This store shows product at every opportunity. The main message from retailer Sarah Corrigan and her partner and mother, Mary Kay Carapella, is display, display and display.
Almost every surface in The White Hare is a created display and Sarah says they fine-tune every one, every day. The ideas for the displays come from everywhere, she says, mostly from ideas spotted at the trade shows and brainstorming among the staff.
“Everyone does everything in the store,” Sarah said. “Stocking, pricing and display. We look for creativity in the people we hire.”
The White Hare, Décor and More, has been in business six years, doubling its space from 2,000 to 4,000 square feet four years ago. Sarah describes the store as mainly home décor with an emphasis on gifts and custom silk floral design, mostly done by her mom.
Products from IMAX are an important part of the store. “We buy a lot of IMAX,” she said. “The price points are good and the quality is good. They introduce a lot of new products each market.”
The list of IMAX products she buys is long. “We buy every type of accessory – trunks, clocks, plates, plate racks and book boxes.” The boxes, designed to look like a stack of books, are best sellers over and over again.
Because the store is situated in a planned golf-club community outside St. Louis, there is a good market for two of their special in-home services. One works with a customer’s existing furnishings and adds a few new pieces and the other works with a blank slate in the customer’s home.
Also popular are the decorating classes the store offers for seasonal décor (fall and spring) and holiday.
The White Hare has some sort of “sale” every week, Sarah said. Some are exclusive email messages to their 3,500 customer group and others are promoted in the radio, TV and print advertising. The store also has a Web site, www.thewhitehare.com.
Sarah and her mother shop the Atlanta and Dallas markets in January and summer. But they’re skipping this January. Sarah is due to give birth to her second child in late December. She’ll stay home for a few weeks and then bring the baby to work. There’s almost room in her office, she said.
Mary Kay’s dog, Squirt, a Pomeranian, comes to the office every day, also, and seems willing to share billing with the new baby.
