The Dreaded Price Increase

One of the hardest things that I deal with as a retailer is price fluctuation at wholesale and retail levels. There are many things that I can do in store to try and hold the line on prices and I do try my hardest to hold prices but there does come a time when there aren't any options left and my prices go up. I'm going to try and explain what's been happening with my manufacturers and why you'll, unfortunately, be seeing increases on my floor in the coming weeks. I'm by no means an expert on this stuff though, so this post is the best of my understanding of the issues. I get most of my information from my manufacturers representatives and trade publications.

Due to the fact that I deal primarily with goods made from natural fibers like cotton, silk and linen there are a huge number of factors that can affect the prices that you'll see in my store. The most basic of those factors is the weather. Last summer the terrible flooding that killed thousands and left so many people homeless is Pakistan also wiped out the country's entire cotton crop. As the world's fourth largest exporter of cotton this represented a massive hit to the cotton market. This shortage to the supply started to affect the manufacturers that I deal with in the fall of last year. At that time most of them were able to absorb the increases with only a few passing on increases to me, which I absorbed rather than raising the prices you see.

Now, here's where it gets tricky. As we all know the developing world is changing very quickly. Demand for consumer goods in places like China and India is growing very rapidly. Countries that used to export almost all of the textile goods produced there are now keeping much of the production for internal consumption. While I don't purchase textiles from Asian manufacturers it still affects my suppliers. Because the demand for cotton is starting to outpace the supply, the cost of all cotton goes up. The same goes for down, silk and wool. The mid to higher end goods that I deal with are being purchased in vast quantities by companies who used to buy only the cheap stuff. Furthermore, my manufacturers are placing orders one day and being told a week or a month later that the price has doubled, or that the order was canceled due to unavailability of raw goods. The result of all this is that I receive price lists that are only good for one or two months, I frequently get notices that cotton velvet or some other fabric is unavailable for the foreseeable future and that my costs are going up.

The following are a couple of links to articles I've found useful and informative: Home Textiles, Blogging Stocks, Home Textiles

So what does that all mean? Well, it means that I've had to raise some prices. Bella Notte hit us with a 20% - 25% percent increase earlier this year. I've been able to offset that a bit by tightening up the way I order Bella, which decreases my import and shipping costs. The high Canadian dollar helps as well. So with Bella, I've been able to keep it to approximately a 10% increase. CuddleDown also gave us 15% + increases this February on everything from towels and sheets to duvets. I can't absorb the increase on the towels but I've not yet raised the prices on the cotton bedding. I'd also purchased a rather lot of their Brome Lake duvets in January so I have those at the lower price. The new St.Geneve catalouge arrived this morning and pretty much everything has gone up from duvets and pillows to bedding, protectors and towels. The good news there is that I currently have a lot of stock of their Lajord and Zeigler duvets so the old prices are good until I have to re-order. I also have a fair amount of Heirloom, Hutterite and Chateau pillows so they will also stay at the lower price while supplies last. Additionally, I am always looking for ways to fine tune my buying and shipping expenditures so I'll keep doing my best in order to keep prices fair.

It's not totally bleak though, while doing a bit of reading this morning there were a couple of articles that noted that India is on track to see fairly dramatic increases in crop harvests this year and cotton production and milling in the US appears to be on the rise as well. So I'll stay hopeful that the dramatic fluctuations we've been seeing lately will even out soon rather than later.

It's time for the White Sale!

