Cecile's Creel
Cecile B. Corral has been a product editor with Home Textiles Today since late 2000. She covers the area and accent rug, kitchen textiles, table linens, beach towels, decorative bath and decorative pillow categories, as well as some retail subjects.
Give consumers an eco-reason to shop
In 2009, consumers "will act rationally," meaning they will restrict their shopping to what they need, "and they don’t need much," Mike Ullman, ceo of JCPenney, recently warned — as seen quoted yesterday in the USA Today article titled "Consumers get frugal, so retailers get creative." Home textiles retailers are bracing themselves for a continual economic downturn this year by slashing operatin... Read More
Comments (0)White House to redecorate on tight budget, recycled wares
On the light — and even maybe fun — side of President and Mrs. Barack Obama’s hefty to-do list these days is the matter of redecorating the White House to their taste. And unlike recent past presidents, who were said to have leaned on upscale Manhattan-ite interior decorators with traditional styles, the Obamas are going a different route with the appointment of Santa Monica, Calif.-based designer... Read More
Comments (1)Early holiday specials everywhere
Holiday shopping doesn’t begin to consume me until the long Thanksgiving weekend. The frenzied crowds boost my adrenaline and spur my credit card spending. But this year is already different, and we’ve only just stepped into November. Many retailers have been wooing my wallet since Halloween. Pottery Barn and its several nameplates, for example, email me sale updates daily — sometimes multip... Read More
Comments (3)Bath towels in my grocery cart, please
Over the past few months, many industry contacts have talked about their clandestine efforts to pursue alternative channels to sell their wares. I say clandestine because none of these companies wants to reveal their tactics, much less the specific retailers they are courting, for competitive purposes. For some decorative pillow players, pet stores offer a new venue for carrying pet beds, which... Read More
Comments (3)Caught in the middle of the marketplace
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 earnin... Read More
Comments (2)Kohl's coming to Miami
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 program... Read More
Comments (3)Rich niche bewitched?
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 re... Read More
Comments (0)Persian Rugs OK despite embargo against Iran
Despite the tense relations between the U.S. and Iran, carpets and other textile floor coverings are about the only product the U.S. can legally import from the Persian nation. The report That’s good news for the industry. There are at least 62 types of Persian carpets and rugs, as outlined in Wikipedia.org under the Persian Carpet section. They are based mostly on the region where they are mad... Read More
Comments (2)Target c'est triste
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 l... Read More
Comments (0)Martha at Macy's brings home to the holidays
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 the end of the segment Stewart gently but firmly scolds Simpso... Read More
Comments (0)Live Love Laugh
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... Read More
Comments (2)Mania in Miami for IKEA
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 w... Read More
Comments (1)
