Homescapes, Carmel

Traveling the world for their hometown

By Lisa Casinger/Photography by Batista Moon Studio

When Thompson and Beau Lange left their small hometown of Carmel, California, neither dreamt they'd be back anytime soon to take the town by storm with a high-end specialty store.

Thompson studied scenic design at UCLA and was in New York working in his field and doing decorative painting when younger brother (just by a year) Beau, who was living in Seattle, approached him about combining their art and horticulture.

"You know how you are when you're a kid, I said yeah, OK, and moved on, " Thompson said. "But Beau took that as the go-ahead to start our business and moved back to Carmel."

With their father, Thomas, the brothers (two in a family of six siblings) opened The Grove Homescapes in Pacific Grove in 1996. They converted a condemned laundry in a historic building into a Victorian-style environment with a distinctive garden area and used plants, flowers, art and accessories to accent the furniture they were collecting from around the world.

"One of the reasons Beau even suggested we open a store was because of my traveling," Thompson said. "When he approached me about this I'd hit 50 countries and he said we should do something worldly. I saw how things were used all over the world and saw lots of different products. I'm up to 70 countries now; it's my personal goal to see them all. A Long Island iced tea in Miami last year got me a tattoo of a globe on my heel because I'm such a globetrotter!"

In October 1999, they opened a second store, Homescapes, Carmel. Ironically, the Carmel store once was a bank Beau serviced as a plantscaper. The brothers spent many hours personally rebuilding and renovating the site, though they kept the old vault (now used as an art gallery). Although the basic store premise is the same, it caters to a slightly different clientele. The Carmel store is more contemporary, a little smaller at 6,000 square feet, located amid an artist colony and tourist area (hence its gift offerings). After a year of having two stores, different business philosophies developed between the generations.

"I thought we always had to be on our toes, change our product line, bring in upholstery and bring in more gifts," Thompson said. "And we needed to advertise more. Most people say when the economy gets scary don't scale back because then your customers are going to get the feeling that you're scared and it's the beginning of the end."

In 2001 Beau and Thompson went out on their own with the Carmel store. The staff from the original store migrated to Carmel, and to keep them, Beau and Thompson went for six months without paying themselves. "I thought it was worth it because it's harder to get a staff you have to train from the beginning," Thompson said. "And it also gave us continuity with our customers."

With all of Thompson's travels, direct importing was a natural step.

"I don't know that I would recommend that to other people because I know a lot of luck gets involved," he said. "We started importing before we ever took an importing class and it was great to find out our idea of importing turned out to be right."

The brothers describe Homescapes, Carmel as a "home environments" showroom. The product mix - plants, orchids, flowers, imports, gifts, accessories and are - is displayed in vignettes that are as "organic and home-like" as possible in a retail store.

Because their concept has worked so well, one would assume having a retail store was always in the plans for the brothers - but it wasn't.

"I really like it, but if it had crossed my mind as a profession I would have worked in a store at some point in my life; it wasn't on my radar, " Thompson said. "I think there is a benefit to that because you have to be intuitive about your business instead of saying I know statistics say this should work. You're not thinking inside the box because you don't know what the box looks like - it opens you up to really bust out of the box,. Retail wasn't our idea and certainly importing wasn't either. We started out with no money, so I was going out every week to get product and eventually I exhausted what I considered the good pieces from a vendor and thought we should just go overseas ourselves."

Thompson, a self-proclaimed anti-shopper, is the head buyer and admittedly had some trepidation about filling the store with product at its opening.

"As we got closer to opening after we built the building I realized I was going to have to get product and I remember distinctly when a Pier 1 commercial would come on, I'd get sick to my stomach think where do these people find all this stuff?" Thompson said.

Thompson learned quickly where to find the product. He shops several major markets as well as obscure shows and of course imports product. Though he loathes shopping, Thompson enjoys the treasure-hunt aspect of finding the perfect item.

"What surprises most people is despite having bought and sold millions of dollars worth of merchandise I hate to shop," he said. "So as I grumble my way through the shows, I keep my eyes open for product that stands out from the pack. I always have in the back of my mind product lines that customers suggest and requests so when something calls to me, the anti-shopper, I figure it might make a name for itself with the shoppers who frequent my store. The thing I love most actually is finding one lonely item in a vendor's booth that makes the grade. It's like treasure hunting."

