Investigative Shopper|At Home

Our little town of Lee’s Summit will soon be getting a new store called ‘At Home.’  This national chain of stores used to be known as Garden Ridge.  Although there were Garden Ridge stores in our metropolitan area, I had never visited one so when I noticed an ‘At Home’ store during my stay in Omaha I decided to check it out for all my hometown friends.  Before going in the store my assumptions were that it would be similar to the HomeGoods chain of department stores and I was not completely wrong, but there are some differences.

The At Home store is much bigger than any Home Goods store I have been in and with a definite warehouse feel.  I would say 30% of the store I visited was devoted to patio and garden merchandise.  I am not sure if that is a nod to their former namesake or if it was just because we will soon be in spring mode and this was just their seasonal offerings.  I would definitely recommend this store if you are looking for outdoor furniture or miscellaneous outdoor décor.  I have never seen this many aisles devoted to outdoor furniture cushions alone.

The store also had a VERY LARGE collection of throw pillows, again aisle after aisle of cushions displayed by color, as well as this entire side wall.  Quite an impressive collection.

If you are in the market for an occasional or side table you should definitely visit At Home.  I would guess there were ten aisles alone crammed with small tables representing all types of décor styles.

The other item I noticed that the store devoted a large amount of real estate to was area and throw rugs.  I would estimate a good 20 percent of the store was dedicated to rugs of all sizes, colors and designs.  I would definitely visit again just for the rug collection.

The store also offered the expected candles, lamps, picture frames, wall décor and other miscellaneous knick knacks that you would find in any home décor store.  These items reminded me of what I would see at Hobby Lobby and overall, the prices were fairly good.  I suspect that most items have a “made in China” tag on them and the quality would be what you would expect given the price.   I did enjoy seeing this touch of spring on the cold, snowy day I visited.

One thing I do like about HomeGoods that I did not see in the At Home store is the occasional brand name items.  This past fall I purchased a few pieces of Spode Christmas dishes from HomeGoods at a much reduced cost to finish out my collection.   I would probably visit this store again if I were looking for a specific item and it will be interesting to see how their seasonal offerings change.