Soft Surroundings Sets Store Expansion

Soft Surroundings is planning a big growth spurt for 2015. The retailer launched in 1999 and was dedicated to a market that wasn’t getting the attention it deserved: working women aged 45 and older. That demographic is still time-deprived, juggling the demands of career and family, while acknowledging that the idea of having it all may be just a myth. “This was an underserved customer base,” said founder Robin Sheldon. “Women of a certain age were being left behind in marketing and advertising.” Sixteen years after mailing its first catalogue, Soft Surroundings operates 18 stores in 15 states. Eleven units are set to open over the next nine months, including the first stores in Arizona, Ohio and Washington, as well as units in Georgia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia. The size of the new stores will be between 4,100 square feet and 5,100 square feet. The retail expansion was keyed up in August 2012 when Brentwood Associates, a Los Angeles-based investment firm, took a majority stake in the company, whose 2014 sales volume was $250 million. “Women had scheduled their lives to such a degree that they had no time for themselves,” Sheldon said. “While we couldn’t give women more time, possibly we

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