When Williams-Sonoma Inc. -- which HTT this year ranked as the 10th largest home textiles retailer in the country -- says it is bracing itself in 2008 for what it expects to possibly be the "worst" selling year with memory (roughly 30 years), you know it's time to worry.

I listened to and reported on the six-nameplate upscale home furnishings and furniture company's fourth quarter and yearend earnings call this week, and the picture it paints based on recent shor...Read More

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Good news for me (and bad news for my husband): Kohl’s is heading to
Miami.

During Kohl's fourth quarter and yearend earnings call last week, execs
announced that in the fall it will for the first time enter into the Miami/Ft. Lauderdale metro markets. 

Ironically, I've been seeing Kohl's advertisements on television for
many months now. I can't say exactly which channels or during which
programs since I have Comcast's "Basic I" cable hookup with access to
any of 75 channels or so.

But, according to Kohl's ...Read More

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It seems the high-end consumer, the non-working lady of the house with a wallet bedecked in credit cards and a back account replete with accessible cash, is doing what was once unthinkable -- thinking twice before she makes expensive, unnecessary purchases.

 

Unity Marketing’s Luxury Consumption Index this week reported that luxury consumer confidence at the onset of this New Year dropped to a record low – to...Read More

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The report

That's good news for the industry.

There are at least

...Read More

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A quick Christmas shopping store traffic comparison for you

I went to Target this past weekend, the first weekend in December. Saturday at 9:30 a.m., to be specific.
And what I saw -- or rather, didn't see -- left me shocked.

The place was dead.

I aced the third parking space from the front door. A lonesome shopping cart was conveniently next to my car waiting for me (only to get dumped moments later upon my kids' demands for one of these kid-friendly carts with the little truck features and the phony steering wheels-- you know the one.)

I knew right away I would not accidentally run over the feet of any fellow shoppers while I attempted to maneuver this bulky behemoth cart, simply because there wasn't anyone really to ru...Read More

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It's interesting to see Martha Stewart taking the lead role in Macy's holiday marketing, almost mothering other popular celebrities like Jessica Simpson, Usher, Tommy Hilfiger, Kenneth Cole, Emeril, Tyler Florence and lest we forget Donald Trump, to name a few, in the department store's new star-studded holiday television ad.

Almost at ...Read More

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What do Paris Hilton, Janet Jackson, American Idol, autism, cancer and Harry Potter have to do with home textiles?

Aside from the fact that all certainly own aplenty of them, these names are just 6 of the 20 top Google searches in 2005 and 2006 -- and now a French artist has incorporated them onto a collection of high-end decorative pillows.

A clothing-and-home furnsihings boutique in Tribeca on Broome Street -- Pastec -- carries them for $130 a pop.

They caught my eye as I was leafing through the just-mailed November issue my gift subscription of domino magazine.

It was not the inflated price that drew me close.

Rather I got d...Read More

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Surprise, surprise. Upon IKEA opening its first doors in the Sunshine State -- last week in Broward County -- South Floridians went bonkers, arriving in droves of up to 25,000 shoppers.

Some avid fans -- including a lady who had never set foot into an IKEA store - waited as many as two days outside this new unit in anticipation.

I wasn't one of them.

I had heard of IKEA mania, not to be confused with Ikea Madness, which is how the Swedish retailer refers to its "madmen and women" designers. 

The mania can and has resulted in dangerous grand opening ...Read More

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This week I learned about the 150th birthday of a small, single-unit department store -- Weaver's -- tucked in the community of Lawrence, Kansas.

 

I had a feeling, as I made my initial phone call, that reaching Weaver's top executives would be far easier than reaching some assistant buyers at big box stores.

...Read More

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Halloween. It's always been a favorite holiday of mine. And now that I have young children, I enjoy it more than ever.

My five-year-old daughter has a noir sense of humor, and to her gory is not good but great.

Today is September 28 and my front yard looks haunted. There is very large glow-in-the-dark skeleton hanging on a palm tree beside an enormous web with a giant tarantula crawling on it, and on the next palm over there is an obnoxiousb witch that chants Santana's "Evil Ways," baby. (Lest we forget my indoor decor, which includes, among other items, two electrically illumin...Read More

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Martha Hacked?!

For a brief moment today, somewhere between 3:28 and 3:41 p.m., Martha Stewart was "linked" with Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker and the Indianapolis Colts football team.

For those 13 or so minutes, a link to a live webcast showcasing Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia's presentation at Goldman Sachs' Communacopia XVI Conference sent me - several times, I will add -- directly to a b...Read More

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In researching a recent article about scatter rugs (it appears in HTT's Sept. 17 issue), I heard a lot about price deflation. Nearly every supplier I spoke with pointed out how retail prices for these small-scale goods haven't changed in several years -- despite the constant hikes in costs for raw materials, shipping, etc.

They say most retailers and consumers aren’t ready to pay more, even for more innovative products.

Some might, and do, in select levels of retail, like the high-end, luxury sector.

...Read More

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