Bowl & Board featured on NPR Morning Edition

[ron_newman]

NPR's Morning Edition just now ran a five-minute feature about Bowl & Board, and how the current economy is affecting its business. I don't know whether the segment will run again this morning, but you can read it and listen to it here.

Comments

[ronhaha108.livejournal.com]

It's a good read, I've been in that store 20 times since they opened in Davis and have said "oh, that's cool" to a lot of things, but didn't buy anything. I'm going to go in today and spend 50 bucks.

[bombardiette.livejournal.com]

IN fairness, even in a better economy there is no way I could justify paying 100 dollars for a dish strainer or 30 dollars for a shower curtain.

These were two things I was seeking the day I went in there. And they were the two things I did not get for just the reasons cited above - and I'm one of the fortunate ones who hasn't seen a personal downturn in this economy.

Sorry, but Bowl n Board stuff just isn't worth it.

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

agreed and agreed!

[narya.livejournal.com]

In a similar vein, City Housewares (on Mass Ave towards Harvard from Porter) already has "going out of business" signs up.

[elizethesleaze.livejournal.com]

this! id rather go to china fair!!

[bombardiette.livejournal.com]

Yes!

[arrowintwolakes.livejournal.com]

That's a great idea. I need to do basically all my Christmas shopping tomorrow, and I'm sure there's tons of stuff there for the women in my life (and a few gifts for myself while I'm at it!)

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

Yes, but their original store is going to remain open:

434 Harvard Street
Brookline, MA 02446
617-278-6333

The Cambridge store was a bit of a trial balloon for them--I'm surprised it stayed open as long as it did, because they had a lot of overlap with the inventory at Tags.

[narya.livejournal.com]

Ah, good to know, I didn't realize there was more than one of them. There was a lot of overlap with tags, but they seemed to be a lot cheaper than tags which was worth the walk for me.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I keep thinking "this all looks awesome for when I get around to renovating," but I have to finish grad school and get a job first to pay for said renovations. I hope he's still around then :/.

[fefie.livejournal.com]

Was worth the walk for me too for the smae reason. (The shop nearby that sells "green" items is moving into that space.)

[viellen]

I feel for them, but I also had to laugh at the shower curtain segment. I recently moved from Somerville to Vermont and I ordered a shower curtain from their website since they were sold out in the store. They charged my card that day and then the website showed my order status as "backordered" with no ETA (the product description said nothing about it being backordered). I waited a month before contacting them. Mark emailed me back directly and said that he would check on it and get it out to me within two weeks. I contacted him again two and a half weeks later and he told me his buyer would be in that day and he would get back to me by the end of the day. He didn't. My last email was to request my money back, which was granted.

The NPR segment obviously reiterated the fact that B+B is having such financial issues that they're unable to get products in right now. I want to support local business and I can see how that's an awful catch-22, but I feel that something was seriously lacking in the customer service end of my transaction with them. I didn't cancel my order because they couldn't get me the product in two months, I cancelled it because their communication with me was inaccurate and sparse. I'm not sure if that's a result of a bad economy or just poor business skills.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

I liked them, too: nice selection and friendly staff. The Brookline store is really great.

But I think that a lot of people were in the habit of buying kitchenwares at Tags, and remained in that habit.

Glad to see that Greenward is going into the space.