Has it really been 30 YEARS since 1980?

Wow.

We're 30.

The big 3-0.

No more swinging twenties for us... LaDIFF is officially OLD.

Here's the tricky part... we're THIRTY, and yet we were born in 1980.
Doesn't that just sound WEIRD???
Wasn't 1980 only a few years ago?

Well... to show you just how long ago 1980 was, here's a quick summary of some of the 'stuff' that happened in 1980. You can decide if it reads like history or is part of your short term memory...

• The underdog U.S. hockey team surprises everyone - themselves included - with their gold medal win over the U.S.S.R. team (psst... that's "Russia" now) at the 1980 Winter Olympics.
• "Blues Brothers" movie with Dan Akwoyd and John Belushi opens
• U.S. President Jimmy Carter authorizes legislation giving $1.5 billion in loans to bail out the Chrysler Corporation (proving that history really does repeat itself).
• Mount St. Helens erupts in Washington, killing 57 and causing US$3 billion in damage (hey! I remember studying about that in 8th grade science class when it happened!).
• In Australia, baby Azaria Chamberlain disappears from a campsite at Ayers Rock, reportedly taken by a dingo, (thereafter burning into our psyche's the phrase "The Dingo ate my baby." spoken in a thick Australian accent)
• Marlo Thomas (aka That Girl) and Phil Donohue get married.
• 21-year-old John McEnroe beat Bjorn Borg to win his 2nd straight US Open title. (many years before he was doing Amex commercials)
• IBM hires Paul Allen and Bill Gates to create an operating system for a new PC. The pair buy the rights to a simple operating system manufactured by Seattle Computer Products and use it as a template. IBM allows the two to keep the marketing rights to the operating system, called DOS.
• Atari becomes the first company to register a Copyright for two computer games "Asteroids" and "Lunar Landar" on June 17, 1980.
• Now 2-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks makes his television acting debut on a little show called Bosom Buddies, where he dresses in drag every night just to keep his apartment.
  
• Former governor of California and former actor & president of the Screen Actor's Guild Ronald Reagan defeats incumbent Jimmy Carter in the presidential election.
• Blondie's Call Me edges out Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall to top the Billboard charts. Olivia Newton-John, Michael Jackson, and Captain & Tennille rounded out the top 5 (no, it wasn't Muskrat Love... although I loved that song when I was a tween).
• A gallon of gas (on average) is $1.19; average income is $19,170, and a new house costs $68,714. More importantly, most cars on the Price is Right still needed only 4 digits to guess the price (average was $7,200).
• Beatle John Lennon is shot & killed by deranged fan, Mark David Chapman, outside of his NYC apartment building, leaving millions of fans to mourn his talent.

And, to be fair, here's what had NOT happened (yet) by 1980...

• We all typed our papers on typewriters. If we made a mistake we either started the page over or used Wite-Out. Yes, there were a few word processors out there (that's what we called computers that let you hit a delete button to erase your mistakes!), but they were expensive! If we needed a copy of the paper, we used carbon paper between the sheets on the typewriter or our teacher let us borrow the 'mimeograph' machine (ah... smell the blue ink.....) "Xerox machines" were available at the library and the post office if you wanted to pay for a copy.
  
• When we called each other on the phone, we used phones connected to cords that went into the wall. Sometimes you had more than one line in the house if mom & dad didn't want to have to share with their kids. Car phones? only for the rich and famous.
• Want to walk around while listening to music? Simply record your favorite songs onto a Memorex cassette, pop it into your Sony Walkman, put on the headphones, and off you go... for about 45-60 minutes. (p.s. most of the time you recorded the songs directly off the radio, during Casey Kasem's Top 40)
• We had 4 television stations... including PBS (Shown on the UHF- Ultra High Frequency - channel). While Tuesdays belonged to ABC and Gary Marshall's hit shows Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley, Friday night was all CBS: The Incredible Hulk (loved me some Bill Bixby), Dukes of Hazzard, and Dallas

Oh... and there was no LaDIFF in Richmond!
LaDiff was 'born' in Charlottesville in 1980. It wasn't until 1992 that we opened a store in Richmond!

Hope you've enjoyed this trip down memory lane.
If it's made you feel OLD, well, I can't say I'm that sorry, since I've been feeling that way for a long time now.

We'd love to hear what YOU remember about 1980 or about LaDiff when we were 'young'. Drop us a line or post a comment.

... and let the anniversary year celebrations begin!

Mr. Washington would WANT you to shop on his birthday.

