And then there’s 1stdibs. Once exclusive, the online site featuring modern and antique furniture, jewelry, fine art and other collectibles, has been ferociously signing up dealers who, as he puts it, “work out of storage lockers” in places like suburban Illinois with low rents, and don’t bother with the painstaking restoration for which Wyeth is known. The site is alsoincreasingly aggressive about collecting commissions on the online sales, a practice Mr. Birch sees as double-dipping.
Many of his Manhattan colleagues are already downsizing or folding up shop. Todd Merrill packed up his mirrored Paul Evans pieces and left Bleecker Street this winter for a location in the slightly more affordable financial district. In the fall, Alan Moss, the Art Deco purveyor, will close his Lafayette Street store and go online only.
No comments:
Post a Comment