It's that time of year again. I'm not sure I'm ready for it, but I have a feeling that you are. Tuesday February 15th marks the start of our annual White Sale. I feel the need to capitalize in the middle of a sentence because it's kind of a big deal. If you're a regular at Oleander for Home, you'll know that Sales are a very rare thing for me. Sure, I discount floor model bedding or pj's if there are some left at the end of the season. Every now and then I'll even have to clear product that wasn't a good fit for the store. But a store wide sale? It happens only twice a year. One is Oleander's Anniversary Party, held in the last week of November each year, when I extend a discount of 15% on all purchases made at the event. It's a three hour invitation only party that doubles as a fund raiser for the Ottawa Food Bank. And you heard that right: it's a store wide sale that lasts for a mere three hours. I do it every year as a thank you to my clients and because it's fun. The big deal, or real deal I guess, is the White Sale. It runs from February 15th to March 15th every year. Almost, and I do mean almost, everything in the store goes on sale. And let me tell you - the discounts are, for the most part, much bigger than that 15% you'll get at the Anniversary Party.

So what's the deal with the White Sale? Why is it so special? It's like this: I don't like the idea of using sales and discounts to sell products. I believe that merchants should strive to offer great products at fair prices and provide excellent service to back it up. Stores that are constantly offering sales, promotions and massive discounts simply can't survive and still offer great products at fair prices with excellent service. Something has to give. You're going to end up with inferior products, overinflated "regular" prices or poor to non-existent customer service. There's no real way that I could offer the products I have at the prices I do if I was discounting and offering sales every time someone asked "is that on sale now?" So again, why a big sale if it's impossible to have big sales? It's because I only do it once a year and I work hard to get it right. I'm able to go to my suppliers and buy the beautifully made linens that they need to clear in order to make room for the next year's fabrics. I bring in carefully selected duvet cover sets and sheets sets in fabrics that, for one reason or another, are being phased out or that the manufacturer simply overstocked. I buy locally made duvets and pillows in very large quantities (well, very large for a small independent store!) and pass on the volume discounts to my clients. The same goes with towels, robes and bath products. The timing of the White Sale is also very important. I go to trade shows at the end of January and take advantage of the show specials that my manufacturers use to entice me to spend more at a time of year that I might otherwise hold the purse strings tight. So there you have it. That's the deal with the Oleander for Home White Sale.

This year I have Revelle duvet cover & sheet sets, Brome Lake duvets & pillows, Bella Notte bedspreads & linen sheet sets, Peacock Alley coverlets, Amenity duvet covers, cushions and wall prints, throws, blankets, Alexandre Turpault bedding and loungewear, Royal Apothic fragrances, Portofino, LinenMe & Talesma towels, BedHead pj's and robes, Bath Matters locally made bath products, LinenWay table linens, Caldrea home care products and lighting too. It's all on sale while supplies last or until March 15th.

But I'm not really done yet . . .

In a slightly shocking turn of events a lot of my White Sale goods have shown up early. So you, beloved blog reader, get to take advantage of the deals a little early. The official notices won't go out for a couple of days yet but there are lots of great deals to be had right now. Come in and see me, you definitely won't regret it.

Trade Show Talk

Over the last month or so I was able to get to four shows, two of which were new to me. First up, I hit Dallas for Dallas Market, which is a medium sized show with lots of large permanent showrooms and a few temporary booths, but unfortunately without much interesting product for me. I was able to see one of Bella Notte's big showrooms, which was really quite nice. Usually I see new collections from Bella at a small booth New York or when my rep comes to visit with samples, so it was really great to see a big room with many beds dressed in the new fabrics and colours. I took a couple of ideas from there that you'll see on my floor later this spring and summer.

The next stop was at the California Gift Show in Los Angeles. This show was unfortunately another slight disappointment. It was a very small show with only one or two interesting stops for me. One of them was highlighting Italian made organic bedding by Muse. It is really quite pretty, beautifully made and at a reasonable price point, but it's a new-ish collection that I think needs a bit of time to fill out a little before I make a decision to bring it to the floor. One of the highlights of the LA trip was a quick visit to the Amenity workshop. I've been dealing with those talented women for years so it was a real pleasure to get to meet them and get a sneak peak of their new spring patterns. I'll have lots of the new duvet covers and cushions on the floor by the middle to end of March.