Today, the United States is celebrating the birthday of the father of our country, the first president of our nation, the man as famous for his legendary-but-not-true tales of wooden teeth, cherry trees, and silver dollar tossing as for his crossing of the Delaware and leading the troops during frigid winters.

George Washington would be 278.
Well, not today actually... it would be NEXT Monday (Feb 22nd), according to the Gregorian calendar... but when Congress passed the federal law that recognizes Mr. Washington's birthday as a national holiday, and made it land on the 3rd Monday of February, no one did the math. The holiday will NEVER be on his actual birthday.

But, since his birthday was not originally Feb. 22, 1732, does it really matter? When Washington was born, the colonies were using the Julian calendar, established by the former Roman emperor, so baby George's recorded birth date was February 11, 1731... *sigh*.

So now we have Feb. 11th, Feb. 22nd, and a floating third Monday.

To make matters worse for the first commander-in-chief, most states, ignoring the federal 'ruling', call it Presidents Day. So now Mr. Washington has to share his day? Perhaps it refers to a joint celebration for Washington and Lincoln; after all Lincoln's birthday was Feb. 12, 1809. Some say it's to honor ALL of the 40+ presidents. Personally I like to think that it's for George & Abe. I'm not ready to have a holiday for Calvin Coolidge just yet (no offense).

Okay... so the holiday is set. The kids are gleeful because it's one more day without school (unless they have endured multiple snow days in the weeks preceding). Grownups without kids are gleeful if they work for federal organizations and the like who tell them they don't have to work that day.

And... retailers are gleeful because people go SHOPPING.

What? Shopping on Washington's Birthday?

What is the meaning of this unusual and possibly irreverent tradition?

Shouldn't we all be researching our history, visiting famous Washington monuments & memorials like the beautiful life-size marble created by Jean-Antoine Houdon that lives in the exquisite, classical Virginia State Capitol building right here in downtown Richmond? (We're rather smitten with Mr. Washington around here, since he is the first of the 8 presidents born in our beautiful state.)

Well, yes, probably...
But, instead, over the last several years, retailers have realized that they have a captive audience with a 3-day weekend. Unlike Memorial Day and Labor Day, the pools aren't open and the beaches are cold, so what's a federal employee to do?

SHOP!

The furniture industry took the marriage of Washington's birthday and selling furniture so seriously, they even founded the American Furniture Hall of Fame on his birthday (his, uh, Gregorian 'real' one: Feb. 22) in 1988.

I for one think Mr. Washington would want his citizens to shop on his birthday. It stimulates the economy. It helps your community. It builds a local tax base (when you shop locally, of course... and you do, right???). And that 'retail therapy' high you feel when find and buy something you love - well - that's gotta be good for America, right?

So, today, on this Washington's Birthday/Presidents/Presidents' Day, as a citizen of this fine country, of the beautiful state of Virginia where this important man was born, I ask you, I implore you, I beseech you to do your patriotic duty.

Get out there and SHOP! ...especially if you want some terrific modern or contemporary furniture that you can only find in a one-of-a-kind 3-story showroom in downtown Richmond...

p.s. LaDiff is open 11-5 today, just for Mr. Washington.

Home Entertainment... then & now

This Saturday, LaDiff is hosting our 7th annual Home Theater Event... except this year we've renamed it our Home Entertainment Event, because now we can 'entertain' ourselves electronically in any room of the house!

Ray Lepper from Home Media of Richmond is going to show us and you all kinds of gizmos and gadgets to bring us up to speed on what's available out there. He'll let us in on all the new secrets of wireless capability so that you can program, watch, enjoy, and be entertained anywhere and everywhere in your house.

Which got me to thinking...

The 'what' is really nothing new... it's the HOW that's the new part (the gizmos and gadgets, that is).

When I was a kid, my sister and I enjoyed 'home entertainment' all the time! When I think about it, our house was light years ahead of its time in terms of what was available... especially circa 1979.

You see, our dad was (and still is) a gadget freak. A nut. A junkie.

It all started with the trains. When little Jimmy was a boy, he liked trains. He liked Lionel trains, and he got new ones every year for his birthday and for Christmas (and he got upset if he did not get the one he asked for... yes, we have family video footage to prove this little temper tantrum to his grandchildren.) When I was a very small child, Jimmy's train village took up an entire room in our basement. Occasionally he would let my sister or me wear the conductor's hat, too. Now the trains are packed away... (we need to change that).

