Business First: Short North home shops banding together

Business First - by Dan Eaton

Date: Wednesday, April 20, 2011, 12:33pm EDT

Story is here: Short North home shops banding together | Business First

The Short North’s furniture and home decor retailers knew they had a budding shopping district, but now they’re making it official. Fourteen stores in the niche have pooled their resources to create Home On High, a joint marketing effort to promote the diverse home goods offerings in the area.

“There’s a lot going on here,” Tim Friar, owner of Grid Furnishings, said. “We should be talking about it in a different way rather than individually.”

Grid is one of six new furniture and furnishings businesses to have opened in the area in the past year. The mix includes stores selling new and consigned furniture and home goods in a variety of styles from antique to modern.

The initial focus of Home on High is promoting Sunday shopping, which Friar said is one of the best sales days for several of the retailers.

“The Short North is easier to navigate on a Sunday,” Friar said. “We obviously love people coming down any time in the week, but Sunday is a great day to start with. People are able to go out and leisurely look around.”

Each of the 14 stores is contributing financially to the marketing effort, which will include some advertising, promotions and the creation of a local shopping guide.

Friar said they are working on a promotion for May designed to get customers into the shops of all 14 participants. Shoppers would collect a stamp for each store visited and completed entries would go into a drawing for gift certificates or other prizes.

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