After a few days back at the store I was off to the CGTA in Toronto. This show is where I check in with almost all of my Canadian suppliers to see what's new and what's changed. This time out I picked up a pretty printed sateen collection from St Geneve, two new patterns from Revelle and a great new pattern by a French company called Essix. I can't wait for it to start arriving!

After just a day and a half in Toronto, I was off to the NYIGF in New York. This show has been the place to find the newest of the new, and some of the most exciting things I bring into to the store. The last few seasons, given the economic situation in the US, the New York show has been a little unpredictable and occasionally disappointing. Vendors have been scaling back their collections and sticking to safe colours, some manufacturers have been downsizing their booths and others not going to the show at all. In August last year I was only able to find one new company - Alexandre Turpault, and had a bit of a difficult time filling the days I had allotted to spend at the show, so I went into this seasons trip thinking that it would be more of the same. I was wrong. Very, very wrong. This show was one of the best I've ever been to. Due to the down scaling of the larger manufacturers there were many new companies presenting collections. There were tiny little vendors, some of them more artisans than manufacturers, introducing collections for the first time and small scale manufacturers showing three times as much as they had in the past. It was amazing. I bought more new product this season than I have in a long time and I am very excited about all of it. I have gorgeous organic robes and gowns on the way, hand loomed organic Turkish towels and linen bath towels arriving this spring! New collections from some of the old favourites were also very strong and I'm really looking forward to the fuchsia Onam bedding I bought from Alexandre Turpault.

It will be a hugely colourful spring and summer at Oleander for Home. I can't wait!

Store News

Yesterday morning, Monday the fourth of January, I came in to find a bit of a mess. The store has taken a bit of water damage from what our insurance company is calling an "unexpected plumbing failure" from the condo unit above us. The damage is limited to one part of the store, and while we lost some inventory and will have to do some restoration or replacement of the floor in the area, we are still open for business as usual. Even though we're a little disheveled, you're more than welcome to come in and shop, browse or even just pop in to say hi.

On a more pleasant note, it's nearing show season, so I'm getting ready to do a bit of traveling. This month I'm going to be heading to Dallas and Los Angeles to visit shows that are totally new to me. I'm hoping to find some smaller companies offering new and exciting collections that aren't currently available in Canada. Also, I'm planning on doing a little trend spotting in LA. (Trend spotting = shopping. Yay!) It will also be really nice to get out of the snow for a few days. Come February, I'm back to the shows I always go to, Toronto and New York. At those ones I'll be looking at the new lines from companies I already work with as well as looking for some new hidden gems.

At the shows, I'm expecting to see a lot of purples, greys and dove colours. I would like to see some rich reds as lots of clients are asking for them, but I'm not really optimistic about it. Is there anything you are really hoping to see in store for spring/summer?

Take Care of Your Sheets

In my head I'm singing "Care for Your Sheets" to the tune of "Stand by Your Man." A little weird, yes? I know, but I feel pretty strongly about this one so I'm going to keep singing to myself even if it doesn't scan very well.

One of the questions we get in the store is "How long will my sheets last?" The answer I have to give can be a little bit iffy because how long your sheets last has quite a bit more to do with how you take care of them than anything else. So in terms of a time period good bedding can last ten years, a life time or less than a year depending on how they are used and laundered.

One of the most difficult problems to deal with at the store happens when someone has bought a really great set of sheets and launders them with care but uses the same set over and over and over again. They're good sheets, they may have been a little expensive, they feel nice so they've been the only sheets on the bed since they were purchased. The problem with this is that good sheets are made of natural fiber and will wear out if they aren't rested. "My sheets need rest?" you're thinking. They do. Just like anything made of cotton, or silk, or linen they aren't intended for constant wear.

