Gift & Home - August 2010

one-of-a-kind piece.

In home electronics, televisions were the big mover. In electronics brands, both for home and personal electronics purchases, it is no surprise that Apple is luxury consumers’ favorite brand. Bose is another popular electronics brand, especially among the most affluent shoppers.

Affluent home owners invested in lots of new lamps and lighting accents in 2009. Home improvement stores gained share of affluents’ retail sales in the furniture, light and rug category as a result.

All things luxury for outdoor living got a boost in 2009. From outdoor furniture, power equipment, lighting, water features and barbecue grills, luxury consumers invested more in their outdoor living spaces.

Perhaps in response to less dining out, affluents moved their home cooking up a notch in 2009. They invested more in cook’s tools such as small kitchen appliances, cookware, cutlery and bakeware. They also turned to specialty gourmet cooking stores as their #1 destination for their housewares purchases, knocking department stores into second place. The Internet was the third more popular destination.

Affluents also invested more in
their kitchens by buying luxury
kitchen appliances and other kitchen
equipment such as cabinets, coun-
tertops and sinks. Specialty appli-
ance dealers benefited strongly from
these investments, ranking as the
second most popular destination for
luxury shoppers after the big-box
home improvement stores.
Affluents slept better in 2009, at
least as measured by greater spend-
ing on mattresses and box springs
and bed linens.
Affluents who purchased luxury
tabletop declined in 2009, but those
who bought spent over 50 percent
more. Specialty gourmet stores and
the internet picked up market share
of affluents’ spending on tabletop,
while department stores and spe-
cialty home furnishings stores lost
share. For the first year in luxury
tracking, Waterford beat out Lenox
as the top tabletop brand.
“As we can see from some of the
major take-aways from this most
recent home luxuries study, those
affluents who are still buying home
luxuries are spending more, but
their spending patterns have shifted
to new items, new brands, and new
channels of distribution,” says Dan-
ziger. “The home luxuries marketer
is charged with navigating new ter-
rain, and this kind of consumer in-
telligence research can serve as a
much-needed road map.”

Learn more at www.unitymarket-ingonline.com.

Demdaco Announces
New and Expanded
Showrooms

In order to add a west coast presence to the company’s showroom mix, DEMDACO is excited to announce new showroom locations at World Market Center Las Vegas. With the addition of Big Sky Carvers and its current Las Vegas Showroom, DEMDACO worked with the World Market Center to relocate and expand the space to accommodate all DEMDACO offerings as well as adding a new separate room for the Silvestri Brand. Both new rooms (C- 944 and C-907) will open with the Gift+Home show August 2-6, 2010. The two rooms will total 13,000 square feet and house DEMDACO, Willow Tree, Silvestri and Big Sky Carvers.

“We are excited to have a presence on the west coast at the World Market Center for the convenience of our customers and our sales force,” commented Bob Ki-ersznowski, Executive Vice President of Sales & Marketing. In addition, Robert Maricich, president and CEO of World Market Center Las Vegas adds “DEMDACO is one of the most respected gift and décor companies in the industry and we are very proud that they have committed to World Market Center with two new showrooms.

They have exciting plans for both
spaces, which we believe will serve
as a major destination for gift buy-
ers who attend our Markets.”
In Atlanta at AmericasMart,
DEMDACO expands to 16,000
square feet in Building 2 West
Wing. The expansion allows for
increased space for the Silvestri
Brand and the Grand Opening of
a new Big Sky Carvers showroom
in Building 2W that had previously
been located in building 2.

In March of 2010, DEMDACO completed its move to the 1st Floor of the Trade Mart at the Dallas Market Center. This transition enabled the company to combine all brands into one location. The merged showroom located at 1418 Trade Mart was officially unveiled with a ribbon cutting ceremony at summer market and took home the Best of Show - 1st Floor/Trade Mart award.

22nd Annual ARTS
Awards Judges
Announced

Dallas Market Center (DMC), the world’s most complete wholesale marketplace, and the Accessories Resource Team (ART), the trade association representing the decorative accessory industry, today announced the 22nd annual ARTS Awards judges. This distinguished judging panel will select the winners of 26 Awards to be presented during a gala event on Saturday,