$86,000 rug sets back industry's reputation for years
Lissa Wyman, Rug editor -- Furniture Today, February 16, 2009
My friends in the rug business have been having a great time hooting and laughing about John Thain, the disgraced Merrill Lynch exec who purchased the $86,000 rug for his office.
Frankly, I don't think it's funny at all.
In case you missed it, Thain ordered a rug as part of an office remodeling project that totaled over a million bucks, just before Merrill Lynch asked for a couple billion dollars of the government's bailout money.
Never mind the fact that Thain was obviously a doofus; I'm more concerned about how this reflects on the rug business.
My friends in the rug business wonder — just like everyone else — what on earth kind of a rug could this be? It was reportedly an 8 by 10 rug, not some mansion-size rare antique. With rug prices dropping in recent years, $86,000 for that size rug is simply off the wall.
Not to appear too cynical, my question is, “How much was the decorator's commission?”
I truly believe that dumb cluck John Thain didn't have a clue about what he was buying. Guys like that don't spend a lot of time worrying about fabric swatches and color coordination. He probably got hold of a decorator and said, “I'd like a nice office.” Then the decorator went to town, so to speak.
Here's what REALLY makes me mad. Everyone in the blogosphere is talking about this stupid overpriced rug. They zero right in on our industry, which WE all know is struggling to make an honest living.
The public loves to pick on rugs because we are such easy marks. It's all part of the shifty reputation that the rug business has had for at least 100 years.
The talk about this $86,000 rug conjures up images of shady Oriental rug dealers who are out to cheat innocent consumers. That is an image that every honest rug person has been fighting against for years.
This stupid $86,000 rug has probably set back the reputation of the rug industry by at least 20 years. Unfortunately, now when consumers think about buying a rug, they will automatically think they will be cheated. Rugs are extremely postponable, and nobody wants to spend their hard-earned money on an item which may not be fairly priced.
What can we do about this? I don't think we should waste time saying that it's all the fault of the GOBs and the auctions and the tent sale operators. We don't have the luxury of time to blame our own bad apples.
We've got to think about how to turn our own business around. Right now.
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