A Passport to the World
Jane Kitchen -- Gifts and Dec, 3/2/2011 12:37:34 AM
Duh, in Pensacola, FL, offers its customers an eclectic mix of gifts and home decor from around the world.
With an Italianate farmhouse, a lofted barn and a garden courtyard, Pensacola's Duh has a name strangely fitting - it is the obvious place to shop for unique gift and home decor items. But owners Quinn Stinson and Jim Rigsbee also chose the name in part because they didn't want their store to be intimidating.
"We wanted to have unusual things on a street with stores with uncomfortable names - names designed to be more intimidating than inviting and fun," says Stinson. "We've got things from $5 to $13,000, but nobody feels uncomfortable in our store."
Just before the store opened, Rigsbee, who had worked for years for a wholesaler in Atlanta, took his first trip to France, and filled a container with pots, lighting, accessories and ceramics. The store began in a small 2,000-square-foot cinderblock building that used to be a liquor store and had just 1,000 feet of retail space in the front. By the end of the year, Stinson and Rigsbee had purchased the property and began plans for a 2,500-sq.-ft. two-story Italianate farmhouse, with a complete apartment above.
"That way, if we had made a really huge mistake, we could sell our homes and move in the apartment," says Stinson. "We were trying to cover our tracks in whatever way possible."
Luckily, their risk paid off. It was early in 2000, the Euro was at a low point, and Stinson and Rigsbee began bringing in more of their European finds. They bought more properties behind the farmhouse, and started drawings for additional buildings. "We wanted it to be a village," says Stinson.
But soon after, Hurricane Ivan hit, and the Euro gained in strength. Stinson and Rigsbee responded by putting a 
hold on their expansion plans, and traveling to new markets like Singapore and China, along with France, Belgium and Italy. "We started resourcing better manufacturers to get better deals," says Stinson.
Soon, they were bringing in 10-12 containers a year packed with their finds, but they found they weren't selling it fast enough. The answer was to start taking on interior design projects.
"It started with a few condos on the beach, and it just took off," says Stinson. They've moved beyond residential to also work on law offices and lobbies - "everything but a boat, from Aspen to D.C.," says Stinson.
For Duh's year-end three-day sale, "people come from all over. They stay in hotels, bring SUVs and U-Hauls," explains Stinson.
Duh also hosts an extravagant Christmas party for its top 300 customers, which Stinson describes as "over-the-top excess." "It's our way of giving back, but also it's huge for advertising," says Stinson.
In early 2008, Stinson and Rigsbee looked at expanding again, and started plans on a 5,500-sq.-ft. barn with a vaulted ceiling and 15-foot walls. The project was complete by Christmas time, and that year, the Christmas party invitations simply said "Build it" on the outside; when opened, it said "They will come." And come they did; Stinson said 2009 was the best year Duh has had, with 30 percent sales increases.
"We've always been pretty consistent; we've always grown," he said. "But (before the barn) we were plateauing."
The addition of the barn allowed Duh to expand their upholstery line, bring in more furniture, and offer a variety of 
things with different looks. Each room in the village has a different look - American country in one room, followed by American industrial, then Belgian and French influences, warm woods from Italy, and Asian antiques.
Stinson explains the store changes daily, but changes entirely three times a year, when Stinson and Rigsbee completely empty out one of their three buildings and start from scratch. "We're always trying to push the envelope," says Stinson. "People love it; they love that it's always a work in progress, and it makes them want to come back in two weeks."
And while things are constantly changing at Duh, the store does have its tried and true lines that it continues to order, especially in the wedding registry room.
"It's different now than it was in the beginning," explained Stinson. "Before, there were so many one-of-a-kind pieces; now we've been able to bring in pieces we like that we can reorder."
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