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 Let’s Talk About Furniture for Children
Trends in furniture for early learners come and go. The colors, materials and designs that educators favor today could change tomorrow, influenced by the latest teaching technique or classroom design philosophy.
But children’s furniture manufacturers in our industry say there is a short list of factors that schools have demanded since the advent of kindergarten –
• Durability,
• Functionality,
• Value,
• Safety,
• “Good looks” and
• On-time delivery.
How do the products offered in our industry meet those needs? Here’s what a group of veteran manufacturers had to say.
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Survey Results
Looking High and Low
In our last issue, we asked retailers what’s hot and how they find new products for their stores. They told us that reading, math and science resources are big sellers for them and reported using a wide array of sources to identify new products to introduce. They also explained that pinning down the next big seller can be very challenging. For the full results, read on. Read More
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| Retailers Recommend 10 Fabulous Products |
July 2007 |
Teri McNaughton from Explorations in Granger, Indiana
"The Dripstik (1) from Price Products is a neat product. One side holds a Popsicle and the other side holds an ice cream cone. Each side has a little cup so that kids don't get a sticky mess all over their hands. They retail for $3.99 ... [click here to read more]
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Rethinking the Chair
In the past, when schools selected chairs for their students, the rule of thumb was durability trumps comfort and low price trumps everything. It’s not the case today. Accompanying the newest philosophies about school building design are new design ideas for classroom furniture. “Advances in materials and manufacturing capabilities are now allowing furniture manufacturers to create pieces that are comfortable, but still durable enough to stand up to the daily rigors of student use,” architect Jay B. Richards noted in an article in School Planning & Management. “Furniture manufacturers who truly listen to school district needs are at least partially responsible for observed trends in furniture choices.”
The good listeners are right here in our industry, and we asked them to bring us up-to-date on current trends for this classroom staple. Read More
What Makes a Good Auditorium?
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Architecture and Design has produced an array of new ideas and concepts for auditoria and assembly space, thanks to a studio program called “Auditoria Redux.”
Funded in part by KI, a manufacturer of furniture and wall systems for the education, healthcare, government and corporate markets, the two-semester course for students of the School of Architecture & Urban Planning last year combined an intensive study of auditoria with historical, theoretical and practical knowledge and, finally, innovation strategies. Students from the studio spent a day at KI’s Milwaukee headquarters where they received an overview of the contract furniture industry, learned about the education market, reviewed the company’s product development process, and toured KI’s manufacturing facility. Read More
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The Issue
by Kevin Fahy
Who's Sorry Now?
I don’t know whether bad things happen in “threes,” or humans are just somehow programmed to recognize a series of three events and organize it into a pattern. Either way, it does often seem to work out that way.
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Removal of UPC Codes Could Be Trademark Infringement
Universal Product Codes make it easier for manufacturers to keep track of the goods they make. But some retailers routinely sell so-called “gray market” goods – items purchased by a retailer through legal, but non-authorized or unofficial channels (an example would be items imported from another country) – that often have had their UPC labels removed. Read More
Online Retailers Focus on Checkout to Increase Sales
A recent survey showed that when it comes to how people buy online, retailers pay as much attention to how the shopping experience ends as they do to how it starts. According to “The State of Retailing Online 2009: Merchandising Report,” conducted by Forrester Research, eight out of 10 retailers (79 percent) said enhancing the checkout process was at the top of their to-do lists for the remainder of the year, with 90 percent of medium-sized retailers listing checkout as a top priority. Read More
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