EMON MAASHO, CEO AND PRESIDENT OF ORREFORS, NORTH AMERICA, is representative of the exciting trajectory in this 125-year operation. The über-exec joined the New Wave Group in 2013, a time when Orrefors and Kosta Boda (OKB) were underperforming assets in the portfolio. "Our crystal brands are national treasures and a part of Swedish history," Maasho affirms. And he wanted a front row seat in their revitalization. Maasho was placed in charge of the new hotel and restaurant division ...
Read More
Father's Day is this weekend! Give Dad a top flight set of Double Old Fashioned glasses handcrafted of lead crystal. This Baccarat set was created to serve the cocktails offered exclusively at the Baccarat Hotel New York. The individual glasses are inspired by the four elements that make the legendary Baccarat crystal; Montaigne Optic (water), Perfection (air), Harmonie (earth), and Nancy (fire). Stop in at the Shadyside store to see the set or find other Father's Day gift ideas.
The New York Times shares a salacious story about Sherry-Lehman, a world-famous wine shop. The story recounts how the retailer was hit by tariffs, online competitors, and COVID shutdowns. It had borrowed excessively, which many retailers do. At first, it reads like a Bed Bath & Beyond obituary. But then the owners veered into the criminal realm. They sold rare wine to new customers that belonged to existing customers, in other cases didn’t deliver what was sold, and ...
Read More
What Crocs can teach us about gaining new customers and keeping them happy.
May 15, 2023
About 15 years ago, I bought a pair of Crocs sandals in Myrtle Beach, SC. Not only were they hot pink, but the insole was traffic cone orange. My buddies hated them, but oddly others loved them. The sandals were affordable (maybe $20), comfortable, and a conversation starter.
According to last week’s The New York Times' profile on Crocs, I’m one of tens of millions of happy Crocs owners. This happiness is profitable:
Sam Gross, who drew many cartoons for The New Yorker, passed away this month at the age of 89. I've been a The New Yorker cartoon fan for years, and often include them in the footer of our emails to clients.
I'd not thought of the people behind those cartoons, but it's people like Sam that labor over them.
Do you have a good friend at work? These days, fewer people do. According to the New York Times, 40 years ago, 50% of us had a close friend at work; that number has dropped to less than 20%. Work has become a more transactional place. We go to the office to be efficient, not to form bonds. We may have plenty of productive conversations, but we also have fewer meaningful relationships. That’s not a good thing because work friends play a big part in our happiness.
How we can honor those that came before us in the retail industry.
March 2, 2023
The founder of Juan Pollo Chicken, Albert Okura, passed away last week at the age of 71. Mr. Okura envisioned Juan Pollo, a fast food chain with 25 locations in Southern California, as a household name that would someday sell the most chicken in the world. He believed in this so much that he bought the site of the original McDonald’s restaurant, located in San Bernardino, CA, in 1998—not to turn it into a Juan Pollo restaurant but rather into a museum to honor his fast food industry....
Read More
New York magazine reports that shopping on Amazon is a mess. It’s got an antiquated interface and lots of spam results and reviews. It’s not a nice experience and you’re not sure what you’re buying.
Excerpt:
“There was the ’90s-retro e-commerce interface, which conceals a marketplace of literally millions of sellers, each scrapping for relevance, using Amazon as a sales channel for their own semi-independent businesses. It subjected ...
Read More
When we brainstorm about making Bridge better, we want to turn over every stone. We explore many avenues, from increasing collaboration to lowering product prices to enhancing marketing. What if an improvement was right in front of us—constant to all of these concepts? Regardless of what feature we offer, there is one constant: navigation. Navigation is fundamental to allowing members to easily find what they need—and discover what they didn’t know they needed.
Work With the Nation's Leading Brands and Indie Shops to Support Main Street
Shop Local is a fast-growing e-commerce and gift registry platform providing services to leading independent retailers and premium brands. Based in New York, NY, Shop Local is seeking candidates to support the existing software and build out new services that will change the retail industry.
Shop Local has an opening for an entry level web developer to update the existing code base and write new applications. We are...
Read More
The Coluna Marble Bowls live on the edge of bold modernity and artisan craft. Made from premium Italian Carrara marble and precision-machined Gold or Nickel-Plated Steel, with 2 sizes available The Nut Bowl is just perfect for presenting your favorite sweet or savory nibbles. The Fruit Bowl is just the right size for displaying fruits & vegetables and chocolates. See them at the Shadyside store.
You’ve likely had a vodka-Red Bull cocktail in your lifetime, which was followed by a hangover for you—but helped drink co-founder Dietrich Mateschitz amass a $20b fortune. Mateschitz, who passed away last week at the age of 78, discovered the drink in the 1980s in Thailand and built it into a global brand. He promoted Red Bull, whose name is a translation of the drink’s Thai name "Krating Daeng,” via a variety of clever marketing initiatives. In the early 2000s, I ...
Read More
We work hard each day, and likely don’t mind if others notice. We want others to see the ingenuity of our software. But what if that wasn’t the case? If you want an example of someone that got passed by, just ask Van Gogh. Yeah, thaaaaat world-famous, earless, impressionist artist whose work today graces the walls of countless museums. The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) is currently running an exhibition showcasing how the world missed appreciating Van Gogh’s...
Read More
NEW YORK, NY, Oct. 24, 2022 – Bridge, an e-commerce community, reported that it's helping indie stores rank on page one of Google in 76% of states for wedding gift purchases. The findings are based on a recent study that Bridge conducted regarding wedding registry purchasing.
Study Findings:
For 38 state searches, Bridge Stores appeared on page one of Google. This represents 76% of all states. When just calculating the states in which Bridge has clients (48),
We are introducing a brand new collection today, Empire! Inspired by one of New York's most famous landmarks, this collection will make a statement in any tablescape. Available as napkins and as table runners, it pairs beautifully with our Wicker Black Placemats!
View Post
In 35 states, Bridge Stores appeared on page one of Google when doing a wedding registry related search. In many states, Bridge Stores dominated the results. For example, for Georgia and South Carolina searches Bridge Stores claimed six spots on Google's first page.
Study Details:
We Googled "gift registry" and the state’s name.
We researched results for 48 states. (Bridge has clients in 48 states; the only states that don
Royal Check is inspired by the beautiful Cayuga Lake, our backdrop here in Aurora, New York. π
The true blue version of our signature Courtly Check is happy, clean, and classic. π
View Post
An East Village Artist’s Death Prompts a Reflection on the State of Indie Retailers Today
…….
While thumbing through the Times, I noticed a smiling young woman’s picture in the obituaries. In the black and white photograph, she's standing on a fire escape with a historic building and a bridge in the distance. I was initially attracted to Ronni Solbert’s 1959 picture, yet I was even more drawn in by what I noticed next to her photo: a children&...
Read More
The Wall St. Journal shares a story that many indie stores may be able to relate to: the challenge of selling your business. The Journal shares issues that arise when ownership changes. Small, brick-and-mortar stores are more likely to face a big decline in sales than, say, a large IT company.
Excerpt:
"The revenue drop following the sale of a business can range from an expected 20% to 30% in the case of an IT-services provider to 50% in the case of a hair salon, says Sam ...
Read More
Do you love a great deal on a t-shirt or TV? Sure, we all do. Yet, sometimes when we shop, the lower the price we pay, the less we pay: people. People that make the goods (factory workers) and people that sell the goods (aka indie store owners) are the victims in the discount-pricing rush.
Today’s Times shares that making a bathing suit in Sir Lanka costs about $4 per unit while in Portugal it may cost $16. In NYC, the minimum wage is $15/hour—making production in NYC ...
Read More