Kevin will report to Blake Dennard, Senior Vice President

“We are very excited to have Kevin as part of the management team and the market knowledge he brings to the company. He will play a key role in the future growth of Kaleen,” Dennard said.

The post Kallen Promotes Kevin Blane to Regional VP appeared first on Rug News andDesign Magazine.

Rug News andDesign featured Mr. and Mrs. N.K. Chaudhary in the article Jaipur Rugs – 40,000 workers, 32,000 women from July 2011, detailing their contributions to empowering women and “giving dignity to the weavers.”

Within the article is a link to a fascinating case study about Jaipur by the noted Indian economist C.K. Prahalad.

Mr. and Mrs. Chaudhary have made a singular contribution to the rug industry.

The post Jaipur Rugs Foundation featured in The Atlantic appeared first on Rug News andDesign Magazine.

The Prize Package* will include:
·       Hotel for two people (double occupancy) — 2 nights and 3 days
·       Two (2) airline tickets to New York from anywhere in the continental USA
·       Night on Broadway and Dinner — for two (2)
·       Spirit of New York Dinner Cruise — for two (2)
*Some restrictions apply. Please talk to your Nourison rep for details.

Other promotions by Nourison at the Atlanta Market include:

Nourison’s Showroom Reception
Friday, July 12 from 5:00PM to 7:00PM
3F2 Atlanta Merchandise Mart
Featuring cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, and entertainment.

Daily Open Bar
Wine, cheese, cocktails
From 4:00PM to 7:00 PM every day of the Market
3F2 Atlanta Merchandise Mart

Showroom Promotional Items:
Fabulous Nourison shopping bags, pens and flashlights.

The post Nourison Offers New York City Giveaway and Other Promotions at Atlanta Market appeared first on Rug News andDesign Magazine.

Ivory Gray from Feizy’s new Amalfi Collection

Dallas, TX—This June’s Dallas Total Home & Gift Market will be a prolific one, as 19 collections are set to make their Dallas debut in honor of the Feizy Rugs’ Ruby Anniversary Celebration.

“Our designers have created amazingly eye-catching designs in all price points and constructions,” says John Feizy, Founder and CEO.  “From the ultra-fine hand knotted pieces down to attractively-priced, indoor/outdoor and machine made collections, we have an incredible new selection of pieces that represent every taste and offer something that’s practical for every lifestyle.”

Over 40 years, Feizy Rugs has evolved from a small, retail storefront based in Dallas to one of the most well-respected and innovative manufacturers and wholesalers in the home furnishings industry.  Mr. Feizy credits the company’s success with the vast assortment of rugs they carry as well as the Feizy Design Team’s ability to constantly stay ahead of trends.

Two new collections, Amalfi and Anoosha, are being added to the Feizy Fine Rug Collection.  The Anoosha Collection is a grouping of traditional designs while Amalfi leans more toward transitional and contemporary, but both collections are rich, elegant and refined.

Seventeen new collections are being added to the Feizy Home Collection of mid-range to value-priced rugs.  Power loomed additions include the Lucka Collection of indoor/outdoor rugs, the Saphir Yardley and Saphir Rubus Collections of high-low viscose rugs and the Azeri Collection (available in four palettes), a new wool and viscose offering that possesses an incredibly plush hand and offers exceptional performance against wear.

Orange White from Feizy’s Cetara Collection of hand hooked rugs

New tufted offerings include:  the Mahsa Collection, the Carina Collection, the Aurora Collection and the Morisco Collection.  The Cetara Collection of hand hooked rugs is also set for introduction.  Each makes innovative use of texture and fibers to create settings of great visual impact that are at once fashionable and functional.

Tamar and Coronado are the newest additions to the Poetic Wanderlust Collection by Tracy Porter, which will also make their first Dallas appearances, and the Sargasso I and Sargasso II Collections of eco-friendly, indoor/outdoor PET will also be shown.

