Ethan Allen Opens 17,500 Square Foot Store in Garden City, Long Island

Business Wire, Feb 18, 1999

GARDEN CITY, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 18, 1999--

Store Emphasizes User-Friendly Format and Exceptional Service

Today, the newest Ethan Allen Home Interiors will host a grand opening and ribbon cutting ceremony at 750 Stewart Avenue. This store offers an innovative new floor plan that emphasizes Ethan Allen's strengths as a manufacturer and a retailer of Classic, Casual and indoor/outdoor furnishings.

Farooq Kathwari, Chairman and President of Ethan Allen Inc. along with other dignitaries, will be attending this event that kicks off a joint partnership with the non-profit organization, United Way's "Housing Help". In celebration of the opening, Ethan Allen is making a contribution to this worthwhile organization.

"This innovative new retail format makes shopping at Ethan Allen easier than ever before. By redesigning our floor plan and in-store signage, we're more clearly stating to the consumer our main goals, which are to provide them a broad selection of high-quality furniture, backed by a level of service they won't receive anywhere else," remarked M. Farooq Kathwari, Chairman and President Ethan Allen Inc. "When we open a new store, we go through an in-depth evaluation to determine the best location. Stewart Avenue in Garden City is a main thoroughfare that is in close proximity to major shopping centers, making it easy for our customers to shop us."

Floor Plan Presents Bold New Ideas

The 17,500 square foot Garden City store adapts an easy-to-shop interior floor plan that divides furniture collections into Casual and Classic styles with Accents embellishing the room settings and special categories segmented out. This distinction clearly highlights Ethan Allen's position as a specialist in both formal and more relaxed styles while allowing consumers to quickly locate the furniture that best suits them.

The Garden City store emphasizes freshness. The approach will be apparent in a frequently changing product mix and through a series of seasonal and special vignettes in the store's lobby. An EA Cafe invites customers to stop for a complimentary coffee and cookie break.

Additionally, the store's new open image is heightened by airy skylights over the design center, which functions as the nerve center of the store. Staff designers use this fully functioning meeting place to discuss upholstery fabric selections, wood finishes, room plans, custom bedcoverings, window treatments, and budgeting with their clients. Furniture collections are positioned around the center area of the store, beginning with Formal collections to the right and progressing through Classic elegance to Casual American Country before ending with Casual Contemporary collections at the left of the entrance.

Ethan Allen is an international home furnishings company with three saw mills and 21 manufacturing facilities in the United States. There are 316 Ethan Allen stores in the United States, Canada, Mexico and abroad. For locations nearest you, please call (800) 228-9229 or visit Ethan Allen's home page at www.ethanallen.com.