Cargo Furniture Opens Newest Store in Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex

Furniture World Magazine

Cargo Furniture Inc. (http://www.cargohome.com ) opened its fourth Cargo Home Collection store in the Dallas-Fort Worth area on Saturday, Jan. 15. The 4,000 square-foot store located in the Shops at Northeast Mall in Hurst is the latest example of how Cargo is converting its mall-based furniture stores into a newer, fresher format. The Fort Worth, Texas-based designer, retailer and wholesaler of children's furniture, accessories and casual lifestyle furniture expects to open its fifth Cargo Home Collection store in the Metroplex area in July of this year. Lisa Thornton, president of Cargo, said the Collection format is based on creating a whole-room environment within the store, allowing consumers to visualize how the furniture and accessories would look in their own homes. Cargo began converting its 22 stores from mall-based stores to the new Collection format in 1997, relocating them to high-traffic shopping malls. The Hurst store is the 15th Cargo store to be converted to the Collection format. "Our mall-based stores were smaller retail spaces that didn't effectively showcase our products and were inconvenient for consumers who wanted to carry out their purchases," Thornton said. "These new stores are much larger and more well-stocked, allowing consumers to see the furniture in a full-room display and then walk out the door with their purchase." According to Thornton, about 60 percent of the Hurst store will be dedicated to children's furniture and accessories. The remaining 40 percent will feature a much broader assortment of pieces from Cargo's casual lifestyle furniture line. Among Cargo's best selling items are their popular bunk bed styles and children's mix-and-match bedroom furniture. "Our Hurst store represents an ideal venue for us to test out new products," Thornton said. "Not only is it the store closest to our corporate headquarters, the new Collection format easily allows us to showcase full-room vignettes featuring furniture, wall decor, bedding and related accessories, providing our customers with a much more exciting retail experience." Cargo, which traditionally specialized in wood-constructed juvenile beds, bunk beds, chairs and desks, has significantly expanded its line of accessories to implement the Cargo Home Collection concept. In addition to traditional accessories such as lamps and bedding, Cargo now offers other niche products such as decorated drawer pulls, books, puzzles, memorabilia, framed art and stuffed animals featuring licensed characters such as Arthur, DW and Madeline. Cargo Furniture Inc., a division of Tandycrafts Inc. (NYSE: TAC), is a designer, retailer and wholesaler of children's furniture, accessories and casual lifestyle furniture. The company's products are sold through 22 company owned stores, a nationwide network of 110 dealers, contract sales and a toll-free ordering division. Additional information on Cargo -- including product photos -- and a store and dealer locator are available on the company's website at http://www.cargohome.com .