Gallery, Select Comfort split crown in stock turns, sales per square foot
By Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, May 23, 2004
HIGH POINT — HIGH POINT — The race is on between Gallery Furniture and Select Comfort, two perennial leaders in the sales-per-square-foot and stock turn categories that are splitting the crown this year.
The one-store, Houston-based Gallery, No. 59 on the Top 100, repeated its performance as the top sales-per-square-foot getter at a trailblazing $1,320. This was despite a second consecutive decline in furniture, bedding and accessories sales, which dipped 14.4% to $107 million last year.
No. 17 Select Comfort, the publicly held air bed specialist and the largest bedding specialty store on the Top 100, snuck in and beat Gallery in the stock turns category this year with inventory turning an average of 27 times.
Out of the Top 10 in these two categories, five retailers showed up on both lists. Select Comfort had the second-best sales per square foot, not far behind Gallery, at $1,113. Meanwhile, Gallery's stock turns, while off significantly from the previous year, remained strong enough to place it second with inventory turning 22 times.
No. 1 Rooms To Go had the third-best sales per square foot average ($850) and tied with No. 55 Jerome's for the ninth-best turn rate (8 times).
No. 77 Sit'n Sleep also showed up twice with the third-highest stock turns (19.3 times) and the sixth-best sales per square foot average ($529). So did No. 70 Bernie & Phyl's Furniture, posting the fifth-best stock turns (12.3 times) and the ninth-best sales per square foot average ($498).
The median sales per square foot for the Top 100 combined was $283 based on 56 estimates either calculated by Furniture/Today or retailers. The median stock turns was 4 times based on 43 estimates.
With 31 gross margin estimates, Select Comfort led the pack with a 62.7% average gross margin, thus topping two of three key performance categories and placing second in the other. No. 2 Pier 1 Imports was second in the gross margin field at 54%, followed by No. 84 Domain at 51%.
There was a four-way tie for fourth between Gallery, No. 14 The Bombay Company, No. 61 Norwalk — The Furniture Idea, and No. 67 Dial-A-Mattress — all managing average gross margins of 50%, well above the 45.6% median for the companies reporting.
| Top 10 in sales per square foot | ||
|---|---|---|
| for furniture, bedding and accessories | ||
| RANK | COMPANY | AVERAGE SALES PER SQ. FT. |
| 59 | Gallery Furniture | $1,320 |
| 17 | Select Comfort | 1,113 |
| 1 | Rooms To Go | 850 |
| 82 | Darvin Furniture | 625 |
| 69 | Walter E. Smithe Furniture | 606 |
| 77 | Sit'n Sleep | 529 |
| 54 | Room & Board | 520 |
| 84 | Domain | 502 |
| 70 | Bernie & Phyl's Furniture | 498 |
| 32 | Mathis Bros. | 495 |
| Top 10 in average stock turns for furniture, bedding and accessories | ||
| RANK | COMPANY | AVERAGE STOCK TURNS |
| 17 | Select Comfort | 27.0 |
| 59 | Gallery Furniture | 22.0 |
| 77 | Sit'n Sleep | 19.3 |
| 67 | Dial-A-Mattress | 14.6 |
| 70 | Bernie & Phyl's Furniture | 12.3 |
| 48 | The RoomStore/The RoomSource | 12.0 |
| 40 | Furnitureland South | 9.0 |
| 26 | American Furniture Warehouse | 8.6 |
| 1 | Rooms To Go | 8.0 |
| 55 | Jerome's | 8.0 |
| Source: Furniture/Today's Survey of Top U.S. Furniture Stores |
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