Crate & Barrel

Euromarket Designs, Inc.

Type	Subsidiary
Traded as	Crate & Barrel
Industry	Retail
Founded	Chicago, Illinois, USA 1962 (1962)
Founders	Gordon Segal Carol Segal
Headquarters	Northbrook, Illinois, USA
Number of locations	83 stores (2015)
Key people	Doug Diemoz, (CEO)
Products	housewares, furniture, and home accessories
Owner	Otto GmbH
Website	www.crateandbarrel.com

Euromarket Designs, Inc. dba Crate & Barrel is a 170+ store American chain of retail stores, based in Northbrook, Illinois, specializing in housewares, furniture (indoor and out), and home accessories. Its corporate name is Euromarket Designs, Inc. The company is wholly owned by Otto GmbH.

Gordon and Carole Segal opened the first Crate & Barrel store on December 7, 1962, at age 23. The 1,700-square-foot (160 m²) space in part of an old elevator factory was located on Wells Street in the then-bohemian Old Town neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. The inspiration was their honeymoon in the Caribbean, where the Segals saw cheap yet tasteful European household products for sale. They became interested in providing functional yet aesthetically pleasing products to young couples just starting out. Surprised to see that European manufacturers offered many beautiful and durable products at reasonable prices, they were inspired to start their own store in the United States. The Segals started by recruiting an employee and leasing an abandoned elevator factory on Chicago's Wells Street. They traveled throughout Europe buying directly from glassblowers, ceramicists and factories making French copper pots and simple white bistro dinnerware.

The first store opened in response to a flourishing of world trade in home furnishings due to the early 1960s round of talks about the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. The Segals sought out small European companies that were not represented in America and negotiated direct purchases from these factories that could be sold to the consumer while avoiding a wholesaler's markup. To this day, a majority of Crate & Barrel's products are direct imports from Europe, though Thai, Mexican and Indian glass and textiles can also be found in their stores.