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FRESNO, Calif. — Opening a new store has proven to be quite a boon for Fashion Furniture, a 42-year-old family-owned store that is now capitalizing on the comings and goings of national and regional chains.
The day after Christmas, Fashion Furniture unveiled its new 50,000-square-foot store with attached warehouse. Twice as large as the space that had been Fashion Furniture since the late 1960s, the new location sits in Fresno's strongest retail district, and it's generating sales at a pace more than double the company's previous records.
"It's been fabulous," said Rod Avedikian, vice president. "Fresno is growing in a northerly direction. There's a great big power center out in this area, and two or three years ago we were lucky enough to get a piece of property out here."
Designed and planned by brand and display consultant Connie Post, the new store is colorful and contemporary, appealing inside and out.
Creating an ambience
The exterior, which is designed to conform to the curving street that fronts the property, is a block construction, with different textures and finishes. Inside, a fountain greets entering customers, and beyond that, an eye-catching neon ceiling design creates another attractive vista. "There are all these visual points as you walk in," Avedikian said. "All the colors are tied together, and the styles are tied together. People really seem to enjoy shopping here."
The Avedikians — father Kerry, brothers Mike and Rod and sister Karen — had been planning on expanding to a new location, and a lot of research went into the planning of this building. "I spent probably the last five years traveling and studying all the best stores in our industry, looking to see how people do it and hoping to get the best of each for us," Rod Avedikian said, adding that Connie Post helped unite all these elements and ideas. "She did a great job of making it all fit and making it flow."
The main aisle around the store is a distinctive exposed aggregate. "We were originally going to stain the concrete which is what most people do, but when we ran across this aggregate we decided to do that," Avedikian said. "It's durable and it's visually appealing."
The new store, specializing in mid-priced and better merchandise, features several manufacturer galleries. In fact, half of the display space is dedicated to branded galleries. These include Lane, Broyhill, GuildCraft, Stanley's Young America and Kincaid. The Lane and Broyhill spaces are expanded from the old store, and the Kincaid gallery is a new addition. In addition to those manufacturer galleries, Fashion Furniture has galleries for clocks, curios, leather upholstery, recliners and dinettes.
Building a reputation
While the space was designed and built to high standards, the business is performing as well as it is because the Avedikian family has invested more than four decades of hands-on labor and management.
"We've been around for 43 years so we have a good reputation," Avedikian said. "It's a family business. I'm 48 years old, and I've worked six days a week all my life. My brother and sister are here, my dad still comes around, and at a time when the local independent is kind of disappearing, we're really going after it."
Rod manages the store's sales and advertising; Karen handles display and merchandising; and Mike runs the delivery and warehousing function out of the new 25,000-square-foot high-cube and racked space attached to the store, a big improvement over the former off-site storage the company had been using.
The active involvement of owners still means something to consumers, Rod Avedikian added. "We have some loyal customers, and they know that if they buy it here they'll get it taken care of. We aren't the cheapest, but our customers trust us to be here tomorrow. We try to take care of them customer. They're not always right, but you don't get anywhere if you don't take care of them." The store promises one year of free service on its merchandise.
Survivors poised for growth
Kerry Avedikian opened the first Fashion Furniture store in downtown Fresno in 1960 and then, in 1969, moved five miles north to the 27,000-square-foot space that is now the company's clearance center. "We thought we'd hang on to the old store and see if it might work as an outlet," Rod Avedikian said. "With very little advertising, we're still doing some business down there."
The company promoted the new location hard, and it seems to be paying off. "Going to a new area with a new store, I didn't really have an idea what to expect, but our first month in January was double our previous record, and February was about the same," Avedikian said. "We've done a big job telling people we are here."
Over the years, Fresno has seen several large furniture chains come and go. The Avedikians don't claim to own the market, but as survivors poised for growth, they are hoping to take a bigger slice of the pie, without losing the nimbleness of a small, family-owned business.
That has probably been the company's greatest strength over the years, Rod Avedikian said. "We know what's going on. We can react, whether business is slowing down or speeding up. And we're constantly learning."
| Fashion Furniture's new location is visually appealing, and the Jaguar giveaway looked good, too. |
| Fashion Furniture celebrated the grand opening of its new location the day after Christmas: Earl Kluft, left, Spring Air; Dick Lewis, Broyhill; Rod Avedikian, Fashion Furniture, Fresno, Calif.; Connie Post, Connie Post Designs; Kerry Avedikian, Fashion Furniture; Rick Miles, Kincaid; and Mike Avedikian, Fashion Furniture. |
| A visual focal point of the store, the plants and lighting bring a tropical outdoor elegance indoors. |
| Fashion Furniture encourages destination shopping with a vintage Coca Cola café area. |
| Feeling sleepy? Fashion Furniture showcases its bedding in a gallery adjacent to its master bedroom lineup. |
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