We're stuffed with too much product
Carole Sloan, Senior Contributing Editor -- Furniture Today, March 4, 2007
It looks like its time to address this space to a subject that I've written about at some length in our sister publication, Home Textiles Today.
Quite simply, it's a question: Who eats it?
And the "it" seems to be the growing amount of stuff headed for furnitureland that now is unwelcome for one reason or another.
One reason appears to be the slowdown in furniture business in recent months. This has affected orders for furniture made as far back as early 2006, with definite commitments. The stuff apparently has been flowing into the warehouses of both suppliers and retailers to the point that there just is no more room for additional product, nor any new orders.
In addition to the oversupply of product, there also appears to be a glut of stuff that came in wrong — either color or fabric, fit of kits in upholstery, or finish and imperfections in case goods. It's tough to correct the wrong blue of a fabric or replace damaged wood or embellishments on case pieces when they've crossed the ocean.
As many in the home textiles world learned — quite painfully — warehouses full of goods that don't meet the requirements are expensive from day one, and get progressively more costly as the days go on.
Between the backup caused by the retail slowdown and the growing amount of unwanted goods that arrive here for one reason or another, the glut will have a significant impact on all the markets this year.
As the home textiles community is beginning to realize, the buying process is where retailers have expertise. Suppliers are best at design and production. When retailers get into the production process, as with direct sourcing of imports, misjudgments can become costly.
Even the supplier community is grappling with many challenges with imported product, as some of them jumped into the process knowing much less than they know today.
The situation is certain to have a spillover effect on this month's market in High Point as well as the finalization of orders from the regional markets that came before.
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