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Friday, November 9, 2007

Watch Out, IKEA: CB2 Coming to Los Angeles



According to CNBC (hat top to Curbed LA), Crate & Barrel is finally expanding its hipper, younger spin-off store CB2 outside of Chicago -- including, eventually, Los Angeles.

Not that we'd give up IKEA that easy. First off, CB2 doesn't offer $1 breakfasts. So there.

Still, it sounds like CB2 offers some interesting stuff, and may perhaps be more affordable than its Crate and Barrel parent. CB2 just opened its first non-Chicago store, in Manhattan. From the CNBC story:

Crate and Barrel opened its first CB2 store in 2000 in Chicago, and originally thought it would appeal to young shoppers looking to decorate their first apartments.

"We wanted to have a store for 22-year-olds who were getting married. Then we realized no one 22 is getting married. They're all 27 and 28," (CEO Gordon Segal) said.

The first store also stocked too many smaller, "clever" home decor items, he added. "There wasn't enough sales volume generated from all these fun, small items."

The retailer retooled the concept, adding more furniture to appeal to shoppers in their 30s, 40s and 50s who were coming to the store in search of stylish, contemporary items at affordable prices.

CB2 now sells modern furniture, like sleek sofas and storage systems, designed for smaller spaces like apartments and lofts. It also offers an array of funky home decor goods such as orange and brown striped rugs, paper and wire flowers, and decorative Buddha heads.

It also jump-started sales by launching a Web site in 2004 and a catalog in January of 2006, he said.

Now Segal said the retailer expects to open a CB2 in San Francisco early next year and is scouting locations for new CB2 stores Washington DC, Los Angeles, Boston and Miami.


No relation to the Chris Rock movie CB4.

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