Charity and the JAMband: Peanut Butter and JAM
Looking for a month of fun, great furniture deals and cheap eats? We’re talking karaoke nights, face painting for the kids, a $14.99 drawer unit, a $9.99 bed tent, frozen yogurt for $1 and a breakfast plate for 99 cents.Where can a consumer find that bounty of goodness? At Ikea, of course.We recently joined the happy hordes of shoppers flowing through Ikea’s Atlanta store on a hot summer weekend. It was… (more)
Tupelo: Playing a difficult hand
The older I get, the more I believe that life is less about the cards it deals you and more about how you play the hand you’re dealt.A good example would be the recent Tupelo market. If you were there, you know that traffic was off quite a bit.But you also had to know that the folks running the market did whatever they could think of, including giving away a Hummer, t… (more)
Forget trendy sleep cures, let s tout a new mattress
Would you like to join the Crusade for Better Sleep? Or would you rather be part of The Sleep Racket? Well, let’s see. The first option sounds like a noble calling. The second sounds kind of sleazy.Alas, Forbes magazine opted for the second choice in a recent article that carried this secondary headline: “Making big bucks off your insomnia.”I must confess a sense of weariness with these sleep send-ups from the national consumer press. They typically t… (more)
Retailers share insightful comments on recent HP premarket
When staff members at Furniture|Today take part in events like last week’s High Point premarket, we typically focus on new product introductions by importers and manufacturers. Those vendors, in turn, give us an idea of how the event goes as far as retailer traffic and product commitments. That’s always good information to have. But it’s also a one-sided perspective that may not tell us all we need to know about an event like premarket, which took p… (more)
Per-month and per-night pricing: Too soft or savvy?
The problem: We’re selling bedding for thousands of dollars, but we don’t want to scare consumers off by touting four-figure prices in newspaper ads.The solution: Find creative ways to break down those prices to more manageable levels.Houston-based sleep shop Mattress Firm did just that in a recent finance-offer promotion w… (more)
A few suggestions for your High Point to-do list
You have your own agenda when you come to High Point for market, of course, but it can’t all be about buying, selling and marketing. So I’d like to propose a few additions to your to-do list while you’re in town later this month for the spring show.* Reward a good deed. Give Tom Mitchell and Merchandise Mart Properties Inc. a big cheer for razing the unsightly old icehouse on the … (more)
Innovation and sales
At first I didn’t think I was going to attend the spring market in High Point. At the last minute I decided to go and was determined to seek out what I thought was innovative-meaning, for me, that it hasn’t been done before.I was open to hearing about innovation on all fronts and interviewed a few of our industry’s more well-known personages, Connie Post, etc to … (more)
Stop crying and play hardball
The other night, one of the movie channels showed the 1992 hit, “A League of Their Own,” the story of a 1940s all-female baseball team. My favorite line, and one that’s right up the middle for our industry, comes when Jimmy Dugan, the frustrated manager, throws up his hands, looks at his demoralized team and yells, “There’s no crying allowed in baseball.”With all the gloom and doom about how bad furniture sales are right now, we should heed thes… (more)
Casselman resigns as Shermag president and CEO
SHERBROOKE, Quebec — Jeff Casselman has resigned as president and CEO of manufacturer and importer Shermag, which has reported losses and declining sales.
Charity and the JAMband: Peanut Butter and JAM The award-winning Charity and the JAMband: Peanut Butter and JAM is the movin’ groovin’ follow-up to the first JAM CD, Music for Movement with Children. Spanning every genre from bluegrass to funk to rock ‘n’ roll to surf to meditative, PB&JAM hits a nerve with kids and parents alike. Your family needs this music…push the furniture to the walls, clear the floors, turn up the volume, and boogie down together! You will feel the love, guaranteed. Appropriate ages: 0 - infinity.
Charity Kahn sings and plays the blues away with her versatile voice, expansive harmonies, clever piano licks, and fabulous flute frills. The funky, folky JAMband joins in with Charlie Crocker (Daddy Charlie) on bass, Amos Glick (Uncle Mo) on guitar, and Hud Bixler (Daddy Hud) on drums to make this CD truly rock. The music and lyrics are edgy, clever, real, fantastical and fun…no evidence of talking down to kids here. And the bonus: every song has accompanying moves and grooves…get up outta your seat!
This wonderfully varied and clever CD won a 2004 Parents’ Choice Approved Award, and received a commendation from Common Sense Media, which noted, “You’ll want to move along with Charity or just listen to her appealing voice, whether you’re young or old. Encourage your kids to dance, and make sure you join in the fun!” For more of the same, check out Charity and the JAMband’s most recent release, Rock Your Socks Off.
Customer Review: PB and JAM makes a great children’s gift
I’ve given a dozen (or more) “Peanut Butter and JAM” cd’s as gifts and am still counting. It’s full of silly, happy, and soulful songs that’ll keep little toes a-tappin’…..yours too. And when I babysit, playing this cd is the one thing that puts the kids in a good mood and keeps the TV off without any complaints. Songwriter-Singer-Musician Charity Kahn and a group of amazing musicians have compiled a true delight for ears of all ages.
