(FORTUNE Magazine) – Marvin Girouard rarely confuses buying trips for Pier 1 Imports with anthropological expeditions. But he figured he was onto something a few years ago when he noticed a single hole in each arm of bird-shaped wooden chairs he came across in the Peruvian jungle. ''I thought the holes might have a mystical significance,'' recalls Girouard, 49, Pier 1's new president. ''It turns out the natives were copying the ashtrays on a seat they had found in a plane wreck.'' That trip was just another jet-setting adventure for Girouard, who has managed to shake Pier 1's reputation as a trading post for hippies. His expeditions to more than 65 countries have brought back rattan chairs from Asia, handcrafted pottery from Mexico, and glassware from Scandinavia. Yuppie types are buying the stuff at the rate of $400 million per year, up from sales of $147 million in 1984.

Girouard, a former Navy frogman who caught the international shopping bug while on liberty during his service in Vietnam, says the things he brings back are evocative: ''They remind people of places they've been -- or want to go.'' One such item is the ''papa-san'' rattan chair he found in Thailand while on R&R. The papa-san is the Asian version of Archie Bunker's proprietary chaise. ''Military people loved them, so when I left the Navy I started bringing them out,'' he says. Pier 1 now sells more than 100,000 of the loungers every year (price: $130). Can't you smell the bougainvillea?