Feizy is featuring some exceptional incentives to celebrate their loyal clients, and a percentage of all orders placed at market will be donated to the Global Fund for Children to benefit marginalized children in more than 60 countries.  Stop by for Happy Hour in the company’s showroom, hosted nightly from 4pm-7pm.

The post Feizy Debuts New Collections at Dallas Home & Gift Market appeared first on Rug News andDesign Magazine.

The post Care & Fair Video Statement appeared first on Rug News andDesign Magazine.

TORONTO, ON – June 10, 2013: On the eve of World Day Against Child Labour (June 12, 2013), Toronto-based fair trade design firm Creative Matters announced that it will celebrate its 25th anniversary year by mounting The Art Day Project to “celebrate and demystify the art of rug design and fair trade weaving.” In mounting this ambitious project, Creative Matters will partner with the Textile Museum of Canada (www.textilemuseum.ca), as well as international non-profit organization Label STEP which encourages fair trade within the carpet industry by eliminating abusive child labour, improving working and living conditions for carpet weavers and promoting environmentally friendly production methods (www.label-step.org).

“We’re thrilled to be partnering with the Textile Museum of Canada and Label STEP to make The Art Day Project a reality. Our hope is to demystify and raise awareness for the life-enhancing benefits of creative design and ethical fair trade production methods, which include the elimination of child labour in the carpet industry,” said Carol Sebert, co-founder and director of Creative Matters. “I can’t think of a more meaningful way for our team to contribute at home and abroad in our 25th year.”

The Art Day Project will kick off at TMC in late November 2013 with a mix of hands-on workshops for art and design students, a member lecture and a multi media display of the process of carpet making. Creative Matters designers will use artwork created by workshop participants as inspiration for several original rug designs which will be entered into the firm’s first-ever Art Day competition. Members of the public will be invited to judge the creations online in the weeks following the events at TMC. The winning design will be hand woven by Creative Matters artisans in Nepal into a beautiful 6’ x 8’ rug (valued at $5,000) and donated to Label STEP for their awareness-building and fund-raising purposes. The public will be able to follow the rug weaving via Creative Matters’ popular Narrative Threads blog (www.creativemattersinc.blogspot.ca). Completion of the rug is expected in mid-2014. More details will be available at www.creativemattersinc.com in the coming months.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) launched the first World Day Against Child Labour in 2002 as a way to highlight the plight of working children. Observed on June 12th, the day is intended to serve as a catalyst for the growing worldwide movement against child labour (www.ilo.org). Fair trade carpets and rugs supplied by licensees of Label STEP, such as Creative Matters, ensure that no child labour has been used in the carpet weaving process. Consumers are encouraged to inquire about the conditions under which handmade rugs and carpets are made before making a purchasing decision.

Established in 1988, Creative Matters designs and creates custom fair trade floor and wallcoverings. With rugs and carpets in more than 40 countries, Creative Matters’ international clientele range from such luxury retailers as Gucci, Tom Ford and Louis Vuitton to hotels, corporate offices, private homes, and diplomatic residences and embassies worldwide. Creative Matters proudly supports Label STEP, an international organization committed to fighting abusive child labour, improving the working and living conditions of carpet weavers and promoting environmentally friendly production methods.

Charcoal and wax are just some of the materials Creative Matters’ designers use in their unique Art Day rug design process.

An artisan weaver works on Creative Matters’ Art Day Collection, 701 design.

Fair trade advocacy organization, Label STEP, ensures that Creative Matters’ Nepalese rugs are woven by adult weavers, working under good conditions and making a fair wage.

Contact: Amanda McCusker
amanda@creativemattersinc.com
416-934-9771, ext. 30

Second Contact: Ashley Reid-Moon
ashley@creativemattersinc.com
416-934-9771, ext. 28

The post Canadian Rug Design Firm Recognizes World Day Against Child Labour, Announces Unique 25th Anniversary Initiative in Support of Fair Trade appeared first on Rug News andDesign Magazine.