Then there were the phones. Jimmy worked for 'the phone company'. We had LOTS of phones. When most of our friends had 2-3 phones (1 in the kitchen, 1 in their parents' bedroom, and 1 in the study or den), we had... 17. Yes. We had 17 phones. Oh, and they ALL worked.

We had the expected princess styles in the bedrooms (and bathrooms), and then we had the novelty phones: Mickey Mouse, Celebrity, Stars & Stripes. When our friends came over, there were two distinct favorites: the switchboard and the phone booth. The switchboard had all of the wires and plugs, just like the kind Lily Tomlin used when she squawked "one ringy dingy, two ringy dingy" on Laugh-In. And it worked.

The phone booth was the real hit though. The payphone inside the booth really did require quarters to call out. ... which reminds me of the payphone episode in The Brady Bunch... a plan that went bust on poor Mike Brady... but I digress.

This was the kind of phone booth that helped Clark Kent become SuperMan, the kind that college students used to stuff themselves into for photo opps, the kind that my giant stuffed gorilla from a long ago boyfriend used to live in, after I left for college.

So, we've got the trains and the phones. We also had GAMES. Board games were a huge part of growing up for us. From Chutes & Ladders, Candyland, and Sorry, we moved onto Operation, Twister, Life, Trouble, and Clue. Of course we had the requisite Monopoly sets, multiple Scrabble boards, and, later, Pictionary and Trivial Pursuit.

And, of course, when 'video games' came out, my dad had to get the latest and greatest gadget of them all: PONG by Atari. For those of you too young to remember this early video game, you can click here for a PONG video version. Note the high skill and technical prowess required........ to stay awake while playing.

Thanks to my dad's gadget-habit, we girls also had great stereo systems, walkie-talkies, cb radios, early cell phones (the ones that actually came in a bag you kept in your car), and COMPUTERS!

So, I guess when I begrudge my daughter some screen time with the TV, Wii, DS, or computer, I really need to think back to the time I spent on 'Home Entertainment' growing up. Gadgets can make our lives simpler AND more complex. We love 'family game night' at our house, because it means we turn OFF the tv and play charades or a board game. We also love having teams and challenging each other to a bit of Wii bowling (my 9-year-old is darn good... and my Mii is cuter than I am, so it's a whole lot of fun!).

However you enjoy 'Home Entertainment' with your family and friends, we hope you'll visit LaDiff this Saturday, Feb. 6th, to get a glimpse at some of the NEW ways we can be 'entertained' at home.

The 'Because' of Cause Marketing

January is traditionally a time for reviewing the year that's gone by and planning for the new year ahead. As a retailer, planning one's "marketing" calendar is part of that process.

At LaDIFF, we enjoy plugging in both sides of our brains to get the creative/right brain working with the strategic/left brain.

This year - 2010 - we have something very special to celebrate: LaDiff's 30th anniversary. As you may have read in our previous blog, an homage and plea to assist earthquake-stricken Haiti, the seed of inspiration to begin LaDifference began on that very island, 30 years ago.

For many retail businesses, marketing is all about "advertising". The traditional channels of print, television, direct mail, and radio are now all mixed up with the newer channels of web advertising and social media. Often when meeting with an 'expert', these are the channels discussed: where dollars should be spent, should you use image or promotional creative spots, which is better: frequency or audience... etc. etc. etc.

Seldom do the 'experts' mention an area that means quite a lot to LaDiff: "Cause Marketing"

Cause marketing is when you find a way to present your mission and vision and hopefully reap financial success in such a way that it also brings attention to a "worthy cause." When businesses, both big & small, choose to allocate some of their "advertising" dollars to causes that matter both to them and to their customers, their customers respond.

In the last week, our customers have called and written in support of Andy's blog post and (subsequent Richmond Times Dispatch reprinting!) about his memories of Haiti.

In the last week, we delivered over 400 pounds of canned goods to the Central Virginia Foodbank and will be following that up with a healthy cash donation - all from our customers who enjoyed giving to a local cause in exchange for a fun holiday sale.

In the last week, we tallied up the donations for our Ekornes promotion to learn we exceeded our goal and nearly tripled what we brought in last year. We will be presenting a very happy check to the Caritas Furniture Bank on behalf of the customers who wanted to give.

In the last week, I have responded to a giant pile of solicitations for silent auction donations for area schools and non-profits, whose board members and donors and party attendees are all current or future customers of LaDifference.

To whom you give and how you help can vary. We are fortunate to have a LARGE building where we can support the occasional fun evening event. For the second year in a row, Easter Seals will be throwing their annual Eggstravaganza bash in our store!

Whether you put up posters to help others advertise their fundraisers, you put a jar for donations on your counter, you stroke a check to sponsor an event, or you simply spread the word through Facebook, Twitter, or email lists to help "causes"... you CAN make a difference in your community.

We've got plans for more 'cause marketing' in our 2010 advertising budget.

I hope you do, too.

Our Haitian Beginning...

guest blogger: Andy Thornton, president and founder of LaDifférence, Inc.

For La Diff the news of the earthquake yesterday, January 12th, is close to home in many ways. La Diff is celebrating our 30th anniversary this year and it was Haiti that spawned our creation in 1980. Our very name, LaDifférence, comes from Haiti’s national slogan – Haiti, Vive La Différence.

From 1978 – 1980 I lived in Port au Prince and created an export business handling handicrafts, artwork, rugs, and the like. We worked with hundreds of Haitians in the capital, in Gonaives, Jacmel, St. Marc and in the countryside. The experiences were incredibly formative and rich. Some were delightful, some were quite painful but they all left an indelible impression on me.

The news that we are now getting out of Haiti is indeed very sad. Once again this poor country has been hit with tragedy – this time in the form of a massive earthquake whose epicenter was close to the capital of Port Au Prince.

Because of the lack of communication systems, the rest of world is only just starting to get reports of the nature and extent of the damage; it seems to be pretty devastating.

If one were Haitian it would seem fair to wonder why so much travail and hardship is 'dumped' on this island and its people. Already the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere it has suffered from innumerable hurricanes, political violence, corruption, deforestation, over population and a litany of other ills that would break most people’s spirits or beliefs. Now they are faced with rebuilding their lives and homes after the worst earthquake in the region in 200 years. It seems hard to understand how anyone could suffer so greatly and still go on.

And yet the Haitian spirit seems irrepressible. These are lovely people who have faced adversity countless times but keep smiling and persevering. They will survive and they will rebuild. Ask a Haitian "comment ou ye?" (how are you?) and the most likely answer will be "map debat" (I am getting by). They have an uncanny knack for survival and good humor and good grace but certainly could use any help that we can give them in this dark hour.

Personally and through LaDifférence, we will extend financial assistance to Haiti to assist in relief work and to help rebuild this island nation. There will be many outlets for providing support; we only ask that you donate to established, reputable organizations, such as the Red Cross, Oxfam. The Huffington Post is providing lists of ways we all can help, and they will be updating the list regularly. We hope you will help us show support to this country of survivors.

My heart goes out to Haitian friends from years gone by – William, Lionel, Luckner, Francois, Jean-Jacques, to their families and to so many more. "Monsieur et madame, m’pense ampil d’ou jodi a."

What the 'experts' are saying...

Who doesn't like to be right? Or, at least, have their opinion validated by some experts in print.

My chest was all puffed up yesterday morning, as we greeted the New Year and read an article in the Richmond Times Dispatch about Home Trends to watch for in 2010. First off, the puffed up chest went well with my puffy eyes and face from actually seeing midnight for the first time in a few years (I really needed to say goodbye to 2009 in person, and watch it leave... for good.) ... but that's a different story.

While Mr. President of LaDiff was none to pleased that design blogger Patricia Shackelford "thinks we'll see more patchwork quilts, hooked rugs, needlepoint and chintz" in the year to come, you have to read between those words to see the meaning of her message.

Remember... when times are 'tough', comfort is KING, and what is more comforting than the familiar? and, little does he know, we've just added a beautiful very antique quilt, hand-sewn by my great grandmother Carrie Ferguson and great great aunt Bess, to our homestead.

My belief has been that if you surround yourself with items you love, that are beautiful to you, they will 'work together' to become something harmonious. In the same story, Keith Johnson, buyer at large for Anthropologie (one of my FAVORITE stores to visit in NYC... and now a 5 minute walk from my Richmond home) talks about selecting items on the Sundance Channel program "Man Shops Globe." Johnson says "recycled items will be purchased only if they are beautiful." Beauty+function+recycled=a great combo.

So, how would you expect a 'modern' furniture store to react to this infusion of the 'comforts of traditional fare'?

For those who know our store, you also know we've always been a bit 'eclectic'. (Richmond Magazine even described us that way in one of their annual 'Best of...' issues). When LaDiff first opened, a whopping 30 years ago in Charlottesville, VA, the store sold Haitian handcrafts. Furniture didn't even come into the mix for about 2 years.

