Pottery Barn’s big problem: Your tiny apartment

The retail world is in a state of upheaval. And for a while, Pottery Barn’s emporiums of tufted armchairs and dentil-molded sleigh beds were largely immune from the trouble. Since the home furnishings chain was acquired by Williams-Sonoma in 1985, the only time it had seen declining sales was during the Great Recession.
That is, until recently. Williams-Sonoma reported on Wednesday that over the past three months the Pottery Barn brand recorded a 1.4 percent decline in comparable sales, a