After 46 years of selling beds, waterbeds and other home furnishings, Gerald King is closing Environs Urban Home, which has been in the Stony Point Fashion Park for the past nine years.
The store is having a clearance sale for the next couple of weeks, and King, 65, is retiring.
“I started in 1971 at Virginia Tech. I was 19 and at that time and was selling waterbeds to kids,” King said.
A freshman at Virginia Tech back then, King said he and a fraternity brother sold waterbeds to other students.
“At the time, waterbeds were kind of new. We were mostly just selling water mattresses and students were building their own frames,” he said.
“Then we eventually moved into retail. We opened our first retail store in Richmond in 1976 in Beaufont Mall and were there for about 10 years. Then we moved the store across from Chesterfield Towne Center, and we were there for about the same, 10 years,” he said.
The store then moved to a 25,000-square-foot space that was a former Heilig-Meyers furniture store building next to a Whitten Brothers auto dealership off Midlothian Turnpike in Chesterfield County and was there about seven years.
King said he and a business partner operated the business together until 1980 or 1981, when the partner decided to become a manufacturer’s representative.
“So I ended up buying the Environs name,” he said. The business also had contract stores in Charlottesville, Hampton, Lynchburg, Roanoke and Virginia Beach, all of which were later either bought out or closed, he said.
“There was a time when there were a lot of stores using the Environs name and affiliated through buying power and advertising. Those other stores were owned by other people,” he said.
“We would jointly buy truckloads of furniture.”
King said he and his wife, Christina King, are fused glass artists.
“I will probably concentrate more on the art side, the creative side,” he said.
Hair extensions shop opens in Manchester
When it comes to hair, what didn’t come naturally, you can buy.
Daviece Clement, a former advertising agency account executive and hairstylist, has opened a shop in Richmond specializing in high-end Brazilian hair extensions.
Wild & Worthy Hair Extensions is at 0 E. 4th St. in the Plant Zero building in the Manchester area of South Richmond.
“When I left advertising, I did hair for about nine years,” Clement said. “From all the flat ironing and blow drying, I had elbow tendonitis. I didn’t want to leave the beauty industry completely. I looked at what else can I do. Another stylist said, ‘Why don’t you try opening a hair weave bar?’”
Wild & Worthy opened March 10. Clement said she used personal savings and had financial help from a silent investor to fund the business start-up. She was familiar with the hair extension industry because of her work as a stylist.
“The industry is enormous. It’s a multibillion-dollar industry.”
Most hair extensions are processed in India and China, she said. But the hair can come from other locales, including Peru and Brazil.
“What I look for is longevity, in terms of how long the hair can be used, if you can use it for multiple installs. I look for whether or not it’s sewn on the weft properly. And I look to see what processes they take the hair through to make sure it’s not chemically damaged and the hair has integrity,” Clement said.
The hair comes in bundles, which cost $70 or more. Customers might need two to four bundles for a full-head hair style. The hair extensions can be washed and curled and taken out and reinstalled.
African-Americans usually have sewn-in extensions, but there are places that offer natural hair texture clip-ins, Clement said.
“For Caucasian women, you have a lot of clip-ins, but the new thing is tape-ins,” Clement said.
Clement also makes custom wigs using the hair extensions. The labor for wigs starts at about $250, which does not include the cost of the hair. A full-head wig might need two to three bundles of hair.
“We also are going to be hosting beauty boot camps and confidence-building workshops for teen girls because as much as women feel beautiful on the outside with their hair, we also want to make sure women are feeling good about themselves on the inside as well,” said Clement, who gained some notice a few years ago when she launched a marketing campaign to find a husband.
Clement said shop hours vary so customers are advised to call ahead. For more information, visit www.wildworthyhair.com.
Lidl hires The Martin Agency for advertising campaign
Lidl has come out slugging on the advertising front.
The Germany-based grocery chain, which opened its first U.S. stores last summer, has hired Richmond-based The Martin Agency to develop an advertising campaign that takes aim at competitor’s higher prices.
The “Don’t Let Them Waste Your Money” ad campaign features a fictional supermarket chain run by the fictional Vanhills family, who use gimmickry in store marketing.
“This new campaign is designed to raise awareness about the costly inefficiencies of traditional supermarkets and the savings that Lidl’s streamlined approach brings to customers every day,” said Elina Elvholm, Lidl US director of brand marketing.
The radio, TV and truck wrap ads are running in six states — Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Delaware and New Jersey. Lidl has five stores open in the Richmond area with more in the pipeline.
Let’s block ads! (Why?)