Launched this year, the new Carry On by Brookstone airport concept store stands to revolutionize the retail experience for the traveling public.
By Eric Slack
The Brookstone name has been synonymous with retail excellence since the company opened its first location in 1973 in Peterborough, N.H. Today, the Merrimack, N.H.-based company continues to strive for retail innovation, including with the recent launch of its Carry On by Brookstone airport store concept.
“For years, Brookstone has had particular success serving both business and leisure travelers in our airport stores,” CEO Tom Via says. “They’ve come to rely on us for travel electronics, travel pillows and blankets, and the ever-important take-home gift. Brookstone airport stores were so successful for us that we simply wanted more of them. As a new store concept, Carry On gives us a great way to offer customers an even more specialized travel assortment that we just couldn’t fit inside our Brookstone stores. Plus it gives us a way to open more stores in airports where we already do business.”
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Shoe Mill stands as a leading independent retailer in the Pacific Northwest.
By Alan Dorich
When people come to Shoe Mill’s stores, they are more than mere customers, President and CEO Ed Habre says. “We consider every customer a neighbor and friend,” he declares. “Our purpose is to take care of them with thoughtful hospitality.”
Portland, Ore.-based Shoe Mill operates retail stores that sell shoes and related accessories. Habre’s parents started the company in 1978. “My dad was a longtime footwear retailer,” he recalls, explaining that his father always wanted to be the owner of his own shoe store.
While his father worked for a nationally known shoe store chain, that company eventually gave him the opportunity to own and operate his own branded concept store. To make this dream a reality, Habre’s parents sold all of their assets and moved into a new mall location three hours north of Portland.
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S&R Quisberg provides its customers with a full selection of products in Minnesota’s north woods in its branded grocery stores and gasoline stations.
By Russ Gager
Chris Quisberg’s grandfather started in the grocery business in Minneapolis around 1956, but later sold the business and opened grocery stores in Minnesota’s north woods. “My guess would be my grandfather didn’t want to retire, and my dad, Steve, wanted to be in the grocery business,” Quisberg surmises. “Somebody came along and offered him a deal, and it was good enough money. My dad always says everything is for sale for a price.”
Quisberg himself – now president of S&R Quisberg, headquartered in Baxter, Minn. – started working in the family’s grocery business when he was 12 years old. “I’ve never had a different job in my life, so I don’t know if I’m missing anything,” Quisberg concedes.
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Spiegel marked its recent 150th anniversary by continuing its legacy of reaching out to customers with products and services that have a positive impact on their lives.
By Jim Harris
Spiegel has touched the lives of millions of people during its 150-year history. The company’s close relationship with its customers extends back to its origins, but truly took a step forward in the early 20th century, when it became known for its extremely liberal credit policies. This included not charging interest for credit and extending credit lines that were quite large for their time.
Advertisements proclaiming “We Trust The People!” and “The People Should Get The Credit” attracted millions of Americans to order from its catalog, which at one point had more than 200 million copies in print.
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Shikatani Lacroix Design Inc. relies on a deep understanding of consumer behaviors to assist its clients.
By Bob Rakow
For Shikatani Lacroix Design Inc., it’s all about the moment of purchase. The Toronto-based strategic design agency delivers branding solutions that “strike an emotive chord with consumers,” founder and President Jean-Pierre Lacroix says.
Shikatani Lacroix believes that a brand must capture a consumer’s imagination and heart at the moment of purchase. Yet that opportunity is fleeting. The agency’s goal is to help companies capture it, Lacroix says. Shikatani Lacroix works with clients to increase traffic, generate sales, boost monthly transactions or shift brand perceptions, Lacroix says. The agency offers a variety of services including brand strategy and engagement, corporate identity, design innovation, digital experiences, environmental design, naming, packaging design and place branding.
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With locations stretching through five eastern Canadian provinces, Michael Rossy Ltd. is positioned for further expansion of its variety store concept.
By Eric Slack
The Rossy story is all about seizing opportunity and fulfilling dreams. When Syrian-born Salim Rossy immigrated to Canada in 1910, he opened a general store near Saint Laurent Boulevard in Montreal. He had 10 children, and all of them carved out successful careers in Canada’s retail sector. One of his sons, Michael Rossy, opened his first store more than 50 years ago, creating the Michael Rossy Ltd. company and its Rossy chain of stores.
“Today, Rossy is known as your family store and known for great value at great prices,” Store Operations Coordinator Denis Portelance says. “We have grown to 80 stores in the provinces of Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, and we have more than 1,400 employees.”
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Nicole Miller leads in the fashion world because it always follows its own path.
By Chris Petersen
Success in the world of fashion comes from being able to react to trends just as easily as you shape them, and for more than 30 years Nicole Miller has been at the forefront of women’s fashion for that very reason. With a broad base of upscale specialty retailers carrying the Nicole Miller brand, women around the world have been able to get their own versions of Miller’s designs, which have been worn by tastemakers including Beyonce, Jennifer Anniston and Angelina Jolie.
A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and l' École de la Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture Parisienne in Paris, Miller has become world-renowned for her combining of fine art with couture technique. But in fact she was creating styles that caught the fashion world’s attention even before she founded the Nicole Miller brand with CEO Bud Konheim in 1982. In addition to being found at upscale retailers around the world, Nicole Miller has two brick-and-mortar locations in New York City’s Soho neighborhood and West Hollywood, Calif.
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Miami Home Centers sets itself apart from big-box home improvement stores by offering the personal touch of service and unique, exclusive items.
By Stephanie Crets
Miami Home Centers might not be the biggest home improvement store on the block, but if a customer is looking to find an exclusive or unique item, they need look no further. Since 1959, Miami Home Centers has served southern Florida residents with four locations in Miami Beach, South Miami, Pinecrest and Tamiami, providing a convenient place to purchase home improvement products, while also serving contractors and businesses throughout the area.
Under the direction of second-generation President Dan Hitchcock Jr., it is now a complete home center with the expansion of its home décor department and Benjamin Moore paint department. Its kitchen and bath showroom has been expanded as well, and includes decorative hardware and lighting on display.
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