I can't help but be excited about this opportunity. My favorite national industry organization, Women In The Home Furnishings Industry Today (WITHIT) is selling ONLY 500 raffle tickets for a chance to win a brand-new bright red Mini-Cooper!

The drawing is October 17th at market and you don't have to be present to win.

Odds like this don't come along very often- 1 in 500 to win a very cool little car and, at the same time, to support a great organization related to our industry!

This raffle supports WITHIT's educational initiatives. WITHIT's motto is, "LEAD, GROW, ENCOURAGE and LEARN."

Why is this an important "retail idea?" Because our industry must support the leadership, mentoring and educational development of this all-important segment of our workforce.

For those of you not fam...Read More

Hear what Randy Gronigam has to say (he's the saavy retailer behind the great Chicago Bears promo)...

No doubt many of you heard or read about Randy Gronigam's (owner of World Furniture Mall in Plano, Illinois) brilliant promotional strategy that paid off in around- the- world media coverage for his store last week. CNN and the BBC along with countless others interviewed him.

Randy gave away $300,000 worth of furniture-free-to his customers because the Chicago Bears did not allow long-time rivals The Green Bay Packers to score. The odds were against them, but the Bears did win and Randy's customers were the  thrilled recipients of Randy's largesse -as you can imagine. ...Read More

I have just returned from attending the Women In the Home Furnishings Industry Today (WITHIT) educational conference. What a gathering! 140 women(and one lone man-the CEO of Vanguard-kudos to John from all of us) from all over the US and representing every aspect of our business. Most of the women were from the mid to senior level management ranks of the industry. 
 
Guess what Topic A seemed to be?
 

The difficulty of recruiting top sales talent to the retail sector.
 
This set me to thinking...
 
Why do retail stores have to be open on Saturdays and Sundays? I can just hear you saying..."you've got to be kidding- of course we have to open on the weekends!"
 
But think about this... WHY have retail stores traditionally been open on the weeken...Read More