrees in St. Louis. It’s definitely not where your head is,” said McGinty, of Kirkwood. “It just keeps getting earlier every year.”
That is a common complaint among shoppers. And, like McGinty, many find decorations for the year-end holidays annoying in September and October.
New gift shop tests the waters downtown
While some downtown Crawfordsville storefronts remain empty from businesses moving out, one new business is taking its chances downtown, staying open later to accommodate more customers.
Cortney’s Cottage, 108 S. Green St., is a gift shop that focuses primarily on children’s gadgets and activities. It opened Oct. 19 and has been staying open until 10 p.m. in hopes of attracting more customers who are coming downtown to eat or go to a dance class or other activities, owner Phil Garrett said.
So far, the later hours have paid off, with most of the store’s traffic coming between 7 p.m.
Retailers get into Halloween spirit
They may come and go quickly compared with their full-time retail counterparts. But experts say the revenues generated annually by temporary holiday stores — about $12 billion from September through December — are hardly fly-by-night.
For instance, much of the more than $5 billion expected to be spent nationally this year on Halloween costumes, candy and decorations will be forked over at hundreds of popular stores that opened in mid-September and won’t be around much past Nov.
Russ Berrie U.S. Gift, Inc. Introduces Over 600 New Products In 2008
Russ will debut new Baby, Christmas, Mother’s Day, Shining Stars , Softies , Wedding lines and more at the Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, L.A., and New York gift shows.
Shining Stars interactive plush received high accolades this year, named to the Toys”R”Us and KB toys Holiday 2007 Hot Lists and chosen as an All-Star on the coveted Toy Wishes Magazine holiday list.
The RUSS Softies collection has lots of new, innovative plush including the Yomiko New Borns Just like their “parents”, this assortment of plush dogs, giraffes, elephants, and more are considered some of the most realistic plush
The Cost Of A Good Scare
It’s almost scary, the money people spend on Halloween.
Americans will shell out just over $5 billion on the harrowing holiday this year, up 58% since 2002 (annualized growth: 11%), according to the latest sales projections by the National Retail Federation’s 2007 Halloween Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted by market research company BIGresearch.
That’s a fraction of the $17 billion Valentine’s Day inspires–flowers and diamonds cost more than pumpkins and candy corn–but it’s still a hell of a pile.
Retailers and shoppers aren
Black Friday — the day after Thanksgiving — is the traditional start of the holiday selling season, but it seems many shoppers aren’t waiting.
In fact, a survey from the National Retail Federation found about 40 percent of consumers planned to make holiday gift or seasonal purchases before Halloween.
“I rang up a woman last week and she said, ‘Well, I’m done,’?” said LeAnn Sines, manager of Brown Wrappings, a home and gift store in Oak Park Mall. “I couldn’t believe it.
Retail suffers as California wildfires burn
Los Angeles (Reuters) – Wildfires in Southern California are exacerbating a difficult retail environment in a state already hit by declining home sales and mortgage woes that have cut into consumer spending.
Valpo gift shop feels the squeeze
Valparaiso — Competition from big-box retailers and Internet shopping has hit a decades-old downtown specialty gift shop.Diane and Bill Cooley plan to close their American Legacy gift shop in downtown Valparaiso on Dec.
OneCoast Partners with OverCoffee: Catalog Library to Improve Product Data
Pittsburgh, PA— OneCoast, the largest and only national provider of sales and marketing services to vendors and retailers of home decor, gift and collegiate products, has partnered with OverCoffee Productions, the leading web design and integration firm, to offer its Catalog Library as an added-value resource to vendors and retailers.
Due to the lack of adequate product descriptions and images available to sales representatives and retailers, OneCoast is partnering with OverCoffee Productions, to offer Catalog Library as a resource to support product sales and e-commerce.
Fat Brain Toy Co. Expands Its Line With New Dado Squares
Elkhorn, NE – When rock ‘n roller Huey Lewis first belted out the lyrics to his hit song, “Hip To Be Square,” little did he know that years later a toy would be invented that proves the statement. Dado Squares, another American-made toy by Fat Brain Toy Co. are just as smart and just as fun to play with as the original contemporary construction toy Dado Cubes, winner of 10 toy awards, introduced in late 2006.
