apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

happens all the time.

Home Depot: DeWalt
Sears: Kenmore
Best Buy: Insignia
Target: Archer Farms
Costco: Kirkland Select
Safeway: O Organics

...

"even though it is only available at their stores"

At the Canopy site I clicked on *shop online* which it seems you can do, and a new window opened up that said www.walmart.com, so I guess it's not a secret, but I guess they aren't going out of their way to let you know up front that those are Walmart products.

we think you're just being paranoid and all too quick to want to find faults with the company. we bet they're just trying to market the line as higher quality than we normally view a wal-mart product.

I just love the descriptions:

"Assembled in Country of Origin: USA and/or Imported"
"Origin of Components: USA and/or Imported"

Why, it's crystal clear: It's from here or it's from someplace else!

Yeah, vaguely shady. But not nearly half as shady as when AT posted those ... sponsored posts! (You folks still doing that?)

Would you mention you were associated with Wal-Mart?

http://www.intellectualpoison.com/WalMartisPureEvil.html

A little basic research would have made this latest Wal-Mart bashing unnecessary. There is no conspiracy of silence. Visit http://www.walmart.com/ and click on the "Home" link under "Shop." Canopy is the first thing shown. It is more than furniture, it is their premium brand and a complete lifestyle line.

BTW, Wal-Mart doesn't manufacture anything. This is just another brand, marketed under this name by Wal-Mart. But, I'm still trying to understand what is the question. Surely you have seen store brands before. And I doubt that you've ever seen Volvo advertising that they are really a Ford product.

Heh. It's true - Volvoguy didn't mention he was associated with Ford!

naturally, if it's wal-mart, it's shady. they're trying to market to people who ought to know better!

please, everybody, visit

www.wakeupwalmart.com

It strikes me as a belated and half-hearted attempt to reclaim home furnishings shoppers lost to Target and Ikea. There doesn't seem to be enough here, and certainly not enough style, to bring Wal-Mart into line with their more hip competitors.

Why not? They're going to appeal to people who love shopping at Wal-mart anyway, and then when people ask them where they bought something, they can say Wal-mart, and people will be, like, no. way. and they'll be all "WAY". It's strategic marketing, and please don't credit Wal-mart for inventing it or being especially sneaky/devious/clever, what have you, and as much as I hate Wal-mart for basically just being an unpleasant place to shop and for no other reason whatsoever, I'm kind of tired of Apartment Therapy trying to dig up some controversies lately, and certain contributors being surprised at freakin' everything, they have to report it.

Toyota : Lexus

retailers have become quite clever in the past decade -- to quote naomi klein (no logo): "consumers are like roaches, you spray them and spray them and eventually they develop immunities"... and because of this retailers of all sorts find a need to stay one step ahead. target is a particularly interesting place to visit for odd, extended and resurrected brands: woolrich (now with no wool), real-simple branded cleaning supplies, american red cross branded health and beauty aids, parents magazine branded baby supplies and toys, national geographic branded toys... and as cbc pointed out, house brands naturally abound everywhere as well as retailer combos -- mcdonalds/chipotle (now separate), gap/BR/oldnavy, williams-sonoma/potterybarn/westelm, jaguar/volvo/mazda/ford/lotus, etc.... personally, i find the way that brands try different ways at burrowing into our consciousness fascinating -- but only fascinating when you're aware of the ploy. in this case, i don't think it's disingenuous -- just par for the course in today's brand environments and any consumer who actually cares should know enough to lift up the rug to look underneath. to be both "conscious" of the branding landscape enough to comment on it and "amazed" by this particular story is the only thing i find odd. if nothing else, i find it nice that walmart is trying to bump up the aesthetic of middle-america.

Don't support walmart.

if canopy is being billed as premium brand, then of course they're going to keep their marketing separate from walmart. retail branding 101.

Who do you think makes all those "high end" undies? A quick look, and surprise:

"Intimate apparel manufacturer Warnaco sells to more than 5,000 retailers
operating 15,000 department, mass merchandise, and specialty stores in North
America and Europe. Brand names including Calvin Klein, Olga, Valentino
Intimo, and Warner's bras. The company is the leading marketer of bras to
department and specialty stores and is a major player in the menswear market
with such top-line brands as Calvin Klein Men's Underwear and Accessories,
and Chaps by Ralph Lauren. Warnaco also runs more than 50 retail outlet
stores to dispose of its irregular inventory and to compete with off-price
retailers.

Source: http://www.burmalibrary.org/reg.burma/archives/199706/msg00325.html

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Ralph Lauren doesn't have factories, J.P.Stevens does:

"In 1983, Polo began to promote the introduction of its "Home Collection," a line of products that Lauren had designed for the home. House & Garden called the collection, which numbered more than 2,500 items and included everything from sheets to furniture to flatware, "the most complete of its kind conceived by a fashion designer." But the collection soon ran into serious trouble as the licensee, the J.P. Stevens Company, experienced difficulties getting the products to retail outlets on time. J.P. Stevens also had trouble maintaining quality control, having themselves licensed elements of the line to other companies."

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And Ralph Lauren's name wasn't even "Lauren", it was "Lifshitz".

