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Gracious Home opened its first store, on the Upper East Side, in 1963. It became the quintessential Manhattan housewares emporium: a place where society matrons buying $1,500 cotton sheets shopped alongside building supers looking for plumbing parts. The company expanded into a chain but filed for bankruptcy protection in 2010 and 2016, closing three of its four stores. Now Esther Eaton, CEO since March, is aiming to rebuild, opening a location in SoHo later this month.
Gracious Home was famous for carrying everything. Will that continue?
Previously if someone came in and asked for something, we would stock it. People still come in asking to get their keys copied, and at least once a week a man will come in holding a length of pipe and say, "Do you have this?" Now we have three core categories: lighting, bed and bath linens, and decor, which includes tabletop and seasonal items.
Will the product offerings in those categories be any different?
We've brought in newer bed-linen brands like Ann Gish and Anne...