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Levin brings world to its store

Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, September 13, 2004

MONROEVILLE, Pa. — A visit to Levin Furniture’s newest store here is like a trip around the world in 80 minutes.

Vaughan’s NASCAR youth bed captures the attention of young race fans in the store’s Kids Kountry.

The Top 100 company’s 75,000-square-foot store in this eastern Pittsburgh suburb features Las Vegas-inspired displays that take consumers from the Great Pyramids of Egypt, to Tuscany, to a tropical island. It’s also Levin’s first store with “green” features designed to cut energy costs and pollution. And it has been a big hit since opening earlier this summer, said Robert Levin, president of the midpriced retailer with six stores in Pittsburgh and five in the Cleveland/Canton, Ohio, area. “Tom (Zwierzelewski) has outdone himself,” Levin said of his director of store design and merchandising. He wouldn’t provide figures, but said opening day in Monroeville was the single best volume day ever for any of its stores.

Levin’s causal dining department takes on the look of a Paris street café.

“It will certainly be in contention for the No. 1 (volume) position” among all Levin stores, he added.
The new Monroeville store is nearly three times the size of a smaller store it replaced, in keeping with Levin’s strategy to grow its market share in an area with a shrinking population, mainly by replacing tired, smaller units with larger, more appealing ones. The latest store may be the company’s boldest effort yet, with new features already proving successful enough to roll out to other stores. For starters, consumers are greeted at the entrance by a 20-foot waterfall worked into the landscape. Entering the showroom, they see a dozen or so international flags over the main theme: “We bring the world to you at Levin’s.” Throughout much of the store, murals, accents and other display techniques create dramatic backdrops to Levin’s product assortment. The leather upholstery department, for example, features a panoramic mural of Egypt’s pyramids, ancient-looking columns and hieroglyphics, and other architectural details from what resembles an ancient crypt.

Robert Levin, right, presents a $20,000 check to Pittsburgh’s Children’s Hospital during the grand opening celebration at the Monroeville, Pa., store.

In the casual contemporary area, Levin created a relaxed tropical display with giant faux palm trees, an ocean mural and 100-year-old columns and panels the retailer imported from Thailand. On the upper lever, each bedroom display has a country, state or region theme, from New England to Montana to Europe and Asia. One Tuscany-themed bedroom features a Collezione Europa group with Southern Textiles lines, while nearby Davis International’s Boca collection features Asian accents, including a large temple gate. The lower level’s Levin Gallery is devoted largely to designer collections. The store gives Universal and Klaussner living room settings a penthouse feel with a large mural that looks like a three-pane window overlooking the Pittsburgh skyline.

A life-size astronaut lends an out-of-this world feel to a Vaughan youth group in Kids Kountry.

Collections by Levin’s features curios, clocks and imported home accents in a space designed to look like a Paris flea market, and its casual dining area has the atmosphere of a Paris street café. A zoned music program reflects the various settings. The sleep center has been one of the most highly praised areas of the store, said Zwierzelewski. The area has an upscale “Feng Shui feel” with stone water panels on the walls and accent bed panels in a dark wood finish. It features a “comfort zone” where shoppers can stretch out and compare four mattress types — pillowtop, plush, firm and specialty foam. Much of the store design was inspired by a trip Zwierzelewski took two years ago to Las Vegas, where he spent time at the Venetian hotel and casino, the Luxor and other well-known properties. “That’s really where the root of this started,” he said. “Why do people like Vegas? Because they’re entertained. I wanted to bring that entertainment value here.”

Levin goes for an upscale look with the Zoe collection from Klaussner and a penthouse view of the Pittsburgh skyline.

A Collezione Europa bedroom with Southern Textiles linens gets the Tuscany treatment as part of Levin’s world tour theme.

An Ashley micro-twill living room gets the full tropical treatment in the casual contemporary areas, with faux palm trees, a sand tile floor and a 65-foot beach mural.

Lea’s Katie’s Place bedroom sits at the entrance to the Emerald City in Levin’s Kids Kountry youth area.

Davis International’s Boca bedroom is prominently displayed in an Asian-themed area of the master bedroom department.

Levin matriarch Sally Levin cuts the ribbon at the new store.

Jim Karbo, left, England; Courtney Cole and Amy Gentile, both of Levin, Smithton, Pa.; and Tim Tull, England.

*For additional coverage of Levin's new store opening, see the Sept. 13th print edition of Furniture/Today.

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Levin brings world to its store

Sep 26, 2004

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