Having the name "LaDifference" means you are not locked into ONE style. We have ventured down all of avenues of design: Shaker, arts & crafts, minimal, glamour, whimsical, stark, rustic, high gloss, over the top, shabby chic, recycled, old world, mid-century modern, ... you name it, we've seen it, done it, sold it... because this is how people (YOU) truly live. Last year, we added Vive as an expansion of our love for the eclectic and exotic.

In October, the blog about purposeful eclecticism showed our thoughts in how these designs are now merging and mixing together more beautifully and in a more accepted fashion.

Reading the 'expert opinions' on Saturday morning was quite interesting. Not that we 'need' the validation (okay, yes, ... yes, sometimes I do), but it was nice to wake up on the first day of the new year and 'read' that our look is on the right track.

Here's to 2010 - twenty-ten - MMX - look for more celebration and fun and walks down our 30 year memory lane as the year goes by. We hope to see YOU more often, inside our wonderful 'recycled' building, enjoying our historic downtown, and loving our eclectic yet modern home furnishings. ... Our goal is to inspire you to take a few pieces back to YOUR home too.

Happy New Year!

Holiday fun with the whole LaDiff gang

We have this list of core values at LaDiff. There's not much on it you wouldn't expect to see: integrity tops the list, creativity, kindness, intelligence... that sort of 'good stuff.'

There is also one other very important word that, for us, ranks right under integrity: HUMOR. We LOVE to laugh, to make each other laugh, to tell funny stories and bad jokes, and to be a little bit silly.

With that in mind, it comes as no surprise that our annual holiday party for our employees is one giant laugh fest (with some eating and drinking too). 15 years ago, our parties started as potluck affairs at our home in Church Hill. At one of the first parties, even Santa came to visit, scaring the blessing out of then-VERY-young Terrance and Tyler Fisher, whose dad Terry is our warehouse manager. I think those boys were mighty good for the few days between our party and Christmas!

Over the years, we've visited downtown restaurants, dined in empty but candlelit spaces in our building, and... returned to our house again, this time on Cherokee Road, and better sized to handle the crew we have now!

One of my great joys is buying gifts for EVERY LaDiff employee. I do not go online and point & click to some item 30 times. I make a list, and I consider each person's personalities, likes, and dislikes. Some years (and some people) are 'easier' than others. If it's Bernadette, I just channel ORANGE and it works. She's modeling her new orange handbag today, as a matter of fact! Cameron? I just find something that I like that I think she would try to 'steal' from me by telling me it is unflattering on me and would look better on her (ha!). Philip is funny... he loves (and I mean *loves*) to get a McDonald's gift certificate. I'm not kidding.

Like many businesses, we did a 'secret santa' gift exchange for YEARS. Last year, someone on our team suggested we do a Chinese Gift Exchange (with my apologies for the non-p.c. name, but that is what it's called!). What a SUPER FUN idea that was!! So, we did it again this year!

Instead of numbers, we had everyone put their name in a bag. First called? Jim Ramos, who opened a lovely grey shawl... not quite his color though. Jim immediately took it around to show all of the ladies hoping they might 'steal' it from him.

In the end, Cameron got the shawl (which she wanted), after her Russian Vodka (that none of us could read much less pronounce) was stolen from her! Throughout the evening, the most popular (and most frequently 'stolen') items were liquor and gift cards... so when the combination came up (a gift card to a Virginia ABC store - good concept, Juliette!), it was stolen, and stolen, and stolen that final 3rd time... BY ME! (Gotta have something to put in Mr. Thornton's stocking). Which is a good thing, since Ernest ripped a bottle of tequila out of Andy's hand, even though Andy threatened with the 'hey, I'm your BOSS' line... sorry, Andy, that one doesn't seem to work with this crowd!

There are always one or two gag gifts in the mix. This year's attempt turned out NOT to be a 'gag' for the person who finally got it: our 9-year-old daughter. Jennie Kam tried hard to pull a 'gag' when, in actuality, she selected an item that Lucy had put on her Christmas list! Yes, we now have a cobalt blue Snuggie, complete with deluxe book light, adorning our family room.

Now, with the LaDiff holiday party behind us, and the breakroom filled with delicious leftovers, it feels like Christmas has begun. From all of us at LaDifference to all of you, we wish you a very Merry Christmas with your family and friends, a holiday filled with love, sharing, and hopefully a whole lot of laughter!