3.11.2013

More Martha Home Products

Martha fans continue to send in photos of the new Martha Home line at JC Penney as the products slowly begin to filter into the stores. These are from my good friend Kenn in Michigan who spotted several lamps and window coverings bearing the Martha Home label at his local JC Penney this past weekend. The 'stores within stores' concept for the Martha brand will be revealed in May once JC Penney finishes its home department renovations. That is when we'll see official Martha displays take shape. Until then, the Martha products are being displayed on simple shelves. From what we have seen so far, the products are more akin to the Martha Stewart Everyday line that was once sold at Kmart. For those of you who have not read about it yet, the judge presiding over the Macy's vs. JC Penney case has ruled that both department stores must go into mediation to resolve their dispute over sharing the Martha Stewart brand. A full Martha Stewart line of bedding, bath items and kitchen items was planned for JC Penney but these products will be put on hold until the conflict is resolved, since Macy's is contesting the sale of these categories of goods at JC Penney. In the meantime, four categories of Martha Stewart products will be in stores this month: Lighting, Celebrations, Window and Pantry. Stay tuned!
I quite like the lighting that I've seen so far from this line. There seems to be a nice mix of masculine and feminine options with classic shapes and styles that will not date.
 Window panels in signature Martha colours.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love that you are putting these pics up Andrew. It so very investigative. I don't know where the nearest JCP to me is, but when the Martha store opens up I am going to find out.

- Marc

Anonymous said...

Is it true MS compensation via MSLO was 21 million dollars in 2012?

ANDREW RITCHIE said...

Good grief, no! It was less than $5M in 2012. It's never been higher than $7M.

ANDREW RITCHIE said...

Marc, I wish we had JC Penney in Canada, but they do ship here, so that's good.

Kenn said...

Every time I go into a JCP store now, I'll have "Mission Impossible" music playing in my head... Glad you enjoyed the photos! - K

Allison said...

I am delighted by the JCPenney offerings. They are so much more like the Kmart/Everyday line which I miss so much. I love the Macy's stuff, but the Kmart stuff fit my life better.

Catherine from Connecticut said...

Martha Stewart's compensation between 2009-2011 totaled over 21 million. There were columns in The New York Times written by James Stewart on Saturday, 3/9 and by David Carr on Monday, 3/11 discussing her business and the lawsuits.

Anonymous said...

On the subject of compensation, are stock options and book deal sales and commercial endorsements from associations with home depot, rental fees for Cantitoe Corners location photo shots for publication etc amount to only 5 million?????? When MS is selling floor coverings glitter at michael's, detergent at a supermarket, Ham at Cosco I guess her total income thru these deals is in addition to wages from MSLO I do believe stock options and other forms of compensation is taxed at a rate different then what is deducted from my paycheck no doubt

ANDREW RITCHIE said...

MSLO pays Martha a salary in addition to compensation packages that include paying for her driver, home security, property management, etc. The copmensation amounts are separate from the salary amounts so I'm not sure what the grand total is. But it's public so you should be able to track it down. I don't think, however, that Martha gets a personal cut of every vile of glitter the company sells. She has stock options (and holds the majority) so most of her wealth is tied up in that: hundreds of millions of dollars worth.

Anonymous said...

I do hope the JCP Everyday line can hit the shelves. There's been a definite void since the Kmart deal ended. The Macy's stuff is great for what it is, but I miss the Everyday line. I can think of a few things that get tons of use around here: the liquid measuring cups are the only ones I've seen with lots of extra room at the top; I have a glass door bookcase that no one ever believes is from Kmart; and an upholstered bench in the foyer has withstood lots of wear and tear. Also the Christmas was the best. I don't know why the lines at Home Depot and Macy's have been so underwhelming. Even though I don't think the deal would hurt Macy's, I do understand why they're upset. Hopefully since most of the Penney stuff is not going to have Martha's name on it, they'll get the go ahead.

Anonymous said...

I agree .. I can't wait for the JCP line .. the Macys line never thrilled me .. except maybe the 1st year .. I miss the Kmart MSE line .. and this looks like it will be similar to that .. can't wait!

Anonymous said...

JCP online now shows the new lines from Michael Graves, Jonathan Adler and Terence Conran - and they all look so good - hopefully the Martha line will be up soon ..

Anonymous said...

The New York Times article about Stewart's compensation was very misleading. Stewart's salary last year was less than half of her salary from a few years ago. Newspapers seems to think that executives at public companies should work for free.

The only executive more hated than Stewart is Ron Johnson. I get depressed reading all of the negative stories at Google. Some of it is obviously inaccurate and biased. Anything goes when it comes to those 2 figures; it says something about the media--emotions often trump accuracy.