The store is filled with Chinese antiques, Indonesian pieces made from reclaimed teak, Philippine baskets and molave wood benches and English architectural salvage for the garden, as well as domestic furniture (specifically leather), home accents and gifts. The top volume seller for Homescapes is the gift category - soaps, candles, lotions, bracelets and purses - while the primary profits come from the imports.

Imports, which account for about 35% of the business (three containers a year), are artfully mixed with contemporary furniture from domestic vendors (leather couches and chairs from American Leather in Dallas) and textiles from India, Turkey, Thailand and Vietnam.

Thompson imports most of his furniture because domestic can take four months to deliver and offers custom designs to clients.

"If someone wants changes on an import, it's easy," Thompson said. "I go to the computer, draw up the changes, fax it to Indonesia and they make it. The customer would rather wait two to three months for custom-made furniture versus four months if they go to another store and get something that looks like everyone else's."

Perhaps the biggest reason Thompson imports is for the variety and value they can then offer customers.

"It's very important that our customers never perceive us as too expensive, "Thompson said. "That's why we became importers - so we could find enough variety to keep our customers happy while at the same time keeping our retail prices noticeably competitive. That's actually the primary function of our gift items - to show how competitive we are. If you have interesting unique items at a good price and the customer sees those priced higher elsewhere, they will trust that our $6,000 items must be a good value also."

Thompson says if you're thinking about importing it's a good idea to use an agent in that country as they know the ins and outs and you shouldn't buy 1,000 of any one thing because if nobody likes it 1,000 is a lot to get rid of. You do have to purchase enough to fill a container and pay upfront, which can get expensive, plus you have to have some warehousing capabilities for all the merchandise. You also have to think about problems like damaged containers or merchandise, but despite the drawbacks, importing works for Homescapes, Carmel.

"I always bring an extra suitcase whenever I go on a buying trip and fill it with enough stuff that will pay for the trip," Thompson said. "I was in Beijing and found these really great purses (which is funny for a furniture store) and I thought these things are great, they're hand-made, there's a value to them and I bought 50 of them, displayed them well in our store and sold them all."

The home accents sold at Homescapes, Carmel - lamps and lighting, mirrors, candles, wall sconces and masks and decorative accents - take up about 50% of the floor space and represent about 40% of the volume. To keep the walls in this 32-foot-ceilinged building from looking bare, Thompson features consigned artwork form local artists. It's a win-win situation: without inventory expense he has ever-changing art decorating the walls and the artist gets local exposure.

Plants and orchids are about 30% of the business and Homescapes receives a shipment every week.

"The orchids look really good in the store and they sell constantly," Thompson said. "Anything that looks like a container has a plant in it. The plants are profitable but they help sell the furniture. We have a big open floor plan in this is building because it was an old bank, and if you didn't have the plants and the flowers to help your eye break the vignettes, it would be this massive jumble of nice furniture. It would sell, but I think the plants and nature thing calms people down. The air quality is really great, and the smell of our store is wonderful."

Homescapes is known for its witty advertising. Early on Thompson saw the benefit of advertising and branding the store with their personalities. Whether it's a newspaper ad that writes about a recent buying trip or artist show and mentions a specific product or the TV ads with gritty home movie shots of Thompson on location in a snowstorm in Moscow or a near-sinking ferry-boat in Southeast Asia, the tag line, 'We travel the world so you don't have to' has proven effective.

Thompson tracked customer responses during the first month of cable ads and realized it added about $36,000 to sales. He places ads specifically for programs that appeal most to his demographic and while this adds to the cost, it brings in results.

"For us, television has been the biggest success in advertising," Thompson said. "Despite the down-turn in our local economy since early 2001, our store had its best year ever in 2002 and we're up in 2003 by almost 35%. We completely attribute our good fortune to our investment in advertising. While other stores have scaled back in advertising and scaled down their inventory, we did the opposite on both counts and made sure our customers knew it. Nothing breeds success like the appearance of success."

Personalizing promotions and ads has set Homescapes apart from its competition. Thompson says someday they may have to change the name of the store because Homescapes is becoming more common, but branding the business to their two personalities should make such an effort easier.

"Our commercials, print ads and journal entries on the Web site have made people think of us as real people and ;an important part of the community," Thompson said. "Instead of being people trying to make other people part with their cash, we have customers who truly appreciate our a store and merchandising and recommend us to friends and visitors as a must-see on the Monterey Peninsula as if we were a museum or cultural venue."

