Jim Shreve made Baccarat hip. Now, he and his longtime partner, Mark Brashear, along with Sally Burnside, the former Baccarat sales V.P., intend to do the same for DeVine Corp., the 32-year-old distributor of elite European brands. You're invited to the opening!
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Congrats to you all. This is very exciting. Tim, we’ve known each other since before you started DeVine Corp., 32 years ago. You’ve been looking for the right opportunity to retire. TIM ...
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I recently saw a car with the license plate: WHYWRK. I had a sad feeling for the driver, who perhaps wasn’t as lucky as I to have the best job in the world – getting paid to shop for the most beautiful goods in the world – which I am now retiring from. After 40+ years as a buyer of tabletop and gifts in Buffalo, I have the opportunity to put the dishes away, polish the flatware, and store the stemware. As a small specialty store, we’ve been through our share of ups and ...
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I have a stack of virtual news clippings that either struck my fancy, taught me something new, or just made me shake my head in bemusement. On their own, they may not be enough for me to make a point, but together they have a thought-provoking synergy (and I'm sure I'll figure out what that is by the end of this column).
Our industry has been negatively affected by the loss of American manufacturing after we entered a long stretch of automation and outsourcing in the late 1970s; every ...
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After Holiday Sale at Glassworks! Christmas decor and decorations by MacKenzie-Childs (pictured) and other manufacturers are included. All Holiday items are 30% to 50% off. Stop in at the Shadyside store to see the selection.
At the Bridge ‘office’ (which stretches from Seattle to Brooklyn), we’re currently reading Jim Collin’s book Beyond Entrepreneurship 2.0. We’re reading the book together because it helps us learn insights into working together and running the best company we can. On page 275, Mr. Collins shares an anecdote about a group of workers at an airplane manufacturing facility during World War II. The workers found inspiration from meeting the crew that flew the planes they ...
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Last February e-commerce company Shopify Inc. replaced the “Ottawa, Canada” dateline that began its press releases and earnings reports with a strange new one: “Internet, Everywhere.” The geographical shift came at the insistence of Shopify’s founder and chief executive officer, Tobi Lütke, who tends to view such matters through the prism of cold, hard logic. In May 2020, only a few months into the pandemic, he’d made the early, seemingly rash decision to...
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Retailers have had a difficult time in recent years, as brands have increasingly circumvented them. With the advent of e-commerce websites and social media, brands are pitching their wares directly to consumers and cutting out retailers.
I’ve sometimes wondered: What if the factory decides to do the same and cut out the brands? If the retailers don’t like it, how will the brands? Some businesses are now trying this. Services like Italic allow a consumer to bypass...
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April 8, 2020
April 8, 2020
We hope you are all safe and well during these extraordinary times.
Our office in NY remains fully operational as we are working remotely and most of the manufacturers will drop ship for us
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November 12, 2019
November 12, 2019
Amazon has opened an instant portal between our kids and Chinese goods that fail U.S. safety and environmental standards. Today's Wall St. Journal shares that Amazon is helping Chinese sellers upload a new item every 1/50th of a secondβresulting in a tsunami of questionable products flooding our homes.
Excessive lead in your kidβs dinner plate? A motorcycle helmet for your son that cracks easily? Get it on Amazon.
One may ask: how could a Chinese-speaking person be expected to know U.S. laws? ...
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June 8, 2019
June 8, 2019
E-commerce is going to double in the next seven years, predicts FedEx. When that happens, how prepared will your business be? How will you prepare your website, your staff, your shipping procedures, your pricing, and your sales expectations?
When e-commerce grows that much, who will control the market? How will customers shop? Via their mobile? Via Alexa? If e-commerce is the dominant form of shipping, how will your online product selection and prices be kept up to date online? If online ...
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Stores are hungry to know stock levels from their manufacturers. The brands that make knowing this information easy are the brands to which stores drive business.
Ask yourself: how can a store sell something it doesn't have in stock or for which it doesn't know the stock level?
Good news: Bridge now allows you to easily upload stock to your Bridge account. Only your authorized retailers ...
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May 10, 2018
May 10, 2018
Happy Mother's Day From Glassworks And Cheeks! Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there! For all you children, Glassworks has plenty of last minute gift ideas. Pictured are pieces from the new Sweet Briar Collection by MacKenzie-Childs. Just one of the many patterns and manufacturers that we stock.
Also still available is this previously announced promo: Spend $250 on MacKenzie-Childs and receive a free Large Flower Market Vase (a $54 value). This offer is good until Mother's Day, May 13th. If...
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February 28, 2018
February 28, 2018
What Is the Perfect Color Worth?
Inside the mysterious art - and big business - of color forecasting.
Last spring, a dozen people filtered into a sunny, whitewashed conference room on the seventh floor of the Royal College of Art, overlooking London's Hyde Park. Mostly Western Europeans from different precincts of the fashion industry, they had been called together by a British man named David Shah, editor and publisher of the "Pantone View Colour Planner." The book, issued each February and ...
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February 28, 2018
February 28, 2018
Behind the scenes at one of our top manufacturers, Annie Glass. Get your Annie G. at Glassworks!
Big Winter Sale At Glassworks And Cheeks! The Glassworks And Cheeks Winter Sale is going on now! Visit the Shadyside store to find Glassworks deals on various gifts,tabletop pieces, and holiday merchandise from our stable of top manufacturers. Selected items are up to 50% off. Cheeks in Squirrel Hill and Shadyside both offer many top brands of diverse lingerie and sleepwear at 50% off. Visit both stores to see all the selections!
What if someone bought everything for a week through Amazon? Well, then many Main Street shops would be empty, most sales reps would be out of work, and many manufacturers in the U.S. would be out of business. A Wall St. Journal reporter tries the βAmazon only dietβ and shares her findings.
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October 16, 2017
October 16, 2017
It's National Boss' Day today! Here at Salisbury we have the best bosses of all time. How else could we be one of the few remaining American pewter and sterling manufacturers? Don't forget to let your boss know how much they totally rock today!
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October 16, 2017
October 16, 2017
Are you a creative person? Have you designed a plate, cup, or item that you put your heart into? Imagine that a business copied your idea and sold it. This organization Be Original is helping track bad actors in the design world that copy designers. For example, some of you may be aware that ANNA by Rablabs' items have been copied by Anthropology stores. Check out this page for more copy cats: