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Retailers looking forward to back-to-school season
After modest sales gains in June, retailers are gearing up for the back-to-school season, according to the National Retail Federation.
Retail sales — excluding automobiles, gas stations and restaurants — rose 3.4 percent unadjusted over last year and decreased 0.5 percent seasonally adjusted from May.
The figures, released Friday by the US Commerce Department, show total retail sales, which include non-general merchandise categories such as autos, gasoline stations and restaurants, decreased 0.9 percent seasonally adjusted from last month and increased 3.2 percent unadjusted
A hodgepodge of pleasures
Jerri Turner, who owns Sweets, Treats & Design, has quite the varied inventory. Along with chocolates, the North End Tacoma boutique offers tea sets, candles, frames and custom work. “We do wedding favors, we do rehearsal dinner favors, we do gift bags for guests,” Turner says.
See something you like at Sweets, Treats & Design in Tacoma’s North End?
Merchants hoping to cast spells over shoppers
Novi, Mich. — Harry Potter entered the wizard shopping district known as Diagon Alley and was amazed by what he saw.
“Harry wished he had eight more eyes,” J.K. Rowling wrote in “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” her first book about the boy wizard and his adventures at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Side by side: In business and in life
They met over a coffee maker.
Three years ago, Kirk Miller ventured into a Lexington kitchen store, looking for a Krups coffee maker. It wasn’t in stock so Tina Lowry, the owner of the store, Ladles & Linens Kitchen Shoppe, ordered it.
Two weeks later, the coffee maker arrived, but Miller kept coming by the shop in downtown Lexington.
Lowry and Miller married in September 2005, a few months after Miller opened his own store to suit his tastes.
An outdoor enthusiast and an Appalachian Trail through-hiker, Kirk Miller opened Walkabout Outfitter on Nelson Street in Lexington.
Toy charms at hospital gift shop found to have high lead levels
Action by an alert Health Department employee visiting a gift shop at Fletcher Allen Heath Care has triggered a state attorney general’s investigation into a line of children’s jewelry with potentially high lead levels.
Mike Sullivan of Fairfax, an employee of the department’s health protection division, said a moment of “whimsy” on his part led him to examine some small metal charms at the gift shop last month while in the hospital on personal business.
“I’d taken a couple of the charms off the rack to look them over and they seemed, for their size, quite heavy,” he said.
‘Expert’ consumers spread word on retail
The most influential group of consumers, opinion leaders who talk more frequently with friends or online about products and retail experiences than others do, are more likely to pass on positive recommendations than negative ones, according to a new academic study.
“Consumers who believe they are experts in an area like to talk about their positive experiences,” said Andrea Wojnicki, professor of marketing at University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management.
Urban Expositions Announces Staff Appointments for Gift, Souvenir Trade Shows
Atlanta, GA – Urban Expositions, leading producer of regional gift, souvenir and resort merchandise shows, has announced a series of staff appointments related to the Philadelphia Gift Show, Virginia Gift Show, Ocean City Resort Gift Expo, Grand Strand Gift & Resort Merchandise Show, Miami Beach Gift Show and Galveston Gift and Resort Merchandise Show, effective immediately.
Shelley Fulghum has been named show director for the Philadelphia Gift Show, overseeing sales and operations for the nation’s largest regional gift show held semi-annually in Reading, PA.
Gift Cash and Carry Show Offers Timely Fill-In Merchandising Opportunity for Holidays
White Plains, NY – The fall 2007 edition of the New York Gift Cash & Carry Show Gifts to Go is an ideal buying opportunity for retailers, offering timely inventory growth options in advance of the holiday selling season. Running November 1-3, 2007, at New York City’s Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, Gifts to Go will feature some 200 exhibitors, all showcasing products available for immediate delivery.
LearningCents Teaches Kids Financial Responsibility by the Seat of their Pants
Atlanta, GA – Have you ever watched a kid empty his or her pockets before shoving their jeans into the hamper?
San Francisco International Gift Fair to Put Spotlight on Green Resources
White Plains, NY – In line with the sharp rise in consumer demand for ‘green,’ sustainable products, this summer the San Francisco International Gift Fair will provide forward-thinking retailers with a list of exhibiting companies that offer eco-friendly resources.
Popping up in downtown?: City eyes plan for temporary stores
The city is working on a short-term marketing initiative to keep foot traffic flowing at Downtown Crossing after Filene’s Basement closes for two years for the $625 million redevelopment of the former Filene’s complex.
