Daily News Archive
Brought to you by Home Furnishings Business
January 17,
2012 by in UnCategorized 
By Home Furnishings Business in Community/Charitable Support on January 18, 2012
Hillside Furniture will be hosting its second annual Home Entertainment Expo later this month, and part of the proceeds will go to Kids Kicking Cancer, a non-profit that helps children with cancer manage the stress and pain of the disease through personalized coaching from black belt martial artists.
The event, which runs Saturday, Jan. 28 and Sunday, Jan. 29, Hillside staff and visiting experts from the furnishings and home electronics industries will discuss and demonstrate the latest in home entertainment.
The Bloomfield Hills, Mich.-based retailer will raffle more than $10,000 of furniture and accessories, donated by suppliers. Other products will be sold at discount with proceeds going to
Kids Kicking Cancer.
Cancer is the leading cause of death and disease for children under the age of 15," said Jeff Selik, president of Hillside Furniture. "Kids Kicking Cancer eases the pain of very sick children while empowering them to heal physically, spiritually, and emotionally. This year, we have additional support from local companies donating pizza for this event, plus Just Baked will have delicious gourmet cupcakes for everyone. It should be a fun, informative, mouth-watering sales event benefitting a worthwhile charitable cause!
January 17,
2012 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Community/Charitable Support on January 18, 2012
Home furnishings online retailer One Kings Lane is a 2012 corporate sponsor for Gift for Life.
Gift for Life is the gift, stationery and home decor industries' leading charitable organization. In addition to a direct contribution, One Kings Lane will help host a first-of-its-kind sales event offering curated items from the summer 2012 New York International Gift Fair, with proceeds benefiting Gift for Life.
"We are grateful to One Kings Lane for their immediate contribution as a corporate sponsor and their longer-term support through hosting of a curated flash sale benefitting Gift for Life," said Leslie Nathan-Street, chair of the Gift for Life board. "Their keen eye for style is matched by support for the industry and its charitable efforts."
"We are thrilled to support Gift For Life in its mission of hope and care, through both monetary support, and helping raise awareness of this worthy cause," said Susan Feldman, co-founder and chief merchandising officer of One Kings Lane.
Items in the sale will come from a special "Open House" trend and product display during the summer 2012 NYIGF, August 18-23,at New York City's Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. The three-day sale will open on Sunday, August 19 at onekingslane.com.
Each year, Gift for Life hosts events throughout the U.S. benefitting Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS. The primary mission of Gift For Life and DIFFA is to eradicate the AIDS pandemic in the U.S. Working together, Gift for Life and DIFFA will continue to raise funds for HIV/AIDS service and education programs. For additional information, visit giftforlife.org.
January 17,
2012 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in on January 18, 2012
Home furnishings retailer
Ikea has named the grand prize winner of its second Life Improvement Sabbatical Contest as Melissa Matthews of Wake Forest, N.C.
Following a month-long, online public vote, Matthews has won the sabbatical worth $100,000 to improve the lives of others through her Special Technology for Special Kids! program, and over the next year, she will share her experience
online. Additionally, Ikea is donating $50,000 to Save the Childrens U.S. Programs.
The contest had more than 1,000 entrants and more than 50,000 votes were cast by the public for the five finalists, including the winning entry. Matthews' Special Technology for Special Kids! program helps children with intellectual disabilities through cutting-edge educational technology.
As we congratulate Melissa on this exciting new chapter of her life and her cause, we applaud all who participated in this contest, said Leontyne Green, marketing manager, Ikea North America. We believe that life improvement starts at home and we look forward to helping Melissa with a project that is so close to home for her, yet will help so many others.
The mother of a child with Down syndrome, Matthews is planning to expand the work being done at the
Frankie Lemmon School in Raleigh, N.C., a school for children with intellectual disabilities. This institution uses technology and cutting-edge therapy to help children with special needs. As winner, Matthews plans to use the resources and her teaching background to infuse technology deeper into the classrooms and create a Web site to facilitate the sharing of these technologies and techniques with other teachers across the country.
I was given the gift of expectation for my own son when I visited Frankie Lemmon School and saw the effect that new technology and cutting-edge therapies can have on children with special needs, Matthews said. This prize and the support from Ikea will help expand the important work thats being done at the school and allow us to share what we're doing with other educators so that even more kids can benefit. This opportunity is such a dream come true for me and for so many others who love young children with special needs. It is an honor to be trusted with such an awesome responsibility and privilege."
In addition to the year-long sabbatical, Matthews will also receive a trip to a spa resort in Phoenix, Ariz., to participate in a one-hour life coaching session with life coach Dr. Martha Beck. She will also be featured in advertorials in upcoming issues of
O, The Oprah Magazine. The public can also continue to follow Matthews throughout the year as
her project is chronicled online.
