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These are particularly challenging times for the giftware industry, as it endures pressures from a variety of sources. In search of some answers, G&DA asked 14 business leaders what they [...]

Our annual look at trends and forecasts for the upcoming year is based on two main sources: a survey of gift and home accent vendors, conducted by our research department, [...]

The Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan is a 'history destination' featuring five different attractions: the Henry Ford Museum, the Ford Rouge Factory, the Benson Ford Research Center, an IMAX theater, [...]

When South African sculptor Carrol Boyes was looking to open a retail outlet in either London or New York, little did she know that a cell phone company would help [...]

Just one year shy of its 30th birthday, Aid to Artisans (ATA), a nonprofit organization with 34 employees housed in a historic trolley barn in downtown Hartford, Connecticut, has an [...]

A generational shift in the American consumer that's been evolving over the past few seasons appears to have fully blossomed as furniture, decorative accessories, and tabletop manufacturers present their design, [...]

The results of November's election present Robin Albing and her firm, Albing International Marketing (AIM), with a challenge. If there's really a red/blue divide in this country, does a manufacturer [...]

Before 2003, Messe Frankfurt's semiannual consumer goods fair was essentially same event held every February (Ambiente) and every August (Tendence). But dwindling interest in the summer edition convinced the show [...]

Any company that's been in business for 56 years will likely have undergone a number of changes over the decades in order to keep abreast of trends and a changing [...]

It was 1984 when the Accent on Design division of the New York International Gift Fair opened to the trade with 161 exhibitors. The venue was the 'piers,' or the [...]

The American spirit flourished in the aftermath of September 11, as we felt compelled to express pride in our country. Designers and trendsetters followed suit with a plethora of product [...]

Ross-Simons is a 51-year-old-retailer of fine jewelry, china, glass, home decor, and gifts with a chain of 14 tail stores, one outlet store, and an extensive catalog operation. The company, [...]

In the month before he passed away on Christmas Day, 2002, Russ Berrie signed the papers to establish the Russ Berrie Institute for Professional Selling at William Paterson University in [...]

Above all, a home must be warm, welcoming, and comfortable,' notes fashion designer Oscar de la Renta, whose debut collection of furniture by Century showed at the fall High Point [...]

Andrew Morton of Knoxville, Tennessee, has learned a thing or two about store promotions in his time. An experienced retailer of 47 years, he opened Andrew Morton Gifts in 1965. [...]

Black Sheep Designs, a 950-square-foot gift shop housed in an historic building in Trumansburg, New York, was featured in the June issue of Gifts & Decorative Accessories. The article, entitled [...]

In times of strife, Americans traditionally look to family and home for safety and security. And in these unsettling months, they are reverting to form. They are traveling less, making [...]

Andrew Morton Inc., located in Knoxville, Tennessee, is a successful gift store that specializes in gifts, china, crystal, flatware and linens. In addition to overseeing his business, founder and president Andrew Morton finds time to involve his store in the community. Morton uses his store's many promotional events to raise money for charitable causes. For example, a recent promotion for a Princess Diana porcelain figurine included the donation of a percentage of the sales to children's charities., With sales of $2,305,000, 1997 proved a banner year for Andrew Morton Inc., Knoxville, Tenn. It represented a 20 percent increase over 1996, which was a very good year in [...]

The need for more space for the Collector's Gallery and the Christmas Gallery led to combining two stores, moving to a new location and designing a facility on a grand [...]

Just one year ago, The Burlap Horse in Boerne, Texas, won a REA Gold Award for store design. Owners Jeff and Melissa Haberstroh designed and built their 2,450-square-foot antiques, home [...]

In February, the Indian Handicrafts & Gifts Fair (IHGF) held its 19th semiannual show at the Pragati Maidan fairgrounds in New Delhi. Some 1,500 exhibitors showcased products for an expected [...]

From the department of How Time Flies: Spring Fair Birmingham, the U.K.'s largest gift and home accents show, celebrated its 30th anniversary in February, as some 4,000 exhibitors showcased products [...]

Americans are familiar with the wide range of tableware products from Villeroy & Boch, but they're much less likely to know that the German manufacturer also produces toilets, lavatories, tubs, [...]

Seldom do the design for a new store and the owners' visual merchandising concepts blend as well as they do at Artezen, the 2004 Gold Award winner for Visual Merchandising. [...]

THOMPSON LANGE, CO-OWNER (WITH HIS BROTHER, BEAU) OF Homescapes, Carmel, fully believes that promotion is the key to the success of their Carmel, California, store. 'All aspects of promotion [are] [...]

