The home furnishings business is full of surprises. Just when you think you’ve got something all figured out—well, think again.
Retailers and vendors responding to consumer trends know that it’s incredibly difficult to predict the next big thing. And it may be even more difficult to forecast or...
“An educated consumer is our best customer,” was the well-known slogan for Syms, the now-defunct apparel retailer. J.C. Penney appears to be counting on that same philosophy as it amps up its “simplified pricing” strategy.
One of CEO Ron Johnson’s first acts as the head of J.C. Penney was to decry...
My favorite scene from “Cool Hand Luke” is when the prison warden, played by the much-traveled character actor Strother Martin, says to Paul Newman, “What we’ve got here is ... failure to communicate.”
This oft-quoted phrase came to mind as some of the nation’s most important retailers recently...
“There’s a party goin’ on right here,A celebration to last throughout the years.” —Kool & the Gang’s “Celebration”
That ditty, mostly heard at weddings these days, is from way back in 1980. But it could very well describe the home furnishings business as celebrating/partying...
Longtime retailer J.C. Penney has always presented a problem for the press—we can’t seem to figure out what to call it.
Over the years, I’ve seen the nation’s most mainstream of retailers written as “JCPenney,” “JC Penney,” “J.C. Penney,” as HFN writes it (I’m not sure why), and of course, just...
Holiday sales were promising, retailers are reporting upticks, macro-economic factors such as unemployment and auto sales have bounced back, and the ever-precarious real estate situation appears to be stabilizing.
Add some of the industry’s best attended and highly anticipated shows to the early...
The news earlier this month that Martha Stewart is taking her wares to J.C. Penney is worthy of a cover story for Star magazine.
Not surprisingly, tongues are wagging.
Home furnishings is all abuzz about Martha’s proposed ménage à trois: J.C. Penney has clearly wooed Martha successfully, yet she’s...
New York City felt a lot—well, a little bit—like High Point, N.C., this week when furniture giants Lexington Home Brands and LaZBoy braved Manhattan’s infamous holiday traffic to highlight their ongoing efforts to expand beyond their traditional roots.
Lexington unveiled its brand-spanking new 10,...
Whenever I hear the word “tradition,” I think of my all-time favorite musical “Fiddler on the Roof.”
As Tevye might point out, tradition helps to preserve cultures as well as keep families close. Tradition’s a good thing.
However, with all due respect to Tevye and ritualists everywhere, traditions...
You might think that Tom Conley, the recently named president/CEO of the High Point Market Authority, has seen it all.
As the former president of both the National Housewares Manufacturing Association and the Toy Industry Association, Conley has been around the block, as they say. But in his...