Ideas for the transitional plan include the possibility of “pop-up” stores to fill the void in the struggling retail district when the Basement shuts at the end of August.
Pop-up stores remain open for a limited time – a few days or weeks – and are designed to generate buzz about a brand or retailer and create a sense of urgency about their products.
Pop-up stores frequ
The Most Popular Email Days of the Year For Retailers
As a follow-up to my column last week about the most popular days of the week to email among retailers, I looked at the 20 most popular days of the past 12 months. It’s no surprise that the majority of the biggest email days come in the weeks before Christmas — including seven of the top eight. Those days include Cyber Monday (Nov. 27) and all three “Echo Mondays” (Dec. 4, 11 and 18) — the Mondays that follow Cyber Monday.
It’s a woman’s world at Softer Side
Frankfort — From the pink walls to the sweet scents to the long counter filled with baubles and beads, it’s clear The Softer Side gift shop is a woman’s world.
The store, at 621 N. LaGrange Road, specializes in gifts appealing to women, such as jewelry, handbags, home accent pieces, picture frames, aromatherapy, candles, wedding accessories and baby gifts.
“It’s a gift boutique for today’s woman,” explained owner Jodey Volpi, who opened the shop in March 2006.
But focusing on the feminine doesn’t mean it’s all glamour and glitz, Volpi said.
Make money with your own online store
The Internet makes it easy to sell products online. With an online store, you can reach customers nationwide and beyond, but getting started can be intimidating.
Both Yahoo and eBay offer services that will help you create your store. And you don’t need any programming skills.
Creating a collage of art and commerce; Greeting card and gift distributor spreads goods across the country
To look at the exterior, you’d think that Tanya Murren’s Collage shop in Tumalo is just a little nook of a gift and greeting card store, a bit off the beaten path for tourists and probably starving for business.
The shop is barely noticeable, stuck in a long building across the street from Tumalo’s El Caporal restaurant.
A perpetual “20 percent off” sign sits out front.
Step inside, though, and poke around a bit, and it quickly becomes apparent that this is no ordinary little store.
Behind a pair of Dutch doors in the tidy little card shop stands a room lined with inventory racks, s
Helping to fill the coffers; Museum gift shops are crucial to success
In the Darwin Martin Complex’s recently reconstructed carriage house and stable, books, glassware and miniature Frank Lloyd Wright-replica furnishings beckon visitors at tour’s end.
At Chauncey’s shop in the Buffalo Museum of Science, nature and dinosaur merchandise now greet visitors on the second floor, where museum-goers enter and exit exhibits.
Over at the Buffalo Zoo, where the gift shop was reconfigured last year to improve its appearance, a new fluff-making machine allows customers to fill stuffed animals.
Owner says Bathologie is special because lotions, soaps and so on originate from all over the world
Shavertown – Sarah Roberts always had a passion for bath and body products. She also had a desire to someday open her own business. So after returning to the area in late 2004, Roberts decided to combine her interests and Bathologie was born in February 2005.
Bathologie is Roberts’ fine bath and body boutique in the Back Mountain. Located at 120 N. Main St. right off Route 309, the store offers a wide array of boutique-brand bath merchandise including lotions, soaps and shower gels. In addition to traditional women’s goods, specialty items are sold for men, children, and babies.
Boston Gift show Features Rhode Island School of Design Pavilion
White Plains, NY – The Boston Gift Show, the Northeast’s top destination for discovering unique New England-made gifts and decorative accessories, will feature a Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) Pavilion for the first time at the September 15-18, 2007, edition.
Sands Expo Welcomes 120 Global Exhibits to Las Vegas Market
Las Vegas – An impressive collection of more than 120 international companies will be featured at Sands Expo, opening on July 31, as part of the Summer 2007 Las Vegas Market.
Cherished Teddies Celebrates 15 Years of Bear Hugs
Itasca, Ill. – It’s time for a ‘Teddiebration!’ Fifteen years after artist Priscilla Hillman crafted the first figurine with its trademark tattered paw pads and ‘take-me-home’ expression, Cherished Teddies has grown to become the premier line of teddy bear collectible figurines worldwide.
This year, Enesco, LLC, a leader in the gift, collectible and home decor industries, is marking the 15th anniversary of Cherished Teddies with a treasure trove of new figurines that will inspire Cherished Teddies fans to collect them all!