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Retail Profile: Pamplemousse

Retailing is like parenting: adding another kid (or location) to the family doesn’t double the work— it triples the effort. Diana Manahan, who opened the doors to the second location of her successful store Pamplemousse in Reading, Mass., more than a decade after opening her first store in Salem, Mass., agrees. Partly because the second store is the one she always wanted to…

Stats: Americans Seek the American Dream

Despite reporting that their current financial position is healthy, most Americans still aren’t satisfied. It is a dour mood that could have an impact on what you sell at retail. That’s according to new research from Mintel, which says that half of all Americans consider themselves “middle class,” even though most report they can pay their monthly bills with money left…

Trends: Daily Coffee Consumption Up

Americans once again are waking up to coffee. The percentage of Americans drinking coffee on a daily basis is up this year, thanks in part to better-tasting gourmet brews becoming more popular across all age groups in the U.S. That’s according to The National Coffee Association’s 2017 National Coffee Drinking Trends tracking report, which found that the percentage of…

Retail Profile: Plum’s Cooking Company

When Penny Klinedinst learned her friend Caroline Peterson, then owner of Plum’s Cooking Company, was retiring and planning to close the much-loved cookware shop, Klinedinst knew she had to find a way to keep Plum’s open. So she bought the store. “She was going to close the doors and that didn’t sit well with me,” says Klinedinst, who also owns a neighboring store in the…

Looking for Local

Local retailers seek local products. That’s the theme across the nation as specialty retailers, many of whom also find they benefit from customers looking to shop at local businesses, try to return the favor with nearby producers. “We always focus on finding local products,” says Dan Saklad, owner of, along with wife Diana, Whisk in Cary, N.C. “We are local, so we do…

Retail Profile: Thyme in the Kitchen

Thyme in the Kitchen may be tucked into a historic, Westside neighborhood in Evansville, Ind., but the store pulls in visitors from all over, many of whom are on their way to cities like Nashville some two hours away. The reason? Eye-catching billboards posted along major highways around Evansville, which though a lovely place, is not typically thought of as a destination…

Retailers Apply Tips, Info Learned At International Home + Housewares Show

For many independent retailers, the International Home + Housewares Show last March wrapped up the trade show season and with it the chance to meet with vendors, hobnob with other store owners and view exciting product trends. Back at home, retailers are resetting displays, reviewing product assortments and reflecting on how interactions during the International Home +…

Coffee Perks Up Sales

Retailers say that coffee-making products are helping to caffeinate their top lines as more consumers attempt to make their special brew at home. And in a reverse move from Nobel laureate Bob Dylan going electric at the Newport Jazz Festival, consumers and retailers are unplugging their machines. Sales of pour-over cones, borosilicate glass containers, vacuum brewers, burr…

Retail Profile: Now You’re Cooking

Retailer: Now You’re Cooking Owners: Jerry Martins, Barbara Lynn Location: Ithaca, N.Y. Founded: 1986 Square footage: 1,500 net sq ft When is a kitchen sieve not a kitchen sieve? When it an aphid separator, says Jerry Martins, who should know. As one of the owners of Now You’re Cooking, in the college town of Ithaca, N.Y., Martins and his business partner Barbara Lynn count…