Design Within Reach plans ‘cash and carry’ stores

Design Within Reach, the San Francisco-based specialty home decor retailer, plans to launch two “Tools for Living” cash-and-carry locations in the United States -- a first for the retailer.

The stores, slated for New York City and Santa Monica, Calif., will feature a number of products for immediate purchase. Currently, the company only offers furnishings for viewing in its 69 studios nationwide, for delivery at a later time.

“Tools for Living extends the ready availability of design to items associated with everyday use,” said Ray Brunner, CEO of Design Within Reach. “In many ways it can be simply described as a modern general store.”

Items to be sold from the Tools for Living category include “everyday items from cookware to desk sets to portable dog bowls,” the company said in a statement.

In New York City, the DWR: Tools for Living store will be located at 142 Wooster St., in a 3,500-square-foot space that was the former site of DWR's first SoHo Studio. In Santa Monica, the Tools for Living store will be given a dedicated space within the existing Design Within Reach Studio at 332 Santa Monica Blvd.

In its most recent financial statement, Design Within Reach reported first-quarter sales rose 7 percent to $46.9 million. The company reported a net loss in the quarter of $600,000, a better performance than the $3.8 million in losses recorded last year.