Dado Squares inspire creative energy. The vivid, 3-inch, flat plastic squares can be used to construct virtually any 3-D design you can imagine.
California Gift Show Introduces New Layout And Lively Showfloor Presentation Space
White Plains, NY – Renowned for embodying the creative, trend-forward and uniquely West Coast spirit that defines Los Angeles, the California Gift Show will unveil a “lifestyle-inspired” layout and a new showfloor venue for complimentary programs called “The Platform.” Set against a backdrop of extraordinary beaches and an exciting new downtown, the Show will attract 22,000 buyers and feature 1,200 exhibitors of the gift industry’s latest creations, January 18-21, 2008, at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
This winter, the Show’s 10 product divisions – At Home; Boutique; EX*TRACTS; Fashi
GHTA Publishes Final Conference Agenda
The Gift and Home Trade Association, the industry’s non-profit professional trade association, has finalized the agenda for its 2007 Annual Conference, which will take place Nov. 16-17, 2007, in La Jolla, Calif., at the Hilton Torrey Pines Hotel. The not-to-be-missed, two-day event will feature prominent keynote speakers and breakout sessions where attendees can discuss industry hot topics.
Beautiful bumbershoots: Beat your rainy-day blues with a fun, stylish umbrella
Here comes the rain again.
But you don’t have to feel so bad about it.
One of a Kind
Colorful spinning signs beckon visitors inside a small two-bedroom house off Highway 10 in Dilworth.The unassuming white house with a red brick chimney is home to a host of gift items from candles and bread and soup mixes to decorative wall hangings.
Mom’s House of Gifts, owned by Nancy McCaskell and two of her four daughters, opened on Oct. 1, 2006.
“We’ve never done this before,” said Jean Stuart, one of McCaskell’s daughters.
Cobblestone Confections’ road to success paved with toffee
Mansfield — The Halloween candy hasn’t even been handed out yet, but visions of peppermint snowmen and spearmint hard tack are dancing in Merry Birmelin’s head.
Actually, her head, like the house she shares with husband and “best helper” Lew, is also crammed with luscious lulus, popcorn crunch cakes and other goodies from her Cobblestone Confections candy business.
Step inside the house on Overlook Drive and look to the right. There’s a shipment of shiny, star-shaped gift boxes awaiting their candy contents.
All roads lead to this store
Patrice Northrup is a map geek.
As a child, she was also a book nerd and wanted to know where on the globe the places she read about were, so she consulted maps. As an adult, the college geography major (naturally), took jobs that further gave direction for her passion for maps — first drawing them for a civil engineer and later selling them at a specialty shop in Charlotte.
“I love to travel and a map gives you the freedom to be adventurous and explore without worrying about getting lost. … I love to study maps of the places I am planning to visit.
Merry Halloween, holiday shoppers
Grand Rapids– Consumers are seeing red.
Red, that is, in Christmas ornaments and tinsel hanging right next to pumpkins, goblins and broomsticks.
This holiday creep is making some shoppers grumble about three, even four months, of retail Christmas cheer.
Lynelle Collins was trying to shop for Halloween last week in the Standale Meijer store but was having trouble keeping her 5-year-old son, Noland, away from the singing Christmas trees and Santa dogs.
“I’m not going to look at Christmas (merchandise) early.
Port Jefferson merchants knock parking meters
Dozens of Port Jefferson merchants are hopping mad about parking meters installed in recent months in the village, saying the 50-cent hourly fee is driving away customers and hurting their bottom line.
Stacey DiFazio, owner of The Pink Grasshopper clothing store on East Main Street, blames the meters for a drop in sales at her store of $10,000 in July and $7,000 in August.
“I had a thriving business,” DiFazio told the village board of trustees at a meeting to discuss the parking meters and their impact.
A little mall with big ideas
It’s not quite yet like a walk through a quaint little town within Doylestown.
One side of the first floor of the old County Linen building, which is being transformed into a small mall of about 10 stores, is a gray wall with sketches of storefronts taped to it.