AmericasMart’s expansive, easy-to-navigate campus allows national and global gift retailers to conveniently cross between product categories to source top product that will engage and impress their customers.

July Market attendees will notice that AmericasMart has retired the Building 2 WestWing name. This change makes navigating the campus even easier for buyers and recognizes that the two buildings are essentially one destination providing a seamless shopping environment. The fully integrated space invites gift buyers to explore the popular LIVING. OUTDOOR/INDOOR.® THE GARDENS® and GOURMET & HOUSEWARES collections that are located in the former WestWing.

Adding to AmericasMart’s exciting assortment of new showrooms at the July Market is a series of engaging and educational gift industry-focused seminars featuring tastemakers including Ted Allen of Food Network’s Chopped, Emily Henderson of HGTV’s Design Star, and John Gidding, host of HGTV’s Curb Appeal: The Block. A full list of events is available online at http://www.americasmart.com/gift/july-2013/events.

The centerpiece of the July Market, AmericasMart celebrates professional achievements at the most important and anticipated night in the gift industry, ICON HONORS 2013.The ICON HONORS 2013 celebration will be Thursday, July 11 at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis, just blocks from AmericasMart. Cocktails will be served at 7 p.m., and the dinner and 2013 Honors Presentation begin at 7:30 p.m. Tickets and tables can be purchased at www.americasmarticonhonors.com.

THE INDUSTRY’S GREATEST GIFT COLLECTION
With more than 12 floors of general gift product, AmericasMart continuously presents the most comprehensive gift collection in the industry. Notable new and expanded showrooms in the GENERAL GIFT category include:

Reisenthel opens its first US showroom featuring its classic and ingeniously designed bags as well as other European gift lines; Cody Foster & Co., Inc. offers holiday ornaments and many lines of handmade home décor in a new showroom; and longtime AmericasMart exhibitor C&F Enterprises moves its line of quality fabric and home décor items to two showrooms on Floor 14 of Building 2.

In addition to new showrooms, gift-related Market programming provides buyers with fresh and creative retailing ideas. Gift-related events at the July 2013 Market include:

·         Lindsay Roberts of The Gift Insider presents “Top Picks in Gift.” Thursday, July 11. Roberts presents an all new top 10 list of her favorite gift items found in the permanent showrooms at AmericasMart.

·         AmericasMart Atlanta and burton+ BURTON present “Hospital Gift Shop Idea Sharing Breakfast.” Friday, July 12. Buyers are invited to network and brainstorm with others in the hospital gift shop field and learn about new and exciting ways to increase sales.

·         Stylist Emily Henderson, winner of HGTV’s Design Star, presents “Make Your Tabletop Pop.”  Saturday, July 13. Henderson shares the latest trends in tabletop accessories and teaches how to incorporate home accents and furnishings to complete the overall look of a room.

SAVORING SUCCESS WITH THE GOURMET & HOUSEWARES AND LIVING AND ENTERTAINING: GIFTS, TABLETOP & ACCESSORIES COLLECTIONS
As gourmet, housewares and tabletop gifts and accessories continue to be some of the fastest-growing segments of the retail landscape, all types of gift retailers are integrating product from AmericasMart’s expansive collection into their product offerings. Updates in this popular category include:

Tervis Tumblers moves its collection of iconic, American-made tumblers and accessories to a larger showroom, and Roland Products presents innovative, health conscious, and unique products for the home in a new showroom.

Gift retailers receive a gourmet education at the state-of-the-art DEMONSTRATION KITCHEN on Floor 8 of Building 2. A sampling of the demonstrations includes:

·         Chef Suzanne Vizethann of Buttermilk Kitchen presents “Southern Food, Made From Scratch.” Thursday, July 11. Chef Vizethann explains how using sustainable and local ingredients can create the ultimate southern dish.