Source of the two above:
http://www.answers.com/topic/polo-ralph-lauren-corp?cat=biz-fin

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There's plenty more where that came from:

"WestPoint Home Stores puts everything from flowers to cartoons in bed with you. The firm makes comforters, blankets, pillows, table covers, and window coverings under a variety of brands including Martex, Utica, Charisma, Grand Patrician, and Vellux. Licensed brands include Ralph Lauren, Harley-Davidson, Martha Stewart, and Scooby Doo."

AKA Martex
AKA J.P. Stevens
"WestPoint Stevens owes its present structure to three textile leaders founded in the 19th century: the West Point Manufacturing Company, the Pepperell Manufacturing Company, and J.P. Stevens & Company."

Source: http://www.answers.com/topic/westpoint-stevens-inc?cat=biz-fin

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Anyone remember the dog and cat food recall? All those brands coming from one source. And that source buying that ONE product from some morons that tried to pull a fast one by adding melamine to gluten for protein content.

That doesn't mean that the products are equal, the ones that came from the same factory, whether it's sheets or cat food. But they DO come from the same factory, using the same machines and workers.

It's not like there are white lab coated workers in one shiny factory for the premium-priced goods and filthy heathens working in an alley being beaten with sticks for the lower-priced goods.

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Also realize that many companies had less than favorable beginnings. Or stretches of time.

If there are problems, they should be identified, and then they should be worked on. The company as a whole should not be written off if they are making steps to change.

IKEA makes good statements:
http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_US/about_ikea_new/our_responsibility/child_labour/index.html

But how to guarantee that statement:
http://www.the-latest.com/ikea-slammed-over-child-labour-and-green-issues

People LIE to IKEA. Companies, manufacturers. They lie. Just like the gluten supplier lied about the protein content and didn't disclose the melamine.

People lie. So some kid who looks 18 needs a job and has fake ID or lies about their age to work, and it is found out later that the person is 14.

It's not like we can cut people in half and count the rings out from the center. Besides, that would sort of ruin the person's ability to work.

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How easy do you all think it is to change an entire business? Or to check on every single worker who works for every single supplier? How far down the chain is one expected to investigate?

Gee whiz, I worked at a retail store that had a nail polish display that was in the way so much that it was almost a daily occurrence that it was bumped and something was broken.

This was obvious from the vast number of stains on the floor from the broken bottles of the past. And it ruined this little girl's shoes. Splashed nail polish all over her shoes.

I pointed this out to the manager. I couldn't get anyone to do anything about the little girl's shoes (they should have been replaced). All they had to do to fix a problem was move a damn display, light enough that *I* could move it.

They wouldn't. And this was Nordstrom.

P.S. I too am not real thrilled with the direction AT is taking with the Drama Queen/National Enquirer tactics to stir up crap.

If you really want more hits, post stuff that hasn't been swiped from some other blog. Make the effort to find new products on your own and to be the first to show them.

Let this be the place where other bloggers head to, to find out the latest.

That requires reading. Searching. Chatting with companies via mail. You know...work! Ha!

It's like newspapers and news on TV. Big stories get passed around, and if it's really big, then I guess everyone is going to have it.

But the papers and stations that find the good stories on their own can lead the pack. They're the ones that do the digging and researching and uncover NEW stories.

A few years back, people were ready to lynch me for mentioning IKEA and BHG (Better Homes and Gardens). Now those places are mentioned here all the time. That's good. I thought they were valid resources back then, and I still do now.

But the credibility of this site is in jeopardy if it continues to rely solely on other people's blogs as well as post fluff and controversy that has little to nothing to do with what I thought the original idea of this site was.

Honda = Acura
Mercedes = Smart

Who are shareholders in Mercedes?:
The largest voting shareholders of Daimler are the State of Kuwait, with 7.0% (as of September 30 2007), Deutsche Bank with 4.35% (as of May 2 2007), and United Arab Emirates with 2.0% (as of January 1 2006).[8

source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daimler_AG

Is it weird that a country is a shareholder in an auto company?

http://www.canopyliving.com/media.html

03/03/2008
Canopy Home Furnishings Now Available At Wal-Mart
Builiding on its ongoing commitment to help customers save money and live better, Wal-Mart today begins to introduce the new Canopy™ home furnishings brand. Several products from the Canopy line are appearing in select stores nationwide now and also online at www.walmart.com/canopy. The Canopy launch will continue with an expansion of product in additional home categories, in stores and online, in summer and fall of 2008.

... and if we're on the "shady-watch" these days, we can't overlook IKEA's questionable tactics: http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=6919139

"...What emerges is an outfit that ingeniously exploits the quirks of different jurisdictions to create a charity, dedicated to a somewhat banal cause, that is not only the world's richest foundation, but is at the moment also one of its least generous. The overall set-up of IKEA minimises tax and disclosure, handsomely rewards the founding Kamprad family and makes IKEA immune to a takeover..."

I received a Canopy catalog in the mail last month. After curiously inspecting it, I flipped it over and saw "WalMart" in small text on the back. I have subscribed to other catalogs in the past, like West Elm and IKEA, so someone was clearly sharing my information with "sister companies an/or third parties." GEE, THANKS.

I won't be spending one cent there if it's Walmart.

Hi! Everyone...I would like to know if anyone out there knows the breed of the dog used in the canopy ad? Thanks!