We all know that thousands of furniture manufacturing jobs in the United States have been lost to countries that pay much lower salaries to their furniture workers. China is Exhibit A on that list, but there are others. But what is much less clear, to me at least, is just who we should blame for tho...
read more
Lao Tzu, the brilliant Chinese philosopher, once said, "The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."Earlier this month, when we broke the story of Keith Koenig's plan to allow consumers to finance furniture purchases as part of home mortgages, I felt that Keith had taken the first ste...
read more
This week we reflect upon a very provocative finding about the high end of the market that we shared with you earlier this year: that 56% of all dollars spent on bedding are at price points of $1,000 and up.That's what analysis of a broad-based consumer research study we conducted in 2005 told us. A...
read more
Today is Phil Haney's first day as CEO of Lexington Home Brands. As most of you know, Phil was executive vice president at Stanley Furniture, a highly visible and pivotal position. (see related story)Prior to joining Stanley in 2002, Haney had amassed close to 30 years in the ma... (more)
read more
Ultimate Accents Vice President Ray Steele went to the Cebu furniture market in the Philippines for the first time this past February. He was amazed by what he saw.While there, he took photo after photo of goods with mixed-media elements ranging from abaca and coco sticks to sea grass, shells and st...
read more
Want to make more "dough" with your bedding store? Try the playbook of Panera Bread Co. Yes, the restaurant and bakery chain, which sells plenty of bread, is also making plenty of money in the process. A flattering story on Panera in my favorite weekly business magazine (that would be BusinessWeek) ...
read more
What happens when you assemble an A-plus lineup of retailers, producers and suppliers, address key industry issues, celebrate retail successes, tackle challenges and provide plenty of networking opportunities?You have the kind of rousing success we enjoyed with our inaugural Bedding Conference at th...
read more