·         Chef Ford Fry of Atlanta, GA presents “In the Kitchen with Ford Fry.” Friday, July 12. Chef Fry leads a culinary journey through Atlanta, featuring a few of his favorite dishes from his four popular restaurants

·         Ted Allen, host of Food Network’s Chopped presents “Going Gourmet with Ted Allen.” Saturday, July 13. Allen shares inspiring new recipes that exude tremendous flavor while using great kitchen techniques. A book sale and singing of his book, In My Kitchen: 100 Recipes and Discoveries for Passionate Cooks, immediately follows the demonstration.

·         Chefs Jonathan Fox and Justin Fox present “Barbecuing with Atlanta’s Fox Brothers.” Saturday, July 13. Chefs at the number one barbeque restaurant in Atlanta, the Fox brothers give a lesson in the southern barbeque tradition.

YEAR-ROUND PRODUCT GROWTH IN THE GARDENS
The fascinating LIVING. OUTDOOR/INDOOR.® THE GARDENS® category on Floors 9 and 10 of Building 2 showcases outdoor-focused products that are easily and successfully integrated into all kinds of gift product offerings. New additions to this category include:

Meadowcraft showcases a collection of wrought iron tables, seating and firepits; Star Imports offers a collection of garden décor, pottery, and birding, license plate art, collegiate items and seasonal items; Slate… naturally features planters, water features and furniture that are completely crafted from solid slate; and The Lonestar Group presents a whimsical line of home and garden décor made from recycled metals.

Further inspiring gift retailers to incorporate products from the LIVING.  OUTDOOR/INDOOR.® THE GARDENS® category is a series of outdoor related seminars including:

·         Residential, commercial and landscape architect John Gidding, host of HGTV’s Curb Appeal: The Block, presents “Maximize Curb Appeal in Minimal Space.” Friday, July 12. Gidding shares tips and tricks for boosting the curb appeal of an outdoor space regardless of its size.

·         Lolita Healy, celebrations expert and founder of Designs by Lolita, presents “A Look Inside Outdoor Entertaining.” Saturday, July 13. Healy creates the perfect outdoor celebration with tips that can easily be applied to any retail store.

EXPANSIVE GIFT TEMPORARY COLLECTION
The PERMANENT GIFT showrooms are supplemented by an expansive TEMPORARY collection with more than 30 product categories featuring gift opportunities ranging from accessories to one-of-a-kind pieces. Notable categories for the July Market include Made In America, Gourmet LUXE, and the new TableTop LUXE. Multiple floors of TEMPORARIES can be found alongside the GIFT collection in Building 2 as well as and on multiple other floors across the easy-to-navigate AmericasMart campus.

The post AMERICASMART REBOOTS FOR GIFT AND HOME FURNISHINGS MARKETS appeared first on Rug News andDesign Magazine.

Blake Dennard, new Senior VP at Kaleen

Dalton, GA (May 28, 2013) – Kaleen Rugs is pleased to welcome Blake Dennard back to the Company as Senior Vice President.

“I am very excited to be re-joining Kaleen,” said Dennard. “The combination of the outstanding team of employees and the power of true vertical integration gives us unlimited upside potential.”

Dennard is an industry veteran with over 23 years of floor covering experience, having held management positions with Beaulieu, Oriental Weavers, and Momeni. In his new position, he is responsible for the Kaleen sales & marketing teams and the expansion of Kaleen’s account base into the furniture store and Ecommerce market segments. Dennard will also lead the expansion into new market categories.

Dennard will report to Monty Rathi, Chief Operating Officer.

The post Blake Dennard Joins Kaleen as Senior Vice President appeared first on Rug News andDesign Magazine.

GROWTH RETURNS, BUT UNEVENLY

As I prepared for the Afghanistan/USA Carpet Conference (From Sheep to Shop), held in Dubai September 20-22nd of this year I collected a large amount of information for presentation to the participants. From these data a picture appeared that was encouraging on one level, but disconcerting on another. The bright spot was that the rug business is getting its strength back after a dramatic decline in 2008-2009. The disturbing news, however, is that the hand knotted segment is not recovering. Digging deeper into the details I found indications that it may never come back.

