Archives: News
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.
Art gallery shines light on folk artists
The home’s clapboards were falling down. The roof was caving in. Drywall was crumbling. The kitchen’s floorboards were gone.
“The grass was all growing up, and there was a raggedy, raggedy fence,” recalled folk artist Alania Osborne-Currie.
In other words, the dilapidated home at 7102 Line Ave. was exactly what she sought.
“I didn’t see the raggedy house,” Osborne-Currie said.
Retailers brace for ho-ho-hum sales
Kim Letke bought her first Christmas gift of the season recently when she found the Moon Sand castle play set for her kids.
But the Timonium woman believes it’s probably going to be a tough season for her family because the work her husband does in the home improvement business has slowed along with housing sales.
“We might be spending a little less this year,” said Letke, as the stay-at-home mom watched her kids run around the play area at Towson Town Center recently.
Retailers are hearing similar consumer concerns, and many merchants are braced for sluggish sales as they prepare for
Recent recalls raise concerns about holiday buying
Addi Belle Rudman of Ramsey celebrated her first birthday a week ago. Among the gifts she received were a clock, a beanbag chair and other furniture for her playroom and bedroom; books; and gift certificates for clothing.
Two of the toys she got were whisked out of sight by her mother: a Little People toy, one of the brands hit by recalls, and a Dora the Explorer toy, because her mother has vowed never again to let a Dora toy in the house. “Dora the Explorer was the most recalled character,” said Brigitte Rudman.
As airports look to retail revenue, travelers get more shops
New York — If you’ve done any traveling lately, you’ve likely noticed that many airports are looking more like malls.
“I was kind of surprised to see jewelry here,” said Jackie Steven of Aberdeen, Scotland, while doing a little preflight shopping at Newark Liberty International Airport one recent afternoon. “You don’t expect jewelry.”
But jewelry is just one of the many new retail offerings popping up in airports. Fliers are as likely to find a Brooks Brothers or Victoria’s Secret as an overpriced doughnut cart. Weary road warriors can spend layovers in a spa as well as a bar.
Cynthia Webb Designs Assists Effort to Rebuild Camp Stevens; Sales of Popular Piece Will Help Repair Buildings Damaged by Fire
San Diego gift designer Cynthia Webb is donating 100 percent of the proceeds of her “Quiet Time” treescape ornament to help rebuild Camp Stevens, the Julian conference and retreat center heavily damaged by a Sept. 15 fire. The quickly spreading flames destroyed much of the picturesque mountaintop refuge, including 15 cabins and lodges, the outdoor chapel and over 100 acres of forest.
“I designed this piece to evoke a feeling of peacefulness, of serenity,” explained Webb. “Camp Stevens has been that place for my whole family to feel renewed, to take a break from our busy lives.
STUDIO Development Continues With Exhibitor Selection & Logo Introduction
White Plains, NY – Suppliers of the industry’s most-trend forward merchandise are gravitating towards STUDIO , a new lifestyle division debuting at the winter 2008 New York International Gift Fair (NYIGF).
STUDIO – a showcase for inspired lifestyle merchandise across a broad range of categories – will debut at NYIGF in February 2008.
ImagiPLAY makes Green Pages list
Boulder, CO – Just as children are the offspring of human beings, human beings are the offspring of the earth. And it’s her passionate belief in that philosophy that drives Barbera Aimes, founder and President of Boulder-based toy company ImagiPLAY. Her desire to make toys that will enrich the lives and imaginations of children is inextricably tied to her need to make those products in a manner that shows respect to the larger toy box into which children are born.