Ikea is also awarding a $1,000 gift card prize to each of the four runners-up in the contest:
· Cheryle Clarke (Longmont, Colo.) of Alternatives to Family Violence, a domestic violence service center provider for Adams County, Colo.;
· Lisa Dunster (Missoula, Mont.) of Compass Retreat, an organization that provides a supportive setting for military service members and their families following return from deployment;
· Nan Jenkins (Stockbridge, Ga. ) of A Friends House, an organization on the outskirts of Atlanta, Ga., that provides and operates a facility for the communitys children in need;
· Scott Millard (Landing, N.J.) of Connors House, a resource center to assist families with chronically ill children, providing short-break respite, family support and end-of-life care.
January 17,
2012 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Legal on January 18, 2012
The U.S Patent and Trademark Office has confirmed the validity of a patent for bedding manufacturer Kingsdown's mattress diagnostic system.
In a Jan. 6 ruling, the Patent Office denied King Koil's attempt to invalidate Mebane, N.C.-based Kingsdown's patent No. 6,585,328.
Last year, Kingsdown had served a U.S. District Court complaint against King Koil/Comfort Solutions asserting that it infringed this patent and several trademarks related to Kingsdown's bedMATCH technology.
"We're very happy that the U.S Patent and Trademark Office has affirmed our position as the authority in sleep diagnostics," said Kingsdown Chairman and CEO Eric Hinshaw. "We own the patent-protected bedMATCH technology, which has revolutionized the way bedding is sold. Kingsdown was the first to use science to help a consumer find the right mattress for their body type. This ruling should assure our dealers that we will always vigorously defend their right to use our system without fear of others trying to copy our intellectual property."
The culmination of more than 15 years of research and development and more than 7 million profiles, the bedMATCH system uses 18 statistical measurements and over 1,000 calculations to assist the consumer in selecting the best mattress and pillow for their body type. Product features and comfort feels from multiple manufacturers are programmed into each bedMATCH machine. Printed recommendations provide sales associates and shoppers an easy reference guide to help select the brand and mattress that best fits their postural support requirements.
Kingsdown makes premium mattress systems serving leading retailers across the United States and in more than 20 countries. International offices are located in Bangkok, Thailand, and Tokyo, Japan.
January 17,
2012 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in on January 18, 2012
Tifton, Ga.-based Turners Fine Furniture and sister retailer Turners Budget Furniture has a dual-attach approach to meeting its customers needs with both a middle- to upper-end group of stores and a family of lower-priced stores.
The retailer uses area rugs as a boost to its bottom line.
Merchandised throughout the stores within vignettes, the rugs serve as an anchor in displays and often sell themselves as consumers are shopping. Rugs have always been a part of the stores merchandising strategy, and continue to play a big role.
Earlier this month, we caught up with Wade Young, marketing manager for Turners, to get his thoughts on incorporating rugs into the furntiure retailing business.
Q What approach does the Turner family of stores take in selling rugs?
Our goal at Turners is to provide the best-looking, best quality product at the lowest possible price to our customer and rugs are no different.
It is rare that we can justify the cost of promotion for this category, except through e-mail or the Internet.
Q How does selling rugs differ from other categories in your stores in terms of merchandising and promotion?
Well obviously rugs are great for increasing the bottom line on tickets. Customers come in and they see a great living room group and the area rug underneath it. Our merchandising people do a great job of picking just the right rug to match the rest of the vignette. They really do a great job of it.
Q How do you define rugs role in your operations business plan?
As I mentioned earlier, it adds incrementally to our overall business. Often the customer will see a vignette they like and buy the whole package including the area rug because it all just looks so good together.
Q Can you share a few dos in rug merchandising throughout your store?
We display the rugs on the floors underneath the furniture so the customer gets a feel for what it might look like in their home. We do have some that are hanging in other areas but we find the customers are more likely to buy those they see in use in our vignettes.
Q Have you always sold rugs as a part of your merchandising strategy? Have you shifted your strategy in any way? If so, what are you doing differently?
Our strategy really hasnt been that much different over the years, but certainly the varieties of rugs we carry have grown.
Q How do you differentiate Turners rug selection from other retailers in the trading area that sell area rugs?
One thing we have going for us is our buying power. We are able to get a GREAT selection of rugs that outstrips many of our competitors selections. A few times a year we will partner with a manufacturer and have a tent sale of rugs. We will literally have thousands of rugs on display and the customers really seem to love those sales.
Q What selling techniques seem to work best among your sales team?
Obviously completing the vignettes helps a lot with rug sales, but beyond that our free in-home design service has really helped us in this area. Our designers may take a rug out to a customers home just to try it in a room they may be working on and often times the rug stays with the customer once they see what it does for their home. HFB