This article originally appeared on page 22 of the December 2012 print issue of Rug News andDesign Magazine.

As world demand for the purchase of items such as area rugs improves, hand tufted rugs are taking an ever growing share of the market. Using import data to the USA, it is apparent that tufted rugs are now over 50% of the market; up from less than 25% five years ago. To further put this growth into perspective, these data are in dollars and since tufted rugs have a 3 or 4 : 1 cost relationship to hand knotted rugs, the unit growth is amazing. The unit growth is indication, though, that new consumers are coming into the US rug market.

PRODUCING COUNTRIES COMPARED

I feel that the most important factors controlling the competitive relationship between countries is relative cost advantage versus the ability to produce innovative products compared to other countries, or product differentiation.  The diagram to the right depicts my view of the relationship of the world’s major shippers comparing these two metrics. While subjective, the result is a graphic representation of expected sourcing trends in the hand knotted rug business.

Beginning with the world’s largest producer of hand knotted rugs, India has increased weavers’ wages and new industries locating in carpet making districts have been attracting workers. Meanwhile, there has been a wave of product development at Indian rug makers.  Notice that the arrow for India moves up in differentiation and slightly left marginally reducing the country’s former cost advantage.

The movements depicted by the arrows are relative to each other as can be seen with China compared to India.  China’s weaving companies have taken themselves out of the market for handmade rugs re-directing investment to machine assisted carpets such as the hand tufted rugs. China’s arrow moves downwards in differentiation and well away from a cost advantage.

Iran is under embargo for rug shipments and legal exports to the US have dropped to zero.  Banned from its most viable markets, there is little incentive to create new styles or methods. However, because of the historical diversity of the products made there, Iran’s relative position in product differentiation stays the highest.

Turkey once had an ideal balance of highly varied product and efficient low cost production.  A combination of weavers retiring from the field and other job opportunities for the remaining workers has decimated the rug weaving business in Turkey.  Consequently, the country has one of the most dramatic moves shown in the diagram.

Pakistan remains the world’s second largest shipper of hand knotted carpets  There is no certainty as to how much of Pakistan’s shipments are native or of Afghan origin. Consequently, these countries are linked and the relationship will continue for many years into the future. Pakistani carpet companies have become more innovative and concentrated on higher value products. Pakistan moves well up the differentiation scale, but loses much of its relative cost advantage.

Afghanistan will have expanded options in product differentiation as Pakistan teaches the Afghan traders new skills and methods. Sophistication and efficiencies over time should add cost advantages and put the Afghans in a very favorable position near the optimal center point of the chart.

(Note: Nepal continues as a major factor in handknot rug production, but is not shown on the diagram because of minimal product differentiation and the uniqueness of the Tibetan weaving technique prevents country to country price comparison.)

RATIONAL EXPECTATIONS

Carpet making has been said to be the world’s second oldest profession. Selling rugs, until the past fifty or sixty years, has always been a trade based on hand-made crafts from remote and inspiring places.  The business had, until recently, withstood industrialization like no other.

Having reviewed and considered the prospects for handmade carpets in all of the world’s rug producing countries I suspect that the Afghan trade is the last stand for the hand knotted carpet business. For one reason or another each of the current rug making countries has limited or is moving away from handmade production and unlikely to be able to reverse that trend. Today, competition from Pakistan and Afghanistan, by association, is preventing runaway price increases in hand knotted rugs. Higher prices for hand knotted rugs will no longer attract workers or re-investment back to the hand knotted segment.   Too many other options for workers have arisen and other choices for rug consumers have been developed.

If today’s Afghan weavers are not able to pass on rug making skills to the next generation, the world’s only growth source for handmade carpets will disappear.  Prolonged civil unrest in either Afghanistan or Pakistan will severely weaken the carpet trade’s relationships with buyers and the consequent lack of demand may prevent this generational knowledge transfer.

