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RTA blazing new trails, but quietly

Carole Sloan, Senior Contributing Editor -- Furniture Today, April 3, 2005

Quietly, almost stealthily, there seems to be a renaissance in the world of ready-to-assemble furniture.

It isn't happening in mainstream furniture stores. Nor is it part of big boxes or home office retailers or others typically thought of as flatpack furniture merchants.

In this new life, RTA furniture appears to be making its mark in the discount world. And we're not talking of a down-and-dirty, lowest-price-ever approach.

In recent weeks, we've seen a major push by hip discounter Target with its multi-collection from Thomasville's Renovations division. A visit to a Target store will show just how compelling a retailer can make this product look to customers — or "guests," as Target prefers to refer to the folks that plunk down bucks at their cash registers.

But Target's ready-to-assemble energies go beyond the basics, and Renovations certainly is not stripped-down, basic, "this is what I can afford, so be it" furniture.

The retailer also is expanding its designer brands, bringing to the furniture world the aesthetics of what they are offering in home accents, home textiles, tabletop and rugs — the likes of Simply Shabby Chic, Isaac Mizrahi and so on.

Then we move on to the next step, namely, a Kmart (pre-merger) launch of better RTA, which also landed on the cover of a recent circular. Bet you all a buck or two that it would be hard to tell that it's RTA from the visuals, and also from how it looks in the stores.

But think ahead. Martha Stewart is in the wings with an RTA program under development. It's clear this will not be an ordinary, back-to-basics, promotional effort.

These programs should have some impact on the quality and design of some of the offerings in High Point next week.

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