Even as the fashion apparel business comes to grip with the big questions of sustainability and environmental correctness, its sister industry – home furnishings – is facing many of the same issues...and addressing them with similar levels of success, failure, and outright confusion over doing the right thing. But for those who get it right, the payoff can be worth the effort. This is particularly true in the soft home product sector where products like sheets, towels, rugs, upholstery for seating and decorative fabrics are often coming from …
Be My Guest…Starting at $3500 a Night
You can’t really check in...but you’ll never want to check out. The RH Guesthouse, the (very) boutique hotel property that was years in the making is only the latest manifestation of the home furnishings retailer’s quest to become a luxury brand across any number of formats and disciplines. It also represents the newest entry into the hospitality space for companies in the home and fashion sectors looking to continue to build out their connections with their uber-upscale customers. RH Ups the Private Guest Experience Uber-upscale only …
Printemps Sets Sites on Lower Manhattan
The concept of the global retailer has been pretty much a mixed bag with a wildly uneven success rate. With the exception of the occasional Ikea or Starbucks, many retailing companies have been unable to export their business model outside their home country. And this has worked in pretty much every direction: from Europe and Asia to the United States and in reverse. Which is why the recent news that fabled French department store Printemps is planning to open its first American store in 2024 in New York City is so intriguing. As one of the …
The New Reality of Renting Where You Live
Remember the old days – actually just a few years ago – when you went to rent an apartment and you usually spoke to a landlord or, in a city, even the super (technically a superintendent) and it was pretty basic. If you rented a single-family house, you often dealt directly with the homeowner herself. Welcome to the new reality of renting. Today nearly 25 percent of all the single-family homes in America are owned by investors, sometimes aspiring Airbnb entrepreneurs but more likely giant real estate companies like Blackstone. In fact, …
Is 2022 Back-to-School Back to Normal?
It may seem like only yesterday that you heard kids singing, “No more pencils, no more books...” but here we are again deep into the 2022 Back-to-School season for retailers who supply all the stuff students need (and maybe don’t need) for their return to classes. And while apparel drives the BTS season, the home side of things is also a big business, especially for college kids heading back to dorms. Whether it’s classic items like laptops and mini fridges or somewhat more esoteric products like high-performance bedding and wall art, …
More is More for Expanding Home Stores
Don’t believe everything you read about the home furnishings business having fallen off the cliff and can’t climb back up. Plenty of big retailing companies believe otherwise...and they’re putting their money where their mouth is. Such as At Home, HomeGoods and Floor & Décor, which are all building out their physical store networks believing the home furnishings business is set for sustained growth over the next decade. They are joined by the dynamic duo of home improvement – Home Depot and Lowe’s – who remain optimistic about the prospects …
Pop Goes the Retailer
Let’s see: There are more than 30,000 dollar store formats in the country right now. Some 800 HomeGoods locations. Another 800 Bed Bath & Beyonds. And close to 150,000 convenience stores in America. But Popshelf? They have barely 75 locations across the country. Fresh and Direct Taking the best bits and pieces of dollar stores, HomeGoods, BBB and convenience stores and melding them into a hybrid format unseen in the retailing world previously, Popshelf is perhaps the freshest retail concept in America today. There is literally not …
The RH Factor Goes Contemporary
The rap against RH was that it was a one-trick pony, with just a single design look that wouldn’t allow it to grow beyond a limited base. With the introduction of its new RH Contemporary program this month – which may become its single largest collection ever – you can’t say that anymore. RH Contemporary is the long-awaited addition to the upscale home furnishing retailer’s assortment, a massive collection that consumes 320 pages of a virtual catalog that will is now joined by a print version that just dropped. Gary Friedman, the impresario …