This article originally appeared on page 22 of the December 2012 print issue of Rug News andDesign Magazine.

The post By The Numbers: The Future Of The Knotted Rug Business by Rob Leahy appeared first on Rug News andDesign Magazine.

Due to space issues, this article did not appear as planned in the June 2013 print issue of Rug News andDesign Magazine. It is available here in its entirety.

In the articles we’ve written over the last year we’ve noted several retailing trends ­– regarding inventory, the Internet, and custom rugs – that were changing the business of brick-and-mortar retailers. To a degree they had not previously done so, these changes came together in our interviews with retailers in the Dallas–Ft. Worth metropolitan area.

This photo shows a detail from Robert Summers’ “Trail Drive,” the largest bronze monument of its kind in the world. “Trail Drive” consists of 70 steers and 3 mounted trail riders, all somewhat larger than life size. The figures are strung out along a path defined by a ridge, a cliff, and a stream, all of them man-made. Photo credit: © César Vázquez. Used with permission.

We found that retailers continue to move away from stocking rugs that are readily available from Internet retailers. At the same time, they are increasingly seeing the Internet as an opportunity. By offering rugs for sale on their own websites, at the same prices at which they are for sale in the store, brick-and-mortar retailers are expanding their market to include customers for whom it is inconvenient to visit the showroom.

This includes people who live at a distance from the store. But perhaps of equal importance is that it includes people who live in the area who want to shop from home – and are willing to visit the store once they’ve found some rugs they like. Putting the rugs online with price tags pulls people into the store.

Note that this isn’t a matter of offering a better deal than the Internet retailer. It’s about showcasing the store’s inventory and services – that is, presenting the store as the place the customer can access the services, the knowledge, and the support to make a smart decision about a rug.

Dropping from inventory rugs that are widely available from Internet retailers, and putting unique rugs up online, are aspects of a larger trend driving change in brick-and-mortar retailing – again, one that we’ve seen repeatedly in our interviews over the last year ­– which is the movement to, and wider marketing of, rugs that are unusual, rare, or even one-of-a kind.

Another aspect of this trend is the sourcing of rugs directly from manufacturers overseas – from rugs that are made in small quantities, to rugs that are unique, and often including rugs woven to designs prepared by, or customized by, the retailer.

Another aspect of this trend is custom work. This includes fabricating rugs from broadloom, offering customizable rugs through various programs made available by the rug vendors, and having rugs made to unique designs with custom colors.

This movement, to inventory increasingly consisting of rugs that are out of the ordinary, is taking place at a time when designers are playing a bigger role in the rug market. Interest in design is no longer limited to the wealthy. It’s an upper middle class phenomenon.

As the upper middle class turns increasingly to designers, designers are increasingly working on tighter budgets. Designers are looking for middle-market rugs. And that’s becoming an opportunity for brick-and-mortar retailers, and designer showrooms, to take back share at the upper end of the middle market that they were losing to Internet retailers.

People would rather pay $400 for a particular rug than $600. That’s the Internet retailer’s opening. But the same people will pay $800 for a rug they like better, if it’s not available anywhere at a lower price. People will pay the lowest price on offer; getting them to pay more is a hard sell. But the lowest price on offer says nothing about the customer’s ability or willingness to pay more.

Another thing we’ve noticed over the last few months is the use of samples. Two of the retailers we mentioned, both of whom described themselves as trade-oriented, do most of their business from samples. One of them also commented that designers were looking for less expensive rugs. The other commented that designers like to shop there because they could make a rug at a middle-market price as well as at the high end of the market.

These comments reminded us of Cameron Stratton, at Floor Coverings by CPA in Denver, saying a few months ago that one reason they, a trade-only showroom, had come through the recession/depression so well was that they could hit any price point – and, in a different context, that they had done a brisk business selling from samples.

