Great Indoors to expand scatter rug offering

By Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 7/2/2004 12:00:00 AM

HOFFMANN ESTATES, Ill. — The Great Indoors this fall will be rolling out an expanded scatter rug program, and for it will be repositioning the soft flooring department to give these smaller-sized rugs better exposure.

Angela Chu, buyer, area rugs, said the retailer is making these 2-by-3 through 4-by-6 rugs "a permanent" fixture with "a new, special alcove" to display them at the front of the soft flooring department.

"We want to showcase these scatters to appeal as an impulse purchase," Chu explained. "I’m treating them as special purchases, in and out, and not necessarily a reorder business. We will offer the hottest fashions and looks that are easy to decorate with."

The assortment will include a broad range of product, from machine-made polypropylene rugs to hand-knotted wools to Wools of New Zealand constructions by Karastan, Chu said.

Price points begin at $24.99, "but we haven't set a cap yet," she added.

Each of the retailer's 17 units — which comprise about five different prototypes — will carry either one or two scatter rug alcoves at the front of the soft flooring department.

"We’ll feed more (alcoves) into our higher volume stores," she said.

Design-wise, some of the looks will coordinate with area rug offerings hanging on the racks, particularly Karastan-branded goods.