BERTIL VALLIEN is a gift to glass. The impressive portfolio of this prolific artist is haunting, memorable, and mesmerizing.
His 60-year career, spent advancing the craft of sand-casting, is a study of one man's existential questioning actualized on hypnotic works of art.
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BERTIL VALLIEN IS A 60-YEAR KOSTA BODA ICON, DESIGNING FOR THE BRAND SINCE 1963.
He is one of Sweden's most celebrated glass artists with numerous awards and museums exhibitions around...
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Tailgate in style with a piece of Beatriz Ball's luxury melamine. Edged with a border of rippling pearls, the generously proportioned Alegria White Ice Bucket is designed to serve icy-cold bottles of wine, beer, or soda that guests will enjoy while cheering on their favorite team!
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How premium plan tiers help businesses sell more and increase margins.
September 7, 2023
Dating apps are launching higher-priced premium tiers, according to last week’s The Wall St. Journal. Hinge offers a new $50/month plan, and Tinder is launching a $500/month plan. The League already offers a $1,000 plan. These pricey plans take the sting out of Bumble’s $60/month plan.
Why are companies offering such plans? Because even if Tinder only gets 10% of users, that's millions. Plus, the profit and margins are likely higher for customers using these plans. A normal ...
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I chuckled when I was asked to author this column, as I have been known to have the last word from time to time. As I prepare to leave the industry that has given me so much (I eagerly accepted the opportunity to work in the gift and home area in 1986), I can vividly recall the excitement I felt when I first entered the creative space that we get to live and work in every day. I have been exposed to scores of creative people; I met and worked with artists and buyers who were inspired and ...
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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 ...
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In her new book ‘Quit,' Annie Duke shares that the best poker players only play 25% of the hands they are dealt, whereas others play 50%. Ms. Duke talks with Stewart Butterfield, the founder of a few startups, most recently Slack (which is an acronym, which I didn’t know). Slack wouldn’t have been born if Mr. Butterfield didn’t drop a video game company to start Slack. Likewise for Twitter which was born out of the failed blogging company Odeo. Ms. Duke's lesson: winners ...
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Today’s Gen Z gift registrants want to do everything online, often on their iPhone 14. They want to start a registry, add products, remove products, edit quantities, and view purchases. They don't want to call the store to do this.
In the adoption of digital tools, another trend is also at play: female shoppers are busier than before. Today, more women graduate from college than men. Women are increasingly doctors, CEOs, and world leaders. (Italy just welcomed its ...
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Wyatt Waters will be at The Cupboard signing his newly released book, The Watercolor Road, Painting and Writing through the American South.
The Watercolor Road book showcases an impressive collection of 133 paintings, 21 essays, and an array of adages that depict both the South and Wyatt’s relentless trek to be a better painter as a mindset rather than a destination.“I have wanted to do this for as long as I can remember, to paint the South, the place we call home” ...
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An East Village Artist’s Death Prompts a Reflection on the State of Indie Retailers Today
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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&...
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This past week, Amazon announced it was adding Grubhub delivery to its Prime subscription (Read the news about Amazon and Grubhub here). The goal of Amazon Prime (and other subscription services) is to make the subscription so pervasive that it's sticky. Don’t like Prime movies? Ok, but you love free Grubhub delivery. If you don’t need feature X and want to cancel, you realize you still need feature Y and keep paying for the subscription.
In the past, we’ve used spin classes and gyms as inspiration for Bridge. We see them as metaphors for helping retail business owners. The founders of SoulCycle, Elizabeth Cutler and Julie Rice, must have been eavesdropping on us: they are expanding their spinning approach to another sphere. The Times reports they have started Peoplehood, a business that seeks to help people via self-help (group-help?) sessions. It’s SoulCycle for the soul&...
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Jim Collins, in his book BE 2.0, explains how purpose and mission are important to companies. To help explain this, he uses the metaphor of crossing a mountain range and seeing a star on the horizon. Your purpose is to reach the spot on the horizon below the star. The current mission is climbing up the mountain you’re on. The next mission is climbing up the next mountain and so forth in order to get closer to the spot on the horizon. You will have many missions, and may never ...
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While I was down in Dallas evangelizing about Bridge, the Dallas Market Center’s software provider and sister company (called MarketTime) invited me to their offices for a meeting. The goal of the meeting was to explore teaming up to help brands and retailers speed products to market, as well as get a leg up on the competition.
The Dallas Mart consists of two primary buildings, each with atriums and many floors each. I like the Dallas show because of the abundance of ...
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Scott Galloway, an NYU marketing professor and soon-to-be CNN host, suggests that when we assess a market, we start by asking how much one's experience using the service has changed in the past few decades. For example, when you go to your doctor’s office, if you were to spin around and pretend it’s 1990, how different is your experience today vs. 30 years ago? Scott often critiques doctors' offices, hospitals, and colleges because he believes they have not evolved enough in services...
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We work tirelessly to help our customers. A good spot to see this is on our sale site’s pricing page, which lists 60+ features that clients receive—often for free. (Sometimes I think that we’re philanthropists. Twenty-five percent of retail clients pay nothing each month.) Each feature is one that we’ve labored over.
But, ironically, our hard work may get overlooked and under-appreciated if key psychological insights are overlooked by me. In his book ...
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The Times' John Herrman covers what it takes to go without Amazon.
Amazon has appeared to upset people across the spectrum, as "anticapitalist liberal college student[s] and...uber-capitalist conservative grandparents are both boycotting Amazon.”
Yet, Amazon is now so large that it's hard to escape its reach. Even the The New York Times' website is hosted by Amazon AWS services.
I’m writing to sadly share that my dad Don Solarek passed away last week. He was quiet, thoughtful, and would gladly walk in New York City from the Battery to Harlem.
Don always had time to chat with me, share a story, give a lesson, and encourage me. He helped me with my paper route at 6 am when it was 3º in Rochester. He came to every high school cross country race and wrestling match—which were often held around 3:30 pm. Likely not ...
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