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Crate and Barrel Through the Years

1960s

The first Crate and Barrel store opened in Chicago's Old Town neighborhood in a renovated space in an old elevator factory. The young husband-and-wife team of Gordon and Carole Segal set up shop with all the contemporary housewares they were discovering in Europe. The idea was to go directly to the European factories and artists' workshops. By skipping the middleman, they could offer these wonderfully simple designs at wonderfully simple, affordable prices. The store was a hit in Chicago. In 1967, the first Crate and Barrel catalogue made its debut.

1970s

By the Seventies, the humble yet contemporary Wells Street store had become a popular destination. Crate and Barrel brought affordable gourmet cooking home with crepe pans, fondue pots and soufflé dishes. Marimekko© fabrics were walking out the door as miniskirts, men's shirts, wall hangings and bags. As of 1971, there were three Chicago area Crate and Barrel stores including our first suburban mall store in Oak Brook, IL. In 1977, the first East Coast store opened on Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge, MA.

1980s

In the Eighties, Crate and Barrel became a complete home store with the introduction of quality furniture in select stores. Now the Crate and Barrel style was available in contemporary but cozy slipcovered sofas, pine coffee tables and armoires, cherry dining rooms and cottage-inspired bedrooms. By the end of the decade, we were almost 30 years old and had 30 stores East to West, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dallas, Washington DC, and Minneapolis.

1990s

In 1990, we proudly opened an award-winning, architecturally dynamic store on Chicago's Michigan Avenue. This exciting store with its light-filled atrium and sweeping views set a new standard in home retailing. In 1995, Manhattan was lined up for the opening of our store on Madison Avenue. That same year, we celebrated our 50th store in San Mateo, CA. In 1998, Crate and Barrel partnered with the Otto Group of Hamburg, Germany, the world's largest mail-order company. In 1999, crateandbarrel.com opened for business, making the Crate and Barrel lifestyle available 24 hours a day.

2000s

Nine years into the millennium and so much to report. Crate and Barrel is now 160 stores coast to coast, and our first international locations are now open in Toronto and Calgary, with Mississauga soon to follow in 2010. But all is not black and white…

In 2000, Crate and Barrel introduced a new brand concept in a new store. The name? CB2. The product? Affordable, modern housewares and furniture for apartment, loft and home. Today, CB2 has two exciting Chicago stores, a SoHo store in New York, two San Francisco Bay area stores, and a newly opened Los Angeles store on Sunset Blvd. Another store is coming to Miami in 2010, and there’s even talk of Boston. And cb2.com and cool CB2 catalogues have a loyal following of modern customers.

In 2001, Crate and Barrel partnered with The Land of Nod, a children's furniture company highlighted by a whimsical and imaginative storybook catalogue. Soon after, that magic was brought online with the launch of landofnod.com. With five stores from Chicago to Seattle, The Land of Nod is on a real growth spurt. Now it’s 2009, and in addition to our Yorkdale Shopping Centre store in Toronto, our exciting new home in Calgary’s Southcentre Mall is open. We look forward to meeting you.

Now it’s 2009, and our exciting new home in Toronto's Yorkdale Shopping Centre is open. We look forward to meeting you.

Back in the ’60s, a young Chicago couple by the name of Gordon and Carole Segal had just returned from a honeymoon in Europe. One night, while washing their dishes after dinner, they lamented there was no place at home to buy the contemporary, affordable housewares they had admired throughout their travels.
Passionate to make these designs available to others, the Segals hired one employee and leased an abandoned elevator factory on Chicago’s Wells Street. They traveled throughout Europe buying directly from glassblowers and ceramicists, from factories making beautiful French copper pots and simple white bistro dinnerware. With no money left for displays, they stacked the shipping crates as shelves and filled the overseas barrels with fun merchandise. So out of necessity came the unique Crate and Barrel style…and name. And on a cold December day in 1962, just moments before the official opening, Gordon and Carole realized they had forgotten just one thing–a cash register (no kidding).

A lot has changed since that first store opened. Instead of the one employee we had in 1962, we now have 7,500. Instead of one small storefront, we now have 160 spectacular stores in markets across the US.

And now, we’re honoured to share our passion with our first international Crate and Barrel stores, at Toronto’s Yorkdale Shopping Centre and our newest location in Calgary’s Southcentre Mall.