Signs of Life

| Jim Tierney

No one is expecting a blockbuster holiday, and that’s good we’re not likely to get one. But the sentiment for many by the end of the summer was that we

Some Slight Gains

| Jim Tierney

THE SECOND QUARTER COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE but it still wasn’t pretty for most of the publicly traded consumer merchants tracked by Multichannel Merchant.

Brooks Brothers Going Mad

| MCM staff

If you’re crazy for sharp-dressed Mad Men, you can now buy men’s suits inspired by the AMC series about ad execs in the early 1960s. The show’s costume

Pottery Barn Kids Snips Threads Spin-off

| Jim Tierney

The Pottery Barn Kids retail concept called Threads has closed after just 15 months. The two baby clothing and gifts stores, located in New York and Bellevue, WA, had opened in late 2007.

Ramp up Your Retail Speed

| Dan Wittner

A multipronged marketing strategy can be executed only as fast as your slowest retail channel. Do you know which channel is preventing your organization

Sad Ending for Smith & Hawken

| Tim Parry

The Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. is Pulling the Plug on Smith & Hawken. The catalog and Website of the high-end home and garden merchant stopped taking orders