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It was a matter of timing.
When Jane Cliff and business partner Ann De Witt were brainstorming retail ideas for Boise, M.S. Kathwari was skiing in Sun Valley.
Kathwari is chairman and president of Ethan Allen, Inc., an old-line East Coast furniture manufacturer and retailer. Neither Cliff nor De Witt had met him, but they were familiar with the company's classy stores.
"I got the Ethan Allen number from the gallery in Salt Lake City." Cliff said. "I called back East, and they said, 'It's so strange that you called--we just had a meeting, and we need to go to Boise, Idaho, and check out the market."
That's how Cliff, who has worked "in retailing" in Boise since 1985, and De Witt, an accountant at the Boise office of Deloitte & Touche CPAs, got the Ethan Allen dealership for Boise.
Their 12,000-square-foot store,...