Acknowledging that Rag Shops has been "pretty stagnant" for adecade, Souza calls it a "sleeping giant. The craft and homeproject areas are just exploding in popularity, and we are wellpositioned to take advantage of these trends," he says. The firststep is a new ad campaign by New York-based RowenWarren Inc.,focused initially on redesigned newspaper inserts.

That is far from the last step. Souza calls the plans forrejuvenating the brand "sweeping." The stores will maintain theirfocus on value pricing, but will gain a new brand and corporateidentity design, improved store layout and customer service, anupdated merchandise mix, and enhanced marketing, customer outreachand in-store promotions, according to Souza.

There are currently 70 Rag Shops stores in five states: NewJersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Florida. Souzapromises more, although he declined to reveal the numbers,locations or the timing of new store openings, except to say heplans "to aggressively expand Rag Shops market presence throughopening new stores in strategic locations."