9/19/2008 - Boston Globe
Dorm on a dime
As they decorate college rooms, students are tested by tighter budgets
By Danielle Capalbo and Jeff Miranda, Globe Correspondent | September 4, 2008
.......As students struggle with tightened budgets, retailers are also struggling: to make their products relevant, and financially accessible, at a time when dorm spending is down.
At Dorm Suite Dorm, a fashion house for bedding and accessories, customers can earn money toward their purchases - a full set of bedding costs between $345 and $445 - through the Suite Mates program, designed by owner Sheri Corey. The system works through referrals: One customer sends out a promotional code to friends, who save 10 percent on their bedding. For every purchase a friend makes, the customer who sent the code also gains points that help her save in the end.
"That kind of helps with financial problems" said Corey, a 45-year-old designer from Birmingham, Ala., whose work focused on drapery for nearly 15 years before she got started on dorm decor. She introduced the company about a year ago, after enough parents asked her to design their daughters' college bedrooms. Now, despite the buckling economy, business is blooming, she says.
"It's because these girls are going from wonderfully decorated homes to these dingy rooms," she said. "When I went to school, we didn't have the neat little things that girls have now in dorm rooms to make them so much more comfortable. Mine was very basic. We didn't call our roommates ahead of time and say, 'What are you doing? What colors do you want?"..........
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