Costa Nova’s Marrakesh was designed by famed French florist Christian Tortu, inspired by Yves Saint Laurent’s Les Jardins de Majorelle, the couturier’s botanical garden in Marrakesh that features the warm tones of sandy walls, vibrant spice colors found in bustling markets, and the rich hues of traditional fabrics, a collection with a keen eye to sustainability and Moroccan mystique.
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This isn't Christian Tortu's first collection for ...
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How we helped a store in Alabama revamp its online gift registry and save thousands in labor costs.
October 8, 2024
We are pleased to announce that Table Matters has joined Shop Local to grow its online business. Nestled in the heart of the Mountain Brook Village, Table Matters offers gifts, home goods, tableware, bridal registry, and more.
By using their Shop Local Store, Table Matters saved $30,983 and 45 weeks in labor on website product maintenance. Through the Syncing service, the store will expand its online collection of fine gifts and home accessories. Table Matters will also ...
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How a Drawing Helps Share the10x Improvement We Deliver to Indie Shops
July 4, 2024
At breakfast in the East Village this morning, Austin Kleon’s email image struck me. His hand-drawn summer sale sign by a pool was much more heartfelt than the text-based offer. His drawing shows how our minds may become immune to text offers but react and perk up to new and authentic imagery.
I wondered what I could draw for my business. I often communicate using text and sometimes rely on stock images. Since we help indie stores grow their registry businesses, I decided to ...
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Live life in full bloom…throw open the windows and allow inspiration to take flight with blissful motifs, delightful hues and harmonious shapes to create havens of beauty in your own home and make everyday feel like a celebration.
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How Amazon privatizes public spaces for its own profit
February 14, 2024
This is a daily sight on 8th St. in the East Village of New York City, a spot historically chockablock with indie, brick-and-mortar shops. This is an Amazon truck and freelancers who have taken over the street (it’s a no standing zone) and sidewalk as their own. This is one way Amazon sells things for less: it turns public streets and sidewalks into its “warehouses” and “stores.” Imagine you’re a local business with a roof and rent. You can’t compete ...
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Inspired by a storybook setting nestled in the French Alps, enjoy après-ski with mulled wine and a hearty meal served on this charming collection depicting Santa’s snowy village.
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Summer green has given way to an autumnal explosion of color on this climbing vine which means this bird will soon depart its summer home for southern destinations. This feathered beauty was a shy resident, preferring to hop around behind the cover of leaves and branches, but the neighborhood got to know it nonetheless through its daily songs. When Mother Nature awakens in the spring and restores the bird's sanctuary, the village knows the bird's lullabies will soon return as well.
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Amazon and third-party delivery services have setup a “warehouse” outside the Astor Place USPS office. This is not a truck parking for five minutes. This a day-long, everyday occurrence. I’ve seen this same scene on a daily basis all around the city for the last three years.
This hurts local retailers. While the local businesses pay extra taxes to operate a store in southern Manhattan, it costs Amazon much less to park a delivery truck (permanently?), put ...
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We're ready for a relaxing three day weekend, how about you?? Let us help you set the perfect red, white, and blue table for Memorial Day! We're showing another fun mix of Skyros patterns with our Cantaria Charger, Historia Dinner, Villa Beleza Salad, and Isabella Ramekin.
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How we can celebrate indie stores and promote sales by hosting a Save Local event.
February 23, 2023
When one thinks of shopping locally, some consider it an act of charity. One may pay more and get less selection. That’s not a recipe for success. In contrast, the world’s most successful retailers, Walmart and Amazon, operate on just the opposite principles: low prices and massive selection. When I’m in Walmart's Panama City Beach location, it’s so massive I feel like I’m in the Giants' stadium. Amazon sells 12m items on its website (350m if you count the third-...
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I was at the East Village restaurant Evil Katsu tonight and spotted this clever promotion. I think gift shops should have a sign like this, too, and offer free gift wrapping if the customer leaves a review.
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I spotted this “Say Yes to Local” sign at my local, East Village grocery store. My neighborhood has been inundated with venture capital-backed online grocery delivery services. These services hurt local stores like this one.
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I discovered a page on Amazon’s site proclaiming that Amazon supports small businesses. That is news to me and many small businesses which have been attacked by Amazon, its deep pockets, and its army of millions of delivery people and thousands of warehouses. Amazon’s page says it helps small businesses, which it defines as having under 100 employees and less than $49 million in sales. (It says it uses Gartner’s definition.)
In the early 2000s, the board game Cranium became a hit. The game combined elements of Scrabble and Pictionary with the goal of helping more people enjoy playing a game. Richard Tait, who created Cranium and sold it to Hasbro in 2008 for $77.5m, passed away in July. Like Mr. Tait, I had been a paperboy, but he went beyond what I ever offered: he came up with a new service that sold breakfast sandwiches along his newspaper route. He increased profits and made customers happier. ...
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The rooster is a symbol of prosperity and positivity in Italy, and the watercolor brushstrokes and vibrant hues of the Gallo Pattern will invite that good fortune and Italian optimism into your home. Look for Vietri's ad with Glassworks in the new House Beautiful Magazine.
After a tragic bombing in Ukraine, one of the last surviving artifacts was a ceramic rooster in the kitchen window of a home in the village of Borodyanka. Today, the rooster has become a symbol of hope worldwide. In 2022, ...
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An East Village Artist’s Death Prompts a Reflection on the State of Indie Retailers Today
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While thumbing through the Times, I noticed a smiling young woman’s picture in the obituaries. In the black and white photograph, she's standing on a fire escape with a historic building and a bridge in the distance. I was initially attracted to Ronni Solbert’s 1959 picture, yet I was even more drawn in by what I noticed next to her photo: a children&...
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Color is calling! From the famed Amalfi Coast, Campagna, Vietri's flagship dinnerware, offers endless possibilities for artistic entertaining with colorful patterns that capture the vitality of the Italian countryside. The newest design, Cane (Dog), features whimsical hand-painted pups playfully running through a seaside garden in Positano Village (light green plate in lower middle of pic). Campagna is made of dishwasher and microwave safe Terra Cotta, and is available in 7 color/animal ...
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Seaside getaway!
Thanks to the scents of sea salt and wild flowers, feel the sea spray as if you were there with Baobab's Betany and Anosy scented candles.
Top: the ocean scented Betany candle is named for a little fishing village in the south west of the island of Madagascar. The patterned candle holder of this sea salt scented candle has been hand-crocheted in raffia, with blue and turquoise fish motifs. This perfumed, amber candle will transport the freshness of sea spray to your home.
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In Beyond Entrepreneurship 2.0, which the Bridge team is currently reading, the author Jim Collins confesses that he missed a key ingredient 25 years ago when he wrote the first edition. He states that he now realizes the most important part of achieving a great company is: getting the right people 'on the bus.’ I agree. Fourteen and a half years ago (long before I opened this book), I was lucky enough to pick up the right ‘passenger:' Moshe replied to my job posting (...
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