Bernie & Phyl's opens outlet store
By Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, July 14, 2003
Everett, Mass. — Bernie & Phyl's Furniture has converted its full-line store here to a bedding and clearance center outlet, freeing up space in other larger stores for more regular-priced goods.
The 16,000-square-foot store in this northern Boston suburb — one the company's smallest units — became Bernie & Phyl's Bedding and Clearance Center in late June. It has about 13,000 square feet of clearance space, with the rest dedicated to its regular bedding offering from Sealy, Stearns & Foster and Bassett Bedding's Carrington Chase.
With the move, the retailer has converted about 5,000 square feet of former clearance space at its 55,000-square-foot Saugus, Mass., store to regular display and will do the same at its 55,000-square-foot Westboro, Mass., store later this year, said Bernie Rubin, president of the six-store, Top 100 company.
"We'll enlarge our current lineup with more living rooms, more motion, more leather and additional bedding," he said. "The space will be eaten up very quickly."
Rubin said he hasn't projected how the changes will affect sales, but said it "means even more selection for our customers and more growth opportunities for us."
The Everett clearance center will be used to clear out returns, damaged goods and other special-case items, though Rubin noted that a significant portion of those products are regularly donated to charity.
The company also will buy for the clearance center but only when necessary — the occasional truckload of living room specials to balance out the mix if the store is heavy in bedroom groups, for instance.
Rubin said he doesn't expect any loss of business from customers who shopped the full-line Everett store, since they only have to drive five miles up the same road to get to the Saugus store.
The retailer's other, smaller clearance center will be in a new Raynham, Mass., store expected to open next month.
The Everett center is part of Bernie & Phyl's ongoing expansion strategy. In addition to the Raynham store, the metro Boston retailer is in the process of doubling its Nashua, N.H., store to 86,000 square feet. Rubin has said Bernie & Phyl's is on track to do more than $90 million in sales this year, up from $76.7 million in 2002.
