Let's all set the bar high, and take care of business
By Powell Slaughter, Case goods editor -- Furniture Today, October 14, 2001
With our nation's attention rightly focused on military action in response to last month's terrorist attacks, I anticipate a subdued atmosphere at market, even if things go well from a business point of view.
A lot of people have expressed concern about such security measures as police officers posted on the roofs of showroom buildings, even though they've been there in years past. I hate to see an environment where armed guards are necessary. Welcome to the way much of the world lives.
Earlier this year, I attended the furniture show in Manila, where all vehicles were stopped at the gate while guards checked the underside with mirrors to make sure a bomb wasn't concealed in the chassis. In other markets in other countries, I've seen soldiers in full combat gear with automatic rifles at the ready.
Thankfully, the security presence in High Point is more in the background, but everyone knows it's there.
I'm approaching this market the same way I approached premarket, which took place the week of the attacks. About the last thing I or anyone else in the showrooms wanted to do was talk furniture. We all just wanted to go home and be with our families.
But numbness gave way to outrage, and I decided to keep plugging along. I told myself the terrorists' goal was to create chaos, and I could thumb my nose at them by doing my job the way I always try to do it.
The following week, I served on a jury for the first time, a criminal proceeding that took two days during a very busy time. But jury duty, often viewed as something to be avoided, took on an importance for the entire panel that we should have recognized earlier. We were part of the bedrock ideals that make this country different, and sometimes despised. No one involved in the case had killed or was permanently injured, but had they lived within reach of the Taliban, both the accused and the victim would have faced death.
In the same spirit of plugging along and taking care of business, I offer the following. While the events on and after Sept. 11 will affect our industry, perhaps for a long time, let's keep in mind the furniture sector's problems satisfying American consumers have existed much longer. Consumers in many cases remain dissatisfied with service from and communication with the places they buy furniture.
Personal experience with three furniture retailers my wife and I have dealt with in the past two years tells me the complainers on Furniture/Today's Web site aren't just blowing smoke. I understand the challenges involved in getting furniture from factory to consumer, but what troubles me is the lack of follow-up, and in some cases complete lack of concern, on the part of dealers. (Hat's off, by the way, to the one retailer we dealt with who under-promised and over-delivered.)
There are outstanding retailers and manufacturers in our industry. Let's all set the bar as high as they do. And let's keep taking care of business.
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