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Country Curtains was "woefully unprepared" for the recent recession, according to its president Phil McAvoy. The housing depression struck after home sales peaked in 2006, and "then stuck at lower levels. Our business was getting hit from all sides," McAvoy said during his keynote at the NEMOA Fall Conference in Quincy, MA.
The Stockbridge, MA-based domestics cataloger/retailer, founded by Jack and Jane Fitzpatrick in 1956, saw about a 15% decline in sales from 2008 to 2010. Worse yet, the price of cotton rose 300%-after holding steady for about 20 years.
But the Fitzpatrick family's commitment to its customers "carried us through the decline," McAvoy says.
Country Curtains today has 26 stores, a...