Sharon Stangenes

If getting together a garage sale takes a five-year plan at your house, meet Ruth Smalley. Associate executive director for the Evanston Chamber of Commerce, Smalley is in charge of...

A new book due out this fall by Marshall Field`s vice president/home fashion director David Snyder doesn`t have the easiest-or to American eyes-the most recognizable name. ''Epoustouflant,'' a French term...

Call it guerrilla gardening if you wish, but credit wily city dweller Yolanda Ericson with one solution to the perennial warm-weather problem of plant piracy. When one of the ''cute,...

Chicago-area consumers shouldn`t have any trouble finding a place to shop for furniture. According to the trade paper Furniture Today, 6 of the country`s 100 biggest furniture retailers call this...

All the time, furniture artist Morlen Sinoway hears, ''Oh, I know your work, but I didn`t know your name'' from people he meets. Designer of the dramatic host station at...

How to get the maximum number of potential customers to see a new product? Executives of Knoll International, the office furnishings company, invited several thousand architects, designers and facilities planners...

Cuban President Fidel Castro is personally fascinating but politically stuck in an old-style socialism fast going the way of the dodo bird. French President Francois Mitterrand is snoringly dull but...

After a continental breakfast and a presentation by Nancy Novogrod, editor of HG magazine, more than 1,000 Midwestern consumers fanned out through the Merchandise Mart recently to browse, sample the...

What does a customer have to do to get good service? Interviews with store executives, a personal shopper, a professional shopper who is paid to test stores` service and an...

Like a high-fashion designer who has discovered the benefits of creating a more affordable clothing collection, Knoll International, one of the most prestigious names in office furnishings, is introducing a...