Morris Set to Unveil Cincinnati Shopping Complex

January 5, 2011  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in Store Openings on January 6, 2011

Morris Furniture is set to unveil its new Cincinnati location Tuesday with with new interior elements designed by Martin Roberts Design, Stamford, Conn.

The 72,000-square-foot Morris complex features five separate, inter-connected stores that provide customers with an environment that's easier to shop and which reinforces the retailer's expertise in mattresses, home theater furnishings and other categories of furniture products.

Roberts' design firm is responsible for the store's interior design, a number of innovative in-store merchandising concepts, interior signage and graphic elements. The complex includes of three Morris branded shops--The Morris Home Furnishings showroom, The Home Theater store at Morris and The Morris Outlet--as well as The Better Sleep Shop and one of the Fairborn, Ohio-based company's Ashley Furniture Homestores. The Cincinnati furnishings retail complex, a $3 million investment, is located at 11765 Commons Drive near Tri-County Mall. The company has operated stores in the Dayton area for 63 years and now expands its presence to include the Cincinnati market.

According to Roberts, the five-stores-in-one concept reflects a growing preference among shoppers.

"I commend Morris Furniture's management for its foresight in providing shoppers with focused solutions to their furniture shopping needs," Roberts said. "Their unmatched product expertise and inviting, smaller-scaled spaces make it easier for customers to find what they want quickly. Across retailing, giants like Wal-Mart are rolling out smaller stores and malls are opening up multiple, store-specific entrances in response to changing shopping patterns. Morris has always been a leader in furniture retailing, and this new store concept adds another innovative milestone to its long history of accomplishments."

Morris Furniture Co. Inc. President and CEO Larry Klaben said the company's work with Roberts on the store concept began more than three years ago.

"From the beginning of the process, Martin Roberts embraced what is meant by our guiding phrase, 'More at Morris,'" he said. "With our new showrooms in Cincinnati, our customers are getting more selection, more style, more service and more savings. We€™re very pleased with how Martin helped us deliver More at Morris."

Also making shopping easier, each showroom is organized into lifestyle environments, so a shopper looking for a category like casual furniture will find all of the store's casual styles for each room in their home displayed together.

Unique elements of the new showrooms include:
* A large fireplace and hearth near the primary Morris Home Furnishings entrances establishes a warm inviting atmosphere and serves as an attractive backdrop for the leather gallery that wraps around it.
* An enormous screen showing sports programming creates drama and establishes a comfortable mood for the recliner department.
* In the The Home Theater store at Morris, multiple studio spaces display the perfect way to blend the latest electronics with beautiful furnishings €“ sparking shoppers€™ own ideas and introducing solutions that could work in their own homes.
* A mini Stearns & Foster museum that Roberts helped develop is located next to The Better Sleep Shop, serving as a tribute to the mattress company that got its start in Cincinnati in 1846.