Aside from the tongue-in-cheek advertising, Homescapes draws attention with events and community involvement. Art events and store anniversary celebrations typically are attended by 300 to 500 guests in three hours and always turn a profit.

Holiday celebrations also are a big production. Homescapes, Carmel opened in October, making it easy to combine an anniversary and holiday event. Since plants are such an integral part of Homescapes, the presentation of the Christmas tree is far from traditional. Past trees have included a manzanita tree with a wasp's nest on top and in 2001 a spiral framed red tree was lit with 5,000 lights (for the number of people then counted as missing from 9/11).

"For us there's a value to having events in our store, it makes us feel good too," Thompson said. "We sponsor the outdoor movies they show in the communities. All the promoters are looking for is a check, but last year I made 10 pots of chili and cornbread and made it a party. Of course we're not even in our store and it doesn't bring in any money, but it makes us feel good. There are different ways of advertising and we may as well have fun with it."

Since they are hometown boys and graduates of Carmel High School, Beau and Thompson frequently donate product to silent auctions or fund-raisers for the school or other local charitable events. This not only allows them to get rid of slow-moving product - "If it's something we're tired of seeing, we'll say 'hey, stick a plant in it and give it to Carmel High." You'd be surprised at the things we put plants in and it really give people great ideas." Though they don't have sales, they have designated an area in a corner where they display discounted merchandise.

"We found a number of customers were hoping a bad economy would make us willing to deal on our product," Thompson said. "We're not willing to barter, thank you very much, please don't ask. The sale shelf allows us to say no in a positive way, however."

As all retailers know, there are basic challenges to running a business. Thompson finds his challenge is rising to the "performance level" of retail that is expected of a store owner in a small town. The worldly nature of the merchandise and the price sometimes require Beau or Thompson to step in and tell the story of its purchase, tell the found-object tale and explain why they found value in it. While this goes a long way in making some sales, some days "smiling and tap dancing" aren't high on Thompson's list. those days he sticks close to the office and leave the customers to the staff.

Thompson and Beau have surrounded themselves with a staff of people they like and enjoy being around and they try to keep the staff informed about what's going on, good or bad.

They reward their loyal staff with above-market wages, freedom and trust, insurance, an employee discount, vacation and bowling nights - yes, bowling nights! "Goofy I know, but going out as a group eating pizza and bowling is one of those weird bonding things that make us all feel good and remind us that we're all in this together," Thompson said.

Day to day Beau and Thompson have different roles. Though they both are available for the "dog and pony show" as Thompson says (talking to o customers about the product), he admittedly leaves the dirty work to Beau.

"He doesn't mind, so I let him deal with the lawyers and the various things that involve maybe a more contentious nature and I take care of the buying and display," Thompson said. "The reordering I leave to staff, but I do the initial searches. Beau and Kathy Apodaca are completely in charge of the plants. If a person's going to buy a $2,000 20-foot plant they want to know it's not going to die, so Beau does house calls to make sure the lighting is right and everything. And it's funny about depth perception - people think they have it and they don't. People will insist they can buy that 20-foot tree because their ceilings are huge - now, a 12-foot ceiling is huge, but it's not big enough for a 20-foot tree."

Based on previous experience, Beau and Thompson worked with lawyers to draw up contracts before getting into business together. Thompson highly recommends having contracts with everything possible in writing, whether you're in business with a friend, family member or partner.

Though none of the other siblings are involved in the business, they are supportive and have expressed interest in joining the brothers should Homescapes expand.

Thompson admits right now a bit of laziness is preventing them from actively pursuing a second location, but he anticipates more stores, possibly one by the end of next year.

"Right now things are going really well and I'm thinking I can buy a car and couldn't do that before so unfortunately we've been lazy," Thompson said. "But we know it's the kiss of death if we start settling and not marching forward. Everyone knows at some point things will get routine, it's human nature, so while we still have all this enthusiasm and desire it's best to more forward."

Although retail was not their first career choice, Thompson and Beau have embraced it whole-heartedly.

"I like the freedom of buy it or don't. I trust my product and do feel it can sell itself," Thompson said. "When people walk past something in their home, I want them to be happy they own it instead of upset at their decision...happiness is an advertisement that coast nothing but keeps paying off."