Williams-Sonoma Inc.

Williams-Sonoma is spicing up its store format.

The retailer’s new store in Ponce City Market, Atlanta, features a direct opening to a dining venture by celebrity chef Jonathan Waxman. The adjacent restaurant,  due to open in the fall, is being outfitted by Williams-Sonoma.  A glass wall strategically placed between the restaurant and Williams-Sonoma will offer shoppers an exclusive view into the dining room, and also give them inspiration while they shop. The floor plan is the first in Williams-Sonoma’s history with an independent business.

San Francisco -- Williams-Sonoma is spicing up its store format.

The retailer’s new store in Ponce City Market, Atlanta, features a direct pass-through to the latest dining venture by famed chef Jonathan Waxman, with the restaurant outfitted by Williams-Sonoma.

In a first, West Elm, a Williams-Sonoma subsidiary, will make its products available outside of the brand’s own stores and website.

New York – In a first, West Elm, a Williams-Sonoma subsidiary, will make its products available outside of the brand’s own stores and website.

The Williams-Sonoma subsidiary said it has entered into a partnership with U.K. department store retailer John Lewis to open an in-store shop in the newly renovated John Lewis flagship on Oxford Street in London. The shop will open on Sept. 3, following the launch of a branded West Elm shop online at Johnlewis.com.

West Elm plans to open a 10,000-square-foot shop in one of the most up and comng urban centers in the South.

The store will open with West Elm’s fall 2015 product assortment, a suite of complimentary design services and feature crafted goods by nine local artists and makers as part of West Elm’s “Local” initiative. The new store is expected to bring an estimated 25-30 jobs to the Charleston community.

New York -- Crate & Barrel has nabbed a CEO from the executive ranks of a much more upscale competitor.

The home furnishings retailer named Doug Diemoz, currently chief development officer at Restoration Hardware, as CEO, effective Aug. 1. He replaces Sascha Bopp, who was named CEO in 2012 but left in August 2014. Crate & Barrel COO and CFO Adrian Mitchell has been interim CEO during the search for a permanent replacement.

San Francisco – Never mind Gen Y, the millennial generation that roughly ends with young consumers born in 2000.

Williams-Sonoma tween and tween banner PBteen is targeting the post-2000 “Gen Z” audience with an original six-episode Web series called “Revved Up Rooms.”

Etsy and the West Elm division of Williams-Sonoma continue to fuel the maker movement with new initiatives that were launched to coincide with a Presidential Proclamation establishing the National Week of Making.

In conjunction with an event at the White House and a proclamation by President Barack Obama, online retailer Etsy said it planned to expand its Craft Entrepreneurship program to 30 cities by July 2016 from the current 19 cities.