Some old refrains that don't go away
By Carole Sloan -- Furniture Today, November 25, 2001
A familiar refrain echoed throughout the question-and-answer session that followed a presentation by a panel of retailers at the American Furniture Manufacturers Assn. annual meeting in New York earlier this month.
One of the clearest elements of the refrain was the age-old lament that when retailers get to market, they're still waiting for the stuff they bought the previous market to hit their floors.
They stated it in different ways, but all the executives from the four Berkshire Hathaway-owned retailers — R.C. Willey, Nebraska Furniture Mart, Jordan's and Star — talked about the need to bring product from manufacturer to store faster.
In part, they said, the typical long lead times sometimes allow competitors to get copies of new looks into stores at about the same time, intensifying the price emphasis that exists in furnitureland.
One idea that came up during the discussion was that good ideas needn't wait for market. Bring exciting new ideas to key retail customers and have the stuff ready to ship.
A radical concept!
It just doesn't seem possible that this long-lead-time scenario is still playing out, since it was a hot subject in the early days of Furniture/Today back in the '70s.
Another element of this broad subject focused on the "copycat" nature of the furniture business. The impression that everyone has the same thing, the retailer panelists agreed, doesn't give anyone, factory or store, differentiation and further intensifies the pricing problem.
Of course, the fact that imports now have to be factored into the equation further exacerbates the situation. In essence, if consumers are buying about the same amount of furniture, they're buying it at lower prices, adding to everyone's pressures.
It's time to take a really good look at the way furniture is produced, marketed and presented to consumers in this country.
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