Think of it like this: You've just bought a fantastic pair of jeans. They fit perfectly, they are comfortable and they make your butt look great. So you take them home and put them on and go out for the day. After being worn for 8 hours or so you take them off and toss them on a chair, maybe under a few other things. The next day you put them back on and wear them again for another 8 hours or so. After a week of wearing them everyday you wash and dry your jeans and put them back on again. Off you go for another week, wash, rinse and repeat. Now I'm going to ask you how good do you think those jeans are going to look after even just a month of that? What about after a year? It is no different with bedding. Just like with your clothing you have to change it up a bit.

Now after telling this little analogy in the store I've had a couple of people come back with things like "But I don't take my sheets outside, I'm not really doing anything in them." And I have to answer "Oh, but you are. You really are." At night we perspire, drool, roll, wiggle, toss and turn. All the products that we use on our hair and skin have prolonged and immediate contact with our bedding. People read in bed, work in bed, eat in bed, have fun in bed. All of these things deposit substances (sorry!) on the bedding that we then lay down on and roll around on. It gets worse even. If you are wearing pajamas made of synthetic fibres we'll need to worry about abrasion damage from the two fabrics rubbing against each other.

So we generally recommend that you keep three sets of sheets for your bed. The saying that goes "One for the bed, one for the wash and one for the closet" is an old one but it still holds true. Having three sets is the best way to make sure your sheets last as long as they should. Combine that with proper laundry care and your beautiful sheets can easily last for ten years and longer.

So that leaves poor laundry practice to deal with. There are lots of ways to shorten the life span of your sheet in the wash. Overloading the machine, washing sheets with towels, using harsh detergents, bleaching, fabric softeners, excessive heat, over drying and too frequent or too infrequent laundering can all damage bedding and decrease durability. You can read more about how to launder bedding in the Laundry Care section at www.oleanderforhome.ca.

So we always need to keep in mind that luxury bedding is an investment. It needs a bit of attention and care to preform its best. If you put the effort into it you'll reap the benefits for years and years.

What Does Thread Count Mean?

I know that we've dealt with the thread count issue before, but it was a long time ago so we're going to do it again. I'm also going to fill you in on some of the dirty details, so it's not just the same stuff over and over.

Thread count is one characteristic used to evaluate the quality of cotton bedding. However, thread count alone is not enough to determine quality. It is becoming a less reliable way to judge quality due to manufacturing techniques that can effectively trick the thread count higher. Let's start with the technical definition and go from there.

Thread count simply refers to the number of threads, both vertically and horizontally in a one-inch square of fabric. These consist of vertical threads (warp) and horizontal threads (weft) woven together.

Easy enough, right? There's more though. The number of threads that can occupy a square inch is determined by thickness of the thread used and the ply. Since Egyptian cotton is fine, there are more threads used to cover the same square inch compared to other cottons (pima, american uplands, short staple.) Finer threads feel smoother and when properly woven are longer lasting and more colourfast than short staple fibers. Ply is the number of finer strands which are twisted together to make threads. Technically a double or triple ply fabric should have a strand count listed as well as a thread count, but labeling regulations in different places don't always require it.

It can be argued that in weave quality terms alone, the best fabric will be made with single ply yarns and have a single pick that is one warp thread and one weft. The highest thread count you can get with this type of construction is about 360.

To achieve higher thread counts, sometimes multiple yarns (picks) are inserted into the weft and sometimes 2 ply yarns (as we mentioned above the finer strands twisted together) are used. These two techniques are the reason that you can't use thread count alone to judge the quality of the sheet. Multiple pick insertions are often done with short staple cotton of inferior quality that leaves the fabric prone to pilling and slippage. Additionally, the pick may not be properly integrated into the weave causing the fabric to be unstable. It may feel quite nice but will certainly require extra gentle handling as it will always be more prone to abrasion damage and uneven wear than single pick fabrics.

