HOM pushes envelope in Fargo
By Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, July 10, 2005
Fargo, N.D. — HOM Furniture has opened a 120,000-square-foot warehouse and showroom here, relocating from a smaller store and adding or expanding several departments.
The facility, with a 100,000-square-foot showroom at 23rd Avenue near Interstate 94, is more than five times the size of the company's previous Fargo store and is HOM's largest store outside the Twin Cities area. It's billed as the largest furniture store in North Dakota.
Wayne Johansen, CEO and co-owner of the family-run 12-store retailer, said HOM expects the store to mature to $20 million in annual sales, compared with less than $5 million at the previous 20,000-square-foot Fargo store.
Coon Rapids, Minn.-based HOM is ranked No. 39 on this year's Top 100 survey of U.S. furniture stores with 2004 furniture, bedding and accessories sales of $185.1 million.
"Fargo is the center of North Dakota," Johansen said. "It's really the main city in North Dakota, and we wanted to put it in at a major intersection and see how far we could push the envelope.
"The store just turned out gorgeous — better than anything we've ever done before, so we're very excited from that standpoint."
With the added space, the primarily midpriced HOM added floor space in all its product categories. It nearly tripled the size of its area rug department with a World Rug Traders section, featuring contemporary and traditional rugs, both machine-made and hand-made.
It also broadened its offering in the Passages Gallery of Fine Furniture — HOM's upscale area — by adding goods from Henredon and increasing its selection from Hooker, Lexington and other sources.
Other key suppliers include Fine Furniture Design & Marketing, Pembroke Chair, Sam Moore, Bauhaus, A-America, Rowe, Tradewins, LeatherTrend/LeatherMart, Palliser and Jonathan Louis.
Brand new for HOM is an accents and gift area called The Market, featuring thousands of accessories, from lamps to wall art to furniture accents. It's the first time HOM has branded its accent department in one large display near the checkout area.
"The goal is to get customers to come in more often," Johansen said. "It's working very well."
In Fargo, also for the first time, HOM is promising delivery within 48 hours on any in-stock item along with immediate pickup of many items. Previously, HOM's deliveries were running three to four days out at the smaller location.
Other features include a kid's indoor playground and a cookie shop serving complimentary fresh-baked cookies and refreshments.
Johansen said initial traffic for the Fargo opening was "overwhelming," although he added business in general for HOM has been on the soft side this year. He said HOM's main Twin Cities market has become a competitive battleground with the recent expansion of several key players. The year got off to a weak start for HOM, but the retailer has picked up some steam lately, he said.
In Fargo, HOM tied fun activities and community support into the opening. The store donated more than $5,000 to MeritCare Children's Hospital and helped "thank men and women in the military" by selecting a military family from a group of entrants to receive three rooms of furniture.
It also held a contest in conjunction with a local radio station called, "You Snooze ... You Win." Ten contestants slept in the store overnight on various sleep-related products (such as sofa-sleepers, futons and regular beds) with one eventually winning a $3,000 HOM shopping spree.
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HOM pushes envelope in Fargo
Jul 15, 2005
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