Well, things are changing quite a bit around here.  Just six months ago ATG ran only 5 websites – LightingUniverse.com, FixtureUniverse.com, FloorsandSurfaces.com, KnobsandHardware.com, and DecorUniverse.com, together offering over 1 million products for the home.  But by today’s count we now have 70 websites operating under the ATG Stores umbrella, and we’ve expanded into the worlds of home furnishings and outdoor living - taking us to over 2 million products and counting! 

So why all the stores?  Wouldn’t one lighting store be enough?  Well, let’s say you’re looking for a table lamp for your office, and your style is modern.  You go online and type in the words “table lamp” and are taken to LightingUniverse.com.  Now let’s think of Lighting Universe as a large hardware store, and each category as an aisle.  Aisle one is stocked with only chandeliers, aisle two has only wall sconces, aisle three is filled with outdoor lighting, and so on.  Since you already know that you want a modern table lamp, you wouldn’t want to go up and down each aisle hoping to stumble across the lamps, so you’ll need to take the time to look at the store directory in order to get to the right aisle.  But when you get there, the first lamp you see doesn’t interest you because the style is traditional, the second is a kid’s lamp, and the third is a crystal lamp.  Since that’s not what you’re looking for, you may get frustrated and decide to look elsewhere for the modern lamp you want.  Now let’s say you go back to your search engine and type in the words “modern table lamp” instead (since that’s really what you want.)  The first site that pops up is ModernLampStore.com.  You click on it and discover that this is a much smaller store with far fewer aisles, so you’re able to find exactly what you’re looking for quickly and easily. 

So in a nutshell, that’s why we’ve been working to turn out all these new sites each week.   Today’s shoppers typically have an idea as to what fits their needs before going online, and they want to find it with the least interference as possible.  Time is important, and being able to locate the item you want with the least possible steps is a convenience we all enjoy.

Like me for example.  I’m 5’3” (on a good day) and due to my vertically challenged status I often have difficulties finding clothes that fit the way they’re supposed to.  A few years ago I noticed a new clothing store open up in downtown Seattle called ‘Tall Girl’ and thought – what a great idea!  If I was a taller than average woman I could shop there and find a whole store full of clothes that I knew would fit me perfectly beforehand.  …I just wish they would have opened a sister store called ‘Small Girl.’ 

For a complete list of all our new stores, check out www.ATGstores.com.  

Perhaps now would be a good time for some mutual introductions!

We are ATG Stores.  The parent company is actually called Allied Trade Group,  Inc. but we like to shorten it up to ATG Stores.  Hopefully, you are familiar with our largest store LightingUniverse.  Lighting Universe was started in 1999 and has grown into the largest online lighting store in the world.  We opened FixtureUniverse a few years later to showcase plumbing fixtures for kitchens and bathrooms.  While we were thinking about kitchens and baths, we got to thinking about Cabinet Hardware and that got us started with KnobsandHardware.  And then...., well, you get the picture.  We now have a huge number of stores from the super-stores that I have already mentioned to some specialty sites like TowelWarmerStore.com (more on that in a later post).

Our primary purpose in starting this blog is to start a conversation with You!  We are in the business of offering you the items you need to improve your life at home and at work.  We try to do that by making it easy to find and compare various products and then we offer them at the best value possible.  More than anything, we want you to find what you need and then be happy with it AND WITH US for many years.

There will be several contributors to this blog as we go along, but for now I will kick things off.  My name is Michael Pinkowski and I am the Director of Marketing for ATGStores.  Along the way we will introduce you to other members of our team and to some of our great vendors.

So who are you?  We would love to hear from you.  We are going to start by keeping comments open, but you can also write to us at blogfeedback@atgstores.com