The Great Indoors adds new Detroit location
By Carole Sloan -- Home Textiles Today, 11/20/2000
DETROIT -Well on its way to becoming a full-scale specialty home decorating and home remodeling chain, The Great Indoors opened its fourth store, a 138,000-square-foot unit across from the Lakeside Mall here last week.
The store, the first in this part of the country, joins single units in Denver, Dallas and Scottsdale, AZ. At least 10 additional units will open next year, on the way to the chain becoming 150 units.
Few changes were made in the format generally, although there was tweaking in certain areas, said Bob Rodgers, president. The window covering area, for example, "is the same size, but the adjacencies have been changed, and the mix is one-third each soft window, hard window and window hardware," he said.
The decorative fabric department, launched with the Dallas opening in July, "is producing results we like," Rodgers noted. Top of the bed is very much like the other stores, he said.
In other merchandise areas, "we have more significant and informative materials in home theater; kitchens are very different, more squared off and visible to the aisles than in the past," Rodgers said. "And wall coverings and paint are more decorative in their approach."
The store was launched with a circular that uses a fashion-forward approach to home decorating and is themed to holiday decorating. The circulars are run monthly as inserts in the local papers in the four markets.
Additional promotional activities include in-store demos, in-store remotes with local radio stations and some TV.
