Some glass (also very nice). A few cushions and sheets, photograph frames and candlestick holders, and that's about it. Nice enough, as I say, but not things you're going to cross town for. Not an exciting rug or a lamp, let alone a sofa or a wonderfully enticing cupboard.

At Heal's, they are increasingly using big names to bring off designs that are exclusive to them. John Reeves, for instance, has created a sexy black glass-topped table with curvy legs (perfect for a hall in its slim version) for £595. Katie Cuddon has produced some glorious ceramics (I particularly love the very strangely shaped ceramic candelabra, £220); Maria Lintott is behind some innovative, rather zen-like tableware; while Beatrice Giannotto has dreamt up a really beautiful collection of china (the Zephyr range). All of it is worth checking out, all of it is exclusive to Heal's, but once again, these are some individual products — not a comprehensive range.

Habitat has long made a point of using named and famous designers for some of its projects, with Tom Dixon — not unnaturally since he was the company's creative director — being the star performer. Wedgwood has employed Vera Wang and Jasper Conran resulting in some lovely stuff, it has to be said.

Sainsbury has used Sir Terence himself, as well as Neisha Crosland. So far it is Philip Green who, as head honcho at Bhs, has been the most enterprising in asking Kelly Hoppen, a good name though not in the Philippe Starck, Michael Graves or Jasper Morrison class, to produce a very considerable range. There is proper furniture — sideboards and tables — as well as lights and soft furnishings, and word is that it is going well, with the lights in particular being something of a smash hit. The prices, too, are pretty good.

But nobody in the mass-market home arena has yet employed a designer on the scale that Target in the US has embarked on in asking the Dutch-born, London-schooled Tord Boontje to come on board. Target goes in for designers with real confidence and brio. And Target isn't a fancy store, but a nationwide chain that sells toys, electronics, toiletries, pharmaceuticals, cleaning products, food and clothing at rock-bottom prices. And yet it has used Michael Graves for home and kitchen gadgets, Rachel Ashwell of Shabby Chic for a home collection, Sonia Kashuk for beauty and fragrance, and Isaac Mizrahi on the clothing front. They have helped to generate not just sales, but interest.

Boontje has been asked to do everything from creating a range of inexpensive Christmas accessories — garlands, plates, glasses, lights, vases, candle-holders, decorations — to the packaging and the dressing up of all 1,400 of its stores in the US. He seems an inspired choice, given that his natural talents lend themselves to the decorative and the lyrical, and that he often takes his design cues from nature — all perfect for the Christmas theme.

What Target has shown is that simply because prices are low, goods don't have to be dowdy and behind the times. It likes its less affluent customers to be able to keep up with the trends as keenly as those who shop for Mr Armani or Mr Lauren. Target has discovered that top-quality design sells — it really does. Maybe one day more of our own home-grown stores will take on board this simple fact and do something enterprising with it.

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