Thursday, June 29, 2006

From China to Texas, shoppers love Ikea (Toronto Star, 03 Jun 2006, Page M7)






From China to Texas, shoppers love Ikea
MAGGIE GALEHOUSE HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Toronto Star
03 Jun 2006

Most furniture chains don’t have hardcore fans who camp out in parking lots before grand openings or blog about copycat competition in China. But Ikea is more than a chain. The blue-and-yellow warehouse jammed with low-cost, high-style furniture and housewares is closer to a design revolution.
At company headquarters this spring, project manager Lars Dafnas summed up Ikea’s appeal in just three words: “Natural. Blond. Solid.” It’s a short profile that has cut a long swath through the global furniture market, making Ikea the world’s leading home furnishings retailer.
At a time when ethnicity sells, Ikea balances two seemingly contradictory truths. It remains rooted in Scandinavian design, even as its global reach, toward customers and suppliers, broadens each year.
In-house, Ikea divides all its products into four style groups: Young Swede, Scandinavian, modern and country. You won’t read or hear anything about these divisions in Ikea stores or catalogues, but a big chunk of the company’s output is designed for its own corner of the world. “We are here to be Scandinavian,” said Ikea designer Anna Rosenqvist at the press premiere of Ikea’s Stockholm collection, high-end furniture and accessories slated to hit North American stores in April, 2007. “Ikea must go its own way.’’
For most of us, the Scandinavian way is about light colours and basic functionality.
“It’s dark in Scandinavia half the year, so people try to lighten up their interiors... read more...

Monday, June 26, 2006

How large retailers can be neighborly (Chicago Tribune, 25 Jun 2006, Page 7)






How large retailers can be neighborly
By Annette Bernhardt and Nik Theodore
Chicago Tribune
25 Jun 2006


Across the country, communities are exploring ways to bring dignity and economic security to lowwage workers and their families. Chicago is right in the mix, considering a law that would require large retailers to pay their employees a living wage and health benefits.



But sadly, Wal-Mart has chosen to resort to scare tactics, threatening that it and other retailers would pull the plug on future expansion in the city if the law passes. That’s both disingenuous and disrespectful of the city and its residents.



The truth is that Wal-Mart and other large retailers absolutely need Chicago. Having built up in rural areas and suburbs to the point of overcapacity and stagnant sales, retailers are now hungrily eyeing cities. Finding new, untapped markets is the lifeblood of survival in the industry, and so it’s no surprise that business analysts are seeing a rush to open urban stores, what they’re calling the “final frontier of American retailing.” Space and labor costs may be higher in cities, but the experience of forerunners like Walgreens shows that urban stores often end up being even more profitable than suburban ones, because of high sales volume and concentrated buying power.



Chicago is the poster child for this expansion opportunity. Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, a leading think tank on local economic development, has studied Chicago and identified retail as one of four core industries for revitalizing the local economy and boosting employment and personal income. It estimated that innercity Chicago represents more than $5 billion in annual...
read more...