Seldom the design for a new store and the owners visual merchandising concepts blend as well as they do at Artezen, the 2004 Gold Award winner for Visual Merchandising. Although [...]

THOMPSON LANGE, CO-OWNER (WITH HIS BROTHER, BEAU) OF Homescapes, Carmel, fully believes that promotion is the key to the success of their Carmel, California, store. 'All aspects of promotion [are] [...]

Don't be fooled by the name of The Indian Handicrai'ts & Gifts Fair (IHGF), a semiannual trade show held in New Delhi, India, now in its tenth year. It is [...]

In 1984, JoAnne Larsen opened a 1,000-square-foot gift store, called Country Goose, in White Bear Lake, Minnesota. As befit the name, her merchandise mix was almost all 'country' product. Over [...]

Color and clutter are two of the first words that come to mind at the first sight of the merchandise displays at Inside Out, a unique 875-square-foot store in Racine, [...]

Airport retailing has had its ups and downs over the last couple of years. On the one hand, fear of traveling has kept many Americans from taking to the skies, [...]

While there were no startling new trends at Frankfurt's Ambiente show, held last February, tabletop manufacturers continued to emphasize shape and color (as well as white) in their introductions. A [...]

Ron Hoy made use of a clever play on words in naming his store Hoypoloi, An Uncommon Gallery. Hoipolloi, of course, means just the opposite: ordinary or common. Ron opened [...]

At about the same time Susan Whitaker set out to repair the Greek Revival-style porch of her gift shop, located in an historic home in Trumansburg, New York, a local [...]

After waiting to see what the fallout would be from the invasion of mass merchants to their part of Maine, Rachel and Harvey Desgrosseilliers decided the time had come to [...]

Children born since 1980 are already fostering new marketing trends for retailers. Called Generation Y, these individuals are more streetwise and racially diverse than their parents' generation, and are less concerned with gender-specific roles. Marketers are therefore featuring models of all races and both genders. Having grown up with computers, Generation Y is also driving the expansion of the computer-related products market., Fifty-five million Americans currently under the age of 18 are going to have a huge impact on the political, cultural and economic life of our country in the 21st century. [...]

Family gift businesses are becoming more popular in the wake of corporate down-sizing. One goal of a family business is to pass the company on to the next generation. These businesses often thrive because of solid values that value customers and encourage trust. While family work relationships can enhance a business, work difficulties may harm family relationships. Family business members also need to learn how to deal with non-family employees., The family that works together has to work even harder to stay together -- and to keep the business alive for the next generation. That's been the experience of family [...]

The slow days of the summer season are over, the busy fourth quarter is quickly approaching, and planning for 2002 introductions is well underway. In this issue, we focus on [...]

The stories about this year's finalists in the Promotion category of the Merchandising Achievement Awards are filled with ideas that just about any specialty retailer can emulate. On the West [...]

Of course, you know by the cover that this issue marks the beginning of our annual coverage of the Merchandising Achievement Awards. But did you know that it is also [...]

It's a flag-waving, red, white, and blue cover that we've come up with this month. The Uncle Sam figure is courtesy of Midwest of Cannon Falls; the Empire State Building [...]

Britain's Spring Fair celebrated 25 years of sourcing products from around the world. When Queen Elizabeth opened the first Spring Fair in Birmingham, England, in 1976, the fair occupied five [...]

The spring Macef show was a potpourri of Italian design. Murano glass, silver, and jewelry were highlighted. The phrase 'Italian design' suggests the minimalism that Armani brings to apparel, the [...]

With all the competition that specialty retailers face these days, it's more important than ever to find ways to distinguish yourselves. One sure way is to provide stellar customer service. [...]

Geometric patterns prevailed in tabletop designs at the Frankfurt Fair. New introductions were limited. Circles, stripes, swifts, polka dots, squares, and rectangles showed up in the design motifs of the [...]

In spite of some gloomy economic predictions and reports of reduced consumer confidence, stationery manufacturers and vendors are predicting increased sales in 2001. That's the optimistic outlook of 78 percent [...]

We, too, at Gifts & Dec have suffered the pangs of trying to establish a Web presence. While we thought our first Web site, which debuted just over a year [...]

Permanent florals are the subject of our cover story, 'Flower Power,' this month. It's been a number of years since those ghastly plastic creations (still found adorning some gravestones in [...]

There have been forces in play over the past couple of years that promise to alter wholesale buying and selling in the gift industry. One is the rise of b-to-b [...]

In Paris, the Louis look is out and the clean, unadorned look is in. The color du jour is purple. The trend in French decor in the first decade of [...]