FRANZ Signing Event

Join us December 13th, as we welcome FRANZ artist Junnie Fu to Designers Center. Junnie will be signing all new FRANZ purchases, and will be doing a sculpting demonstration in the store. Last November, we had FRANZ artist James Tsai in the store, and it was a great event!

The FRANZ Collection is an intricate set of porcelain decorative accessories, each hand sculpted and hand painted. Within the collection there are several patterns to choose from, each one unique and different, including Bamboo Songbird, Island Beauty, Southern Splendor, plus many more! We just received a huge shipment of these and all the NEW Fall collections. Come in to explore a porcelain world of intricate beauty.

Pre-Order your pieces to be signed by November 23, and receive a FREE FRANZ Gift! Quantities are limited so order early - you don't want to miss this one!

Holiday Gift Ideas

When Ed and I head out on our buying trips to trade shows in Atlanta, New York, and Las Vegas, we are always searching for new and unique merchandise. Over the past couple years, we have stumbled upon two great gift ideas, from the religious category. We carry a nice selection of religious merchandise, and always try to find items out of the normal realm of figurines and wall decor.

Our first find came several years ago from a company called Roman that specializes in religious giftware. The Christ's Story bracelet, has quickly become our #1 selling item in the store because of its uniqueness and practicality. For $14.99, you can have the story of Christ on your wrist in a beautiful charm bracelet with each bead representing a different part of his life. With the company's success in this bracelet, they have moved into other inspirational and holiday stories including 'The Night Before Christmas,' 'Jingle Bells,' 'Silent Night,' and 'The Nativity Story.' They have also expanded on the original Christ's Story with picture frames and crosses. All of which are available at Designers Center.

We stumbled upon the other great gift idea this past summer, and it has quickly become a hit! Three Kings Gifts comprise the three gifts that were brought to Jesus the night of his birth - gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Until now, we have heard the story, but most of us had never seen frankincense and myrrh before. The idea came to chemist who was on a business trip in the middle east and found a vendor selling these two incense. He got thinking and decided to market these as the original gifts of Christmas. Now, this Christmas you can give the same gifts the three kings did.
The Three Kings Gifts come in several sizes great for displaying in your home or presented as a gift.

We'll keep you posted on more unique gift ideas as we get closer to the Holidays. Until then, we are still taking Layaways for Christmas, so come in and reserve your holiday gifts early.

DC green

These days, it seems that everyone is talking about going green. Our fragile environment is on the verge of crisis, and everyone is trying to do their part to pitch in. Our industry though is behind the times - many gift and home furnishing companies still pack their merchandise in non-recyclable Styrofoam and plastic. However, some companies such as Giuseppe Armani figurines and Swarovski crystal, have gone to new types of materials that can be reused as carton packaging or can be compressed to almost 10% of its original size and thrown away. While this packaging is just as safe as regular Styrofoam, it is certainly more expensive. These companies are caught between a rock and a hard place as they try to go green, and that is what we believe is the reason our industry is dragging behind others in terms of environmental responsibility.

At Designers Center, we face the same challenges our suppliers do, and are taking measures to make sure we are becoming a bigger part of the solution, and less a part of the problem. We reuse the cardboard boxes and packing peanuts that get shipped to us to repack new merchandise. We save excess gift wrap to use for wrapping smaller gifts, or as scratch paper. We are in the process of switching all of our light bulbs to energy efficient models, and ensure that no lights are left on when the store is closed. We recycle all of the plastic containers and cans that are consumed at our events. While we are only one store, we are trying to do what we can.

To further this process we are asking customers to return brown cardboard boxes, packing peanuts, and bubble wrap to us for reuse (or recycle them on your own). Just give us a call 650-871-4462, and we can have one of our employees meet you out in the mall parking lot to pick up the materials. Further, we are encouraging customers to use eco bags when they shop with us to reduce the use of plastic bags (we are working on a Designers Center eco bag to roll out in 2009). All the easy little changes that we make can contribute a lot more than we think to reducing overall emissions worldwide. Lets all do our part.

A Vera Bradley Success Story - Plus New Patterns!

Last month, one of the Vera Bradley marketing associates that is based in San Francisco did a presentation at the Vera Bradley headquarters in Ft. Wayne, IN about store merchandising. He featured several stores to show the impact that a Vera Bradley Shop-in-Shop (a mini Vera Bradley store inside a retailer) makes on the overall shopping experience. He used Designers Center as an example, and furthermore was able to show the pictorial history of our Vera Bradley display, before and after adding the Shop-in-Shop. After the event, he was able to share with us the pictures he used to illustrate our success. Here they are . . .

2006 2006
2007
2007
2008
2008

On a Vera Bradley side note, we are excited to introduce the new Resort Collection featuring Mediterranean Blue and Mediterranean White. These limited edition patterns are available for 1 year only, and are available in every bag and accessory. The Mosaic pattern is only available in accessories, and is going to be retired at the end of 2008. We also have a FREE Gift with a $75 Vera Bradley purchase!