… a husband and wife team who you would have met on the previous page (if not, you might enjoy going back to read it), decided to open a home and kitchen store on a pretty funky street in the Old Town section of Chicago. Having just returned from their honeymoon in Europe where they saw and bought all kinds of unique, functional, and here’s the catch – affordable – designs for their home, they looked around and realized no one in Chicago was selling great design without charging the equivalent of a mortgage. Not being able to afford much of a mortgage themselves, the Segals decided to lease an abandoned elevator factory on the aforementioned funky street in Chicago to showcase the finds they were finding all over the world.

Crumbling old brick warehouse walls? Let’s just say the words “exposed brick” had not yet come into vogue. No budget for drywall? Nail up crate lumber. Display shelves? Stack the shipping crates and fill the barrels. And so out of necessity was born what immediately became the unique, down to earth Crate and Barrel style. And it made an offbeat, albeit memorable store name.

The energetic husband and wife team splurged and hired one other person who shared their zeal, and on December 7, 1962, opened their doors for business, showcasing affordable gourmet cookware and contemporary housewares like no one had seen before. We might add, the entrepreneurs were so excited about their venture that only moments before opening did they realize they had forgotten something every store should have. A cash register. No problem. Hand me that box. No, one with a lid. And raves. The humble yet contemporary store became a tourist destination of sorts. Young people started living in the style they were becoming accustomed to. By 1971 there were several Chicago area Crate and Barrel stores including a first suburban mall store. ’77 Boston, ’82 Dallas, ’85 San Francisco. 1990, their flagship store on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile. Yes, Michigan Avenue. May we add, not a funky street. This year alone, we are opening eight of our most stunning architectural stores ever, including Westport, CT, Cincinnati, OH, and Towson, MD (Baltimore area). And, we are extremely excited about the opening of the first international Crate and Barrel store at the Yorkdale Shopping Centre in Toronto, Ontario this Fall. We invite you to learn more about our first store in Canada now at crateandbarrel.ca Behind the scenes, we have also put an enormous amount of energy and development into prioritizing efficient and responsible delivery. We now have 30 shipping points coast-to-coast to expedite delivery of your sofa, your bed, your dinner dishes … wherever you live. As of 1998, Crate and Barrel has enjoyed a partnership with the Otto Group of Hamburg, Germany, the world’s largest mail-order company. This relationship has enhanced our operation and allowed for new growth. We have invested new talent and energies into our Catalogue and Internet divisions allowing customers who do not live near our stores to live with what’s in our stores. Our website welcomes millions of customers annually, including your visit right now. So we’re in a stable relationship, we have a coast-to-coast network of stores, we’re coming to Canada, the founding couple is still a couple. What else could we want? New challenges. Read on.

Our baby. Born of the same mindset as the original Crate and Barrel. Only a millennium later. Modern furnishings for loft apartment and home that are refreshingly liveable, durable and affordable. Sofas that flex with your space and your life. Platform beds and the graphic linens to make them. Dining tables and chairs thoughtfully edited for their ability to work in different combinations. Modern museum-worthy dinnerware, serving and flatware with prices that will surprise you (as in $3.95 for a dinner plate, or $1.95 for the sleekest yet most durable barware). You’ll find home office and storage options that can also work the living room and bedroom. Off the wall magnets, clever desk toppers, message boards, and other new work forces. Cool containers, candlelight, clocks and other neat things that don’t start with a “c”, like vases, frames, pillows and mirrors. CB2 has three exciting design stores. In Chicago, we’re located right in the heart of Chicago's North and Clybourn retail hub at 800 W. North Ave., and in the trendy Lakeview neighborhood at 3757 N. Lincoln. Our very first NYC store resides in SoHo at 451 Broadway. And this summer we head west to San Francisco with the opening of our modern outpost at 34 Ellis Street in Union Square. You’ll be seeing more CB2 stores in the near future, too. We invite you to request our popular CB2 catalog and to check out our website right now at cb2.com. Feedback welcome.

Our more literal baby. Actually this is a partnership where we’re more like the godparents. A store and story of childhood dreams with a naive beginning that reminds us of our own. It’s the typical boy meets girl, boy and girl have baby, boy and girl can’t find anything they like for their baby’s room, boy and his childhood buddy launch a children’s furnishings company out of boy’s basement kinda story. They launch a company in a clever storybook catalogue that makes you pee in your pants from laughing so hard. Crate and Barrel knocks on their door and says you remind us of us when we first started. We’d like to help. First store opened in Northbrook, Illinois in a mall not far from boy’s basement. Today there are four stores; three in the Chicago area and one in Seattle. But before you reach for your car keys, reach for your mouse. You can check them out right now at landofnod.com. And please, laugh out loud. It only encourages the writer.

If you didn’t notice, we continue to be in love with what we do. And we have to tell you, we feel extremely fortunate and privileged in that. But there is always so much more to do. Each day at our company headquarters and stores brings new opportunities and challenges. We’re born risk takers and that is what has always given us our edge. So it is both our personal and business plan to keep surprising you with new ideas for many days and nights to come. Really, no cash register on opening day?