It's not all bad news though. There can sometimes be a case to be made in favour of 2-ply yarns. When done properly with very fine and long staple cotton, they can improve the durability and colourfastness of a fabric as well as look and feel great. It is however important to distinguish between a well made 2-ply and a fabric with an unnecessarily or artificially inflated thread count. Seeing the term “strand count” on packaging is often a good way to identify better quality 2 ply fabrics, as the manufacturer is referring to the number of strands that are twisted together to make the. The usual marks of good quality like 100% Egyptian cotton and a European or North American country of manufacture are almost always good signs.

Makes sense? It's complicated, I know. It does mean that you'll have to do a little more work when looking for great bedding. But if looking at, learning about and touching really nice fabric is the worst of it, it can't be all that bad.

What's been going on?

I am a terrible blogger. I know it. This is the 6th post and the second time I've had to apologize for being a neglectful blogger. I'm sorry. I really am.

It's been a busy summer at Oleander. I had great new products, lots of new faces in the door, not nearly as many American visitors as I would expect to see in the tourist season, but many many more visitors from Quebec than I would have thought. I really need to get my mediocre (o.k., o.k. very bad) French skills up to par. I went to the Toronto trade show this summer (it was a bust) and did a little research and fabric sourcing in London, UK. I've expanded into table linen and yikes there is a lot to know that I don't know about table linens. Now fall is here and I've been thinking about Christmas for a few months.

I think it might be time for some of the dirty details. Here goes.

As far as the look of the store goes I draw inspiration from everything around me. From the colours and shapes of clothes in tiny boutique shops and big chains, from design and decor mags, from the wacky street wear of the fashion students who study around the corner from my shop to the fashionista black of the many stylists that work in the Market and even from the fruit and veg, plants and flowers that pack the market from spring through fall. I mix it with my own aesthetic and flare and hope like mad that it sells.

The biggest problem with all this is that as a small shop I don't have the buying power or capital to dictate to my suppliers exactly what it is that I want. I can and do tell them what I'm looking for and I constantly seek out new manufacturers who are in line with my own vision, but ultimately my vision and my store are currently limited by what I can buy from the market. Thats where the trade shows come in.

All the conceptualization and planning in the world won't get me any where if I go to a trade show where all the manufacturers are showing product lines in black and white. Or beige. Or spring appropriate patterns for the fall season. Or boring play it safe and hopefully it will sell collections. And that is exactly what happened at the fall Toronto show this year.

Ordinarily I go to Toronto (the largest Canadian trade show and where all my regular suppliers show) twice a year to buy most of my stock. I can expect to take one or two bedding collections from each of my 5 or 6 "big gun" suppliers for a total of 5 - 8 new beds for my floor. This August I bought 2 collections at the show. Total. Panic attack much? I was very disappointed with this seasons offerings and pretty worried about how I was going to fill my floor with lovely sparkling new product for the fall and winter seasons. And by pretty worried I actually mean freaking out.

The story ends well though. Forced to go abroad or at least online, I was able to find 3 new collections which I'm sure will not only look fabulous but will also sell quite well. One of them I've already blogged about. The Amenity organic collection that I previously carried in 2 patterns has proved so popular that I've added 3 more patterns and a few more colours and will carry them on the floor through fall and winter.

The second is a line that came to me when a sales rep from the west coast came in to show me Bella Notte. This collection at first glance is not really in keeping with the overall style of my store. It is a little on the frilly overly feminine side but on closer inspection the real strengths in the collection are the dyed to order colours and textures of the fabrics. This makes it a perfect fit for Oleander, I can mix and match their pieces to get the clean modern classic look that I love and benefit from the richness and delicacy of their fabrication and construction. My first Bella Notte order has shipped from California yesterday and should be on the floor in about two weeks. Canada Customs and Revenue allowing.

The third collection is a fashion forward and more trend conscious line from Greece. It's a great group of printed fabrics in slightly trendier colours and patterns and I'm sure it will brighten my floor. What I'm not sure about is when it will get here. I'll let you know and get you more details when it arrives.

There is so much more to tell you, hypothetical reader, but as usual I have to get back to the floor. I really will try to check in more often.