One of Pottery Barn's compilation CDs for sale. Amazon.com
I’m a big fan of Pottery Barn, and it’s not just because its merchandise is so appealing. It’s because of another reason that’s unrelated to the merchandise in the store. It actually has absolutely nothing to do with the merchandise at all.
It’s because Pottery Barn plays good in-store music.
When I can shop and hear the likes of Ella Fitzgerald or Louis Armstrong, Etta James or Nat King Cole, I’m relaxed. It makes my shopping experience that much better.
All stores have gimmicks to get you to go inside: large signs, sales signs, awesome window displays, balloons, or buy-one-get one ½ off posters set outside the doors. However, I know what I’m getting when I walk into a Pottery Barn store. I actually look forward to strolling around—whether I buy something during that visit or not—because I get to listen to some of my favorite Songbook crooners. I love that.
Don’t get me wrong. I have a library of Songbook music at home. I have countless Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole, Billie Holiday, and even the newest contemporary crooner (and my personal favorite ♥), Michael Buble, CDs in my house. And yes, I listen to them often.
So perhaps that’s why when I enter a Pottery Barn store, I feel like I’m already home, like I could just hang out and start cooking some dinner whilst I listen to my favorites deliver some of the best music around.
I may sound like an old fart, but I’m not. My students can attest to it. I have a wide variety of taste in music. I listen to the Black Eyed Peas, Ludacris, Notorious BIG, Rolling Stones, One Republic, Adele…I could go on and on. I love them all. But the standards—and in particular the Songbook songs—take you back instantly to a simpler time, whether we were alive back then or not. The lyrics are clear and easily understood. We feel the sense of the music and understand the simplicity of love and love lost.
Michael Buble’s popularity is a testament to the fact that some of us miss that type of music. And I, for one, wish there were more of it out there right now.
I guess others do, too, because Pottery Barn has a collection of CDs available for purchase that feature its favorites. So maybe it is about the merchandise, after all. But this is one piece of merchandise worth promoting.
