Habitat in Lincoln, Nebraska Celebrates 40 Years of Contemporary Style
By Amber Gallegos
Habitat in Lincoln, Nebraska just celebrated 40 years in business with a bang. The kitchen, home and gift store’s celebration included both John and Jana Clark, who currently own and run the store, and John’s parents, Mary and Ken Clark who initially started the business decades ago in 1975.
Mary Clark began the business in downtown Lincoln with the approach that one’s home is more than just where you live; it is a habitat that should reflect personal style, be comfortable and make you want to spend time there. She was followed into the business by her son John, who took on the management role in 2006, after having grown up in and around Habitat, working here and there throughout high school, and summers back home from college. Mary did the buying until 2012, when John took on full ownership of the store.
“That’s when kitchen expanded to the point where it is today because I really wanted to aggressively add more kitchen items at that point,” says Clark. “I’ve always had an interest in cooking and that’s really the part of the store that interests me the most, and so I was looking at bringing in some more things that I liked.”
From there, he joined Gourmet Catalog and brought in more kitchenware lines to round out the store’s offerings. Previously, Le Creuset had been the only cookware at Habitat, and one of the first things he did was to bring in Swiss Diamond to offer a quality nonstick line. John and his wife Jana now split the buying duties, with John handling the kitchen buying and Jana in charge of the home and gift buying. Habitat has products ranging from kitchen essentials, bath and body, women’s accessories like handbags and jewelry, home décor items like wall art, linens, and candles, to gourmet foods. The store aims to have anything one might need for home entertaining and John points out that with recent discussions at market about the convergence of home and gift, Habitat is well positioned to take advantage of customers’ desire for one-stop shopping.
Since Habitat strives to carry design forward products, the store is also in a nice spot to play on the trend of functional design entering into homewares as a quality that more and more customers are seeking. A product must work, of course, but it must also have some style that reflects personality.
“We get people in the store who are in the middle to late stages of their career, they’re very successful and they’re upgrading their houses and their kitchens, and they’re really looking to flesh out the insides of their houses and kitchens to reflect their style. I think that’s really where we kind of hit the sweet spot, is by offering such a broad selection,” says John. “It’s not just about finding that useful kitchen gadget anymore, it’s also about the stuff that goes on the counter, it’s almost like a piece of artwork as well as being useful.”
Habitat also offers a wish list service, a broadened gift registry not tied to specific events. For the past few years, Habitat has marketed the service with a Guys Night Out event in early December in which men can shop for the wish lists of the women in their lives. The store offers free gift wrapping and serves grilled brats and beers for them to enjoy while they wait.
Habitat’s 40th anniversary in August was marked by a number of vendors participating in giveaways and food sampling. “I think what keeps people coming back is just a constant effort to keep things fresh and new,” says John. “Trying new things, keeping the store a place that is going to change, if not on a weekly basis, at least every other couple of weeks … and I think people know that we’re always going to be on the edge of bringing the new stuff in and also just having that human touch, connecting to our customers and having employees that are passionate about the products.”
