After selling a majority stake to German mail order company the Otto Group in 1998, the company had financing to increase its rate of expansion. In March 1995, it opened its first New York location (its 59th location), in Manhattan. Д«y 1985, the chain had grown to 17 stores, and has continued to grow. In 1979, it opened its second Cambridge, Massachusetts store in the building designed for the recently closed Design Research, which they had so admired. Its first store outside the Chicago area opened in Chestnut Hill, MA in 1977. In 1968, the Segals opened their second store in the Plaza del Lago shopping center in suburban Wilmette, Illinois, and third in Oak Brook, Illinois in 1971. Habkirk later remarked: 'Eventually we took the whole idea and translated it into a reproducible formula.' Growth In 1966, Segal and the designer Lon Habkirk visited the Design Research store in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which had an 'enormous influence' on their retailing approach. This helped emphasize their strongest selling point, that their products were direct imports. They turned over the crates and barrels that the merchandise came in, let the wood excelsior spill out, and stacked up the china and glass. A friend suggested they call their company 'Barrel and Crate', but Carole thought they should reverse the order of the words. The Segals derived the company name by the materials that they originally used to display items in their Chicago store. To this day, a majority of Crate & Barrel's products are direct imports from Europe, though Thai, Mexican and Indian glass and textiles can also be found in their stores. The Segals sought out small European companies that were not represented in America and negotiated direct purchases from these factories that could be sold to the consumer while avoiding a wholesaler's markup. The first store opened in response to a flourishing of world trade in home furnishings due to the early 1960s, round of talks about the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. They traveled throughout Europe buying directly from glassblowers, ceramicists and factories making French copper pots and simple white bistro dinnerware. The Segals started by recruiting an employee and leasing an abandoned elevator factory on Chicago's Wells Street. Surprised to see that European manufacturers offered many beautiful and durable products at reasonable prices, they were inspired to start their own store in the United States. They became interested in providing functional yet aesthetically pleasing products to young couples just starting out. The inspiration was their honeymoon in the Caribbean, where the Segals saw inexpensive yet tasteful European household products for sale. The 1,700-square-foot (160В m 2) space in part of an old elevator factory was located at 1516 North Wells Street in the then- bohemian Old Town neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. Gordon and Carole Segal opened the first Crate & Barrel store on December 7, 1962, at age 23.

Land of nod u village