'You have to really work at it'
By Carole Sloan -- Furniture Today, December 2, 2001
Now that it's official — we really are in a recession and have been since March — it's amazing how well the home furnishings business is doing.
First, we have the statement issued by Pier 1 Imports last week that they're doing just fine, thank you. The big retail chain revised upwards its guidance for next quarter's earnings, citing higher-than-expected sales for November. And the month wasn't even over.
One of the wonders of Pier 1's statement was that it was selling higher amounts of regular-priced merchandise. That, along with strong recent sales gain, was a big factor in raising the earnings estimate.
Then there's Havertys, which earlier this year had lost a bit of steam, showing negative same-store sales figures. But for October, the retailer reported comps at a positive 4.4%, not bad in a recessionary environment.
Even John Campbell, whose Thomasville stores are based in hard-hit metro New York, is doing pretty well, although he's tempered his sales estimates since Sept. 11.
And talks with some other retailers, and with fabric folks prior to Showtime and Heimtextil in January, indicates that things aren't great, but not really bad either.
The mood seems to be that there's business to be had. For some fabric companies, business is even good. For those companies, it seems the successes are coming from other than commodity goods, the kind of stuff that's coming in in ever-greater quantities from China, India and Pakistan.
But the underlying view goes something like this: "It's not easy like it was. You have to really work at it." A radical concept for many companies after the last decade's easy times.
The next few months should prove interesting as we discover just who is working harder and smarter.
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Pier 1 sales increase 11.8%
Apr 13, 2012 -
Pier 1 Earnings Up 15.7% in 2q
Sep 23, 2011
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