Replacements, Ltd., based in

Greensboro, North Carolina Greensboro (; formerly Greensborough) is a city in and the county seat of Guilford County, North Carolina, United States. It is the third-most populous city in North Carolina after Charlotte and Raleigh, the 69th-most populous city in the Un ...

, is the world's largest retailer of

china China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

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and silverware, including both patterns still available from manufactures and discontinued patterns. The company, which began in 1981, had an inventory in 2011 of 14 million items from more than 340,000 patterns, with annual sales of $80 million to 10 million customers.

History

In 1981, Bob Page left his job as an

auditor An auditor is a person or a firm appointed by a company to execute an audit.Practical Auditing, Kul Narsingh Shrestha, 2012, Nabin Prakashan, Nepal To act as an auditor, a person should be certified by the regulatory authority of accounting and au ...

for the state of North Carolina to start a

mail-order Mail order is the buying of goods or services by mail delivery. The buyer places an order for the desired products with the merchant through some remote methods such as: * Sending an order form in the mail * Placing a telephone call * Placing ...

business selling antique china and glassware. Located first in his attic and then in 400 square feet on North Elm Street in

, Page's business included merchandise from

flea market A flea market (or swap meet) is a type of street market that provides space for vendors to sell previously-owned (second-hand) goods. This type of market is often seasonal. However, in recent years there has been the development of 'formal' ...

s and customer requests on

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s. In four years, the company went from $159,000 a year to nearly $4 million in sales. The company moved several times, each time to larger space, at Bessemer Avenue, Holbrook Street, and Gallimore Dairy Road.Jack Scism, "Replacements Ltd.: A Small Business Success Story," ''Greensboro News & Record'', May 11, 1992. In 1989, sales were over $9 million, and the company added flatware, also buying its current location on Knox Road in McLeansville. In October 1990, Replacements moved its 1-million-item inventory to the new headquarters/warehouse. One of the company's services was researching patterns based on photos and rubbings. Buyers also searched for items in patterns that were hard to find, with sources including gift shops and jewelry stores that were closing. The company restored flatware, but china restoration was done only for items to be sold. Inventory ranged from "glasses given out for filling up at the gas station" to

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. By 1993, Replacements had made small additions to its new site, which totalled 104,000 square feet, and the company planned a 120,000-square-foot expansion. In 1999, The Pfaltzgraff Co. made an agreement with Replacements for the company to sell its patterns which were no longer available. This included a list of customers who might want to replace items with the old patterns. Replacements made a similar deal with

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. In December 2005, Replacements announced plans to expand from 230,000 to 500,000 square feet on 21 acres at a cost of $8 million, including a relocation of Knox Road. Once the project was completed, the company would no longer need to rent a nearby warehouse. In January 2006, the city of Greensboro

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the land where the company was located, though its mailing address remained McLeansville. By this time, half of the company's orders came through its web site. Sales were $75 million, nearly two thirds of that china, one sixth flatware, and one eighth crystal.Michelle Jarboe, "One Dream, 25 years: Thousands of patterns," ''Greensboro News & Record'', March 14, 2006. On August 12, 2008, the company announced plans to increase the size of its headquarters by about 500,000 square feet at a cost of $15 million, putting around 550 employees and 12 million items in one location, down from four.

National attention

In 1986, ''Inc.'' named Replacements one of the 500 fastest-growing businesses in the United States. As far back as 1992, customers included

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and The Vatican. In 1997, '' Victory!'' named Page its Entrepreneur of the Year for his commitment to

homosexual Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to peop ...

employees, including partner benefits. In August 2000,

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presented a guest with a bowl in a pattern the guest thought she would never be able to find, a pattern it had found by working with Replacements. In November 2000,

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's ''Pet Story'' taped an episode about the company's policy of letting people bring their

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s to work. Between 30 and 50 employees did so at the time. Around the same time,

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's ''Business Unusual'' also planned to broadcast a story on Replacements. That same month, a ''

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episode using china supplied by Replacements. In November 2001, Replacements sold eight Pfaltzgraff plates to be used on ''

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''. When the show began, china patterns were selected for the home of the fictional Barone family. But some of the plates were broken in the course of the series run, and Pfaltzgraff no longer made the plates. In addition, the show needed a pattern not available since 1955 that even Replacements did not have but promised to search for.Amy Joyner, "Replacements Steps up to Plate for TV Show," ''Greensboro News & Record'', November 17, 2001. Later, Replacements found

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s of

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and

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for the family to give as a birthday present to

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. In 2001, the company began running ads on

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trucks outside the Greensboro area. For its

Legend A legend is a Folklore genre, genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived, both by teller and listeners, to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human valu ...

ship debuting August 24, 2002,

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purchased 500 pieces of china for its main dining room. In its 2003 edition, the

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road

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named Replacements to its list of top 25 free attractions. The company has conducted tours of its warehouse starting in July 1992.Susan Ladd, "Restoring the Obsolete," ''Greensboro News & Record'', September 30, 1992.Nina Pence, "Replacements Makes 'Best' List," ''Greensboro News & Record'', September 15, 2002.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.replacements.com/ Retail companies of the United States Companies based in Greensboro, North Carolina