SKITTLES TO NEPAL

Carolyn Dixon at The Rug Company (Fort Worth) had to send Skittles to rug weavers in Nepal, but not because of a lack of junk food there. “About two years ago, we commissioned a group of local artists to design some rugs for us, and then had them made in Nepal.” The artists proved to be more inclined to color outside the lines than rug designers – or, in this case, color outside the pom box. “They had their own colors. One was taking colors from a box of Skittles. I ended up sending the box of Skittles to the weavers in Nepal so they could match the colors.”

Dixon said that business was pretty good, although everyone was looking for a deal. Customers are stepping away from the $10,000 to $15,000 rugs, looking for something in the $5,000 to $10,000 range.

Her best sellers tend to be hand knotted rugs in transitional designs. She’s still seeing more grays and blues. Baby boomers are trending towards more transitional designs. We joked about how everything seemed to be transitional now. Does the word still mean anything? “Right,” she said. “Take that border off and it’s a transitional.”

The Rug Company is family-owned, with a single location. The story about having local artists design rugs, and having them made in Nepal, touches on many aspects of the store’s personality. They are all about service (sending Skittles to Nepal!). They are design/designer oriented. They’re involved with the larger community on a variety of levels.

They have a large, open floor which they turn over to local groups to have events – a party or a show, for example. They’ve done that for Amphibians, a local theater group, as well as local artists Tim Summers and Gregory Story.

“Help others get what they want,” Dixon said, “and you’ll get what you want.”

Dixon is one of the increasing number of retailers who are selling their rugs on their websites, at the same price as in the store, mainly as a convenience to customers. What they have online are the more unusual rugs that the typical Internet retailer can’t compete with.

In fact, Dixon doesn’t carry a lot of the rugs that are widely available on the Internet. There is a segment of the market in which brick-and-mortar stores can hardly compete with Internet retailers – who carry no inventory and operate out of warehouses – and margins in that segment are so low that it’s not worthwhile. Dixon noted that some rug vendors do not allow their rugs to be sold online, and others have special lines that they do not sell to Internet retailers.

TEXAS AND THE MIDDLE EAST: THE PETROLEUM CONNECTION

Ashley Jamshidi says that she sees two distinct types of customers at Fort Worth Rugs, the rug store she and her husband operate. There are the customers who want something traditional and are typically older, and the customers who are looking for something modern, who are usually younger.

Jamshidi said that older Texans know the value of rugs. They look at rugs as art, and appreciate and value them more. Her younger customers are less likely to know the value of the rugs. They’re more likely to want something cheaper, a rug that’s machine made rather than handmade, and they don’t plan to keep them as long. They just want something for the floor for a few years. They have kids and they don’t want to have expensive rugs. (Nevertheless, she comments, most of her younger customers still recognize traditional designs, and identify the old Persian designs as Oriental.)

We’ve heard about this generational split in other markets, but in Texas there’s an additional twist. Because of the importance of the petroleum industry in both Texas and the Middle East, Texans, and older Texans in particular, are more likely to be more familiar with Iran (Persia) and Turkey. Many are familiar not only with the rug merchants in the rug centers in these countries but also with the villages in which many of the handmade rugs are made. They know about rugs. This is particularly true of Texans old enough to have lived in Iran before the Iranian revolution. Some of whom lived in Iran for a couple of years.

CUSTOM AND SAMPLES ATTRACT DESIGNERS

After visiting the website for Clifton Carpets (Dallas) you’re likely to come away with the impression that it’s a middle market floor covering store. In fact, most of their business (roughly 90%) is in carpets and rugs.

According to Therese Vorstenbosch, a designer there, roughly half their carpet and rug business is in wall-to-wall, and the other half in rugs. However, a lot of the rugs are fabricated by Clifton from the broadloom they offer; they only stock about 200 area rugs.

But they stock a lot of samples – since, like all carpet stores, they sell their broadloom from samples. In addition to the broadloom samples, they carry area rug samples, and quite a few – area rug samples account for about one-quarter of all the samples in the store.

