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The headlines for our industry sound pretty upbeat, don’t they? And, they are true! Recently, 94 A.R.E. member companies, including fixture providers, visual presentation companies, and retail design firms, responded to our A.R.E. Industry Revenue Trends Survey in September. Here’s the good news:
- The median company reported growth in 2010 of 9.5 percent.
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I finally read Thomas Friedman’s book, “The World is Flat”, while
flying over to China a few weeks ago. I have been meaning to read it
for some time, and the 17 hours of quiet time on the international
flight was just what I needed. His premise, of course, is that the
world is indeed flat. Technology has enabled India to become the
customer service center for the United States and China to become its
factory.
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I know some colorful characters. Take my friend Craig of Farrington, for instance. A wandering minstrel with an penchant for shades between violet and green on the spectrum. I was put in mind of an air from his 2008 album when looking at this year's color trends.
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Created
by:
Jo Rossman
Published:
November 15, 2012
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I still remember my first international fixture sourcing trip. Way back in 2005, I traveled with the founder of my previous employer (a fixture manufacturer) to China to explore our asian sourcing options. I remember it well because it left an impression on me that I will never forget. In a few weeks of being on the ground, and visiting suppliers, I left knowing that we had seen the future; this is where manufacturing was gravitating now, and it was only going to accelerate in the future. I also remember how "in over my head" I felt when trying to conduct business in a place where I knew almost nothing of the language, culture, or expectations.
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They say that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
In the light of Best Buy's recent decision to pull out of China and Turkey, one is led to conclude that there is still a lot of opportunity for the retailers of today to learn from the lessons of the past.
The wall of history features prominently in the main foyer of the Best Buy corporate campus in Richfield Minnesota. Walking its length you can read about the history of the company that was once called "Sound of Music", and of particular note is an event that happened on June 14th 1981. On that date, a tornado ripped through their Roseville store location, damaging and destroying a significant amount of inventory. In the days following the storm, the team at Sound of Music set about liquidating this inventory in preparation of rebuilding the store, through a tent sale format that claimed all sales would be "best buys." Response to the "best buy" sale was fantastic and within 2 years of the tornado, the first Best Buy branded store was open for business in a new superstore, deep discount format. In product development circles we call this pivoting, changing direction in response to customer demands. Quite by accident, a regional hi-fi shop in Minneapolis had discovered the pent up demand for the superstore format that had been brewing in the American consumer.
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Retailers may be more interested in greening projects than designers think, according to A.R.E.'s State of Sustainability 2012 survey. Only 14% of retailers indicated a lack of commitment to sustainability, while two-thirds of designers find projects in which there is no request for sustainability at all as the highest or next-to-highest percentage of their retail work. Kinda makes one wonder who is getting all that green building work. More than half of retailers responding set green building goals for at
least some projects, and more than a third say they prefer sustainable
strategies even though they do not set specific green building goals.
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