https://www.bdma.org/tags/crate-and-barrel/Recent content in Crate-and-Barrel on BDMA.orgHugo -- gohugo.ioenbdma.orgWed, 02 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://www.bdma.org/post/crate-barrel-minimalism/Wed, 02 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://www.bdma.org/post/crate-barrel-minimalism/ <h2 id="a-company-built-on-bare-crates-and-a-honeymoon-idea">A Company Built on Bare Crates and a Honeymoon Idea</h2> <p>A honeymoon trip to the Caribbean is where <strong><a href="https://www.crateandbarrel.com/customer-service/">Crate &amp; Barrel</a></strong>'s founders got the idea that would define the company for six decades: cheap, well-made European housewares, sold with none of the fuss American department stores wrapped around comparable goods. Gordon and Carole Segal opened their first store on December 7, 1962, at 23 years old, in a 1,700-square-foot space carved out of an old elevator factory on North Wells Street in Chicago's then-bohemian Old Town neighborhood. They had one employee, $17,000 in capital, and — as <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210928211136/https://www.inc.com/magazine/19851101/1328.html">Inc. magazine's 1985 profile of the company</a> recounts — they were so new to retail that they forgot to buy a cash register until three days after opening.</p>