Off Price @ home

Adding “The Things We Love” to Your Store –
A newly-integrated Home & Gift Expansion will help retailers add more excitement and attract new customers to their store  

“I like the idea of the Off Price Show expanding their Home and Gift presence.  This has become a very hot field and would certainly make your Show even more popular.  Now, there will be more deals in more categories.
Peter Hayes
Board of Directors
Big Lots

“Hamrick's is pleased that more Home & Gift Vendors will be exhibiting at the OFF-PRICE Specialist shows.  Our largest sales gains are coming from the Home & Gift departments.”  

Chuck Lewis
GMM
Hamrick’s

“There are other categories that apparel retailers are adding, including home, and you can’t find them anywhere.  The Off Price Show is well-represented in apparel, and we look forward to it becoming a one-stop shop for all Off Pricers.”

                     Glen Gammons
Corporate Merchandise Liquidation Director,
JC Penney

The testimonies from our biggest retailers notwithstanding, a recent visit to a midwest boutique owned by one of our buyers convinced me that home & gift is the next critical category of Off Price vendors, and that apparel retailers owe it to themselves to examine the possibilities of enhancing their retail experience with the integration of new home categories to their fashion.  The Things We Love in Evanston, Illinois offers a unique selection of women’s apparel, accessories, jewelry and – vintage and new gifts and home décor.  They have thrived in the Chicago northshore community for 4 years, serving an eclectic customer base consisting of (Northwestern) university types, wealthy housewives and artisans who proudly support independent retail.

Partner Tyler Sapien had a passion for shopping at flea markets and auctions, and finding great bargains on good products.  He decided to share that passion with others by providing a retail experience that mixed the old with the new because “that’s how people decorate these days.”  What started as a gift and home furnishings shop with women’s accessories and jewelry morphed into a clothing boutique because there was no place in their downtown that offered dresses.  They added dresses along with jackets, coats, hats and a variety of separates to complement their furniture, antiques, home furnishings and gift offerings. 

Key sellers among Home & Gift at The Things We Love include purse hangers, cheese boards, serving platters, picture frames and vases.  What fed my impulse buying was a French vanilla-scented candle in a decorative jar for less than $6.  It was one of a robust offering of over 50 scented varieties from Tyler Candles.

A full wall of hats and special accessories effectively displayed the natural connection of home & gift with personal fashion.  Both seasonal and period-type hats from Betmar, Scala and Dorfman-Pacific (Booth #813 at the August Show) are paired with wallets, purses and home accents in individual bins.  The wall faces a presentation of dresses and blouses, giving the female consumer an abundance of mix and match options.

But the male shopper is also intrigued by the interesting and unusual frames, the antique furniture including a man’s wardrobe and a vintage bookshelf (filled with great gifts), and the antique novelties like a Smith Corona typewriter made sometime after 1926.  He can take his wife or girlfriend to the trunk parties they have each Spring and Fall at the store.  She can shop for jewelry from Patricia Locke and Laura Atwood while he peruses candles and frames.

To the Off Price retailer, this could be your store – a value-focused experience that appeals to the overall sense of fashion; an incubator for today’s austere consumer looking to re-invent themselves at home while delaying travel plans; a destination spot for new customers looking to be inspired.  Check them out at www.the-things-we-love.com. 

Off Price @ home
What is it?
A collection of new home & gift vendors integrated throughout the Off Price Show to stimulate retailers and merchandisers looking for new product categories and the “next exciting buy.”

Why?
Because our top retail buyers are asking for home products that they can’t find anywhere else.  Retailers large and small are limiting travel expenses, including the number of buyers they are sending to shows.  They want the Off Price Show to be their one stop shop.  Plus, the small and independent retailers are always looking for new treasures at the Off Price Show, and home & gift is nothing new on our exhibit floor.  As Larry Manus of United Auctions says, “you have to diversify.  You have to diversify!”

What Categories of Home & Gift
will there be?

What’s in it for me?
Besides the new product offerings, here’s your chance to help shape the growth of the Off Price Show in relation to your store’s needs. 
Tell us what you are looking for in home/gift and new product options for your store.  Tell us what your customers are looking for from you as the favorite retailer.  Email us your ideas and suggestions at dbrowne@offpriceshow.com.