They also do a lot of custom work, at all levels. As already mentioned, they fabricate a lot of rugs from broadloom. At the other end of the custom spectrum, they do what Rug News andDesign has previously referred to as “custom custom,” that is, they will design and have woven a one-of-kind rug, based on a scrap of fabric or wallpaper, or simply from the client’s verbal cues. In between – in terms of degree of customization, cost, and delivery times, are the “customizable” programs offered by some of the major rug vendors.

With the mix of custom capability and extensive samples, you might think Clifton Carpets does a lot of work with designers, and you’d be right. Vorstenbosch reports that Dallas designers like to work with Clifton because of the variety of samples and the breadth of the store’s custom capabilities. “We can make a rug for any situation,” she said, “at the high end or the middle of the market.”

Clifton is preparing to sell rugs online. Vorstenbosch isn’t expecting it to produce a lot of sales directly, but thinks it’s a good marketing tool. “It will bring people into the showroom,” she said.

GRAY FADING?

Eddie Ahmad at Rug Land of Dallas is the first retailer we’ve spoken with who’s ready to say gray is dead. Or at least gasping for breath. His numbers are already going down. The trend he’s seeing is bright color. “They don’t come in the store looking for them,” he says, “but when they see them hanging on the wall in the store they buy them.”

He also said more people were looking for traditional rugs rather than contemporary, and more people were looking for handmade rugs.

Ahmad says they specialize in custom. They also have unique stock. Ahmad was just back from a buying trip to India, Egypt, and Turkey. The wide variety of rugs they stock is one reason that they have a “huge” designer business.

SELLING FROM SAMPLE

Alex Hosseinnia found himself out of a job when Robb & Stucky, the Florida-based high-end interior design and home furniture retailer, filed for bankruptcy in February of 2011. He solved the problem by opening Dallas Rugs a few months later.

Although US GDP had recovered from the recession, consumer expenditures were just beginning to rise after falling in 2009 and 2010. Unemployment in Dallas-Ft Worth, at about 9%, was still near its recession peak. People were closing stores, not opening them.

For some reason – perhaps the economy, perhaps Hosseinnia’s specific career experience – the store Hosseinnia opened was different.

One thing that was different was the rugs – there were hardly any. Instead there was a wide assortment of samples hanging from the walls. “Like an art gallery,” Hosseinnia says.

Another thing that was different was the shoppers. They were almost entirely drawn from the ranks of designers, architects, and builders.

They were in fact the very shoppers who were accustomed to buying from samples – paint chips, squares of fabric, pieces of tile and kitchen counter tops, and cupboard doors without cupboards. Selecting a large rug from two-foot square samples was something they were comfortable with.

Inventory – how you select it, how you display it, how much you stock and how often you turn it – is at the heart of a rug store’s operation, and of its costs and profits. Customers want to see and touch the rug, and they like talking to a knowledgeable salesperson, which means shopping in a brick-and-mortar store. But they want to buy it at the lower costs available on the Internet. Hosseinnia’s store bridges that gap. He doesn’t have to charge a price that will underwrite the cost of inventory, but customers can still see and touch, if not the rug, then at least a piece of it. He also said that since he sells from samples he’s free to “sell the customer what he wants. I don’t have to sell from inventory.”

Stores like Dallas Rug aren’t for everyone, at least not yet, but they’re great for people accustomed to buying from samples.

It happens that Hosseinnia knows a lot of people like that – designers, architects, builders. Not only did he work at Robb & Stucky, but before that he worked in Feizy’s wholesale division. He notes you “don’t have to keep negotiating with professionals. They know the business.”

Everybody is looking for a deal. Even high end customers “like to look, but they’re not ready to pay what they used to. There aren’t any more $100,000 deals for six or eight rugs.” He reports that designers too are looking for less expensive rugs.

Due to space issues, this article did not appear as planned in the June 2013 print issue of Rug News andDesign Magazine. It is available here in its entirety.

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