Chinaberry: Reinventing the Wheel

In 2001, the company realized it could no longer sell its products the same way it had been selling them before, says Ann Ruethling, Chinaberry’s co-founder/co-owner and vice president of creative and merchandising. Consumers were using the Chinaberry catalog mainly as a resource, then buying the same items in large retail stores or on Amazon.com at lower prices. Some stores even were posting signs saying, “We carry books from the Chinaberry catalog.”