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CDG retailers offer fresh perspective

Carole Sloan, Senior Contributing Editor -- Furniture Today, January 7, 2007

The Contemporary Design Group, which held its annual conference last month, is an interesting bunch of retailers. Over the years, they've never followed the same ol', same ol' patterns of furnitureland.

Typically, they've been ahead of the curve in design trends and awareness of new consumer preferences, and have had a tough time trying to get suppliers to understand they're the boutique retailers in their communities. Their customers want something other than the microfiber beige or green white-bread sofa that is prevalent in today's marketplace.

You could tell from the pictures published in Furniture/Today that, for the most part, the CDG represents the younger segment of our retail community. As such, it might not be a bad idea for those in other than the contemporary segments of this business to listen to, and act on, some of their ideas and suggestions.

The topics they talked about raise a wide range of challenges for the contemporary community but also are extremely relevant for all of us — from too much new product offered too often, to too much furniture in the stores, to delivery times. (It still takes longer to get some sofas then it does a special-order car.)

This looks to be one of those years that will clarify where we're headed, and the issues raised by these contemporary retailers could help in moving the business forward.

Distribution issues, traditional or direct, continue to loom ever larger; delivery timetables are a challenge, whether offshore or domestic; and the abundance of redundant product remains a key challenge. For all the talk about the importance of design, having what the other guys don't have probably is the key to success.

This year is the one where you might want to test that hypothesis.

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