Buyers want standouts
Looking for a lift in style, and real deals
By Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, March 26, 2007
High Point — Retailers, seeing fewer consumers coming through their doors these days, are at the furniture market here looking for a lift — in style, in price, in anything that will get noticed by shoppers and help build tickets.
Stockpiled inventory and slower-than-usual sales have some retailers saying that what they see here will have to be a real deal or standout merchandise if it's going to get onto their floors.
But others say they will be more daring with their choices.
Factors like the rising tide of imports and the small consoles that go with high-ticket big-screen TVs have led consumers into a pattern of spending less for furniture. Dealers here say they are looking for ways to reverse that trend and encourage the consumer to spend more.
Step-up upholstery that moves consumers away from the $399 and $499 promotional offerings are on some shopping lists, as are the latest in better home entertainment furniture to go with those big flat-panel TVs consumers continue to splurge on.
"We're really going to be very particular buyers this market, a little more focused, a little more careful, a little more discerning," said Tommy Miskelly, a partner in the two-store Miskelly Furniture of Jackson, Miss. Business has been fairly flat recently after nearly a two-year rush of post-Hurricane Katrina business, but inventories are in good shape, he said.
So what is Miskelly looking for? For starters, step-up upholstery. He said some luxury-oriented consumers who used to buy $1,299 sofas have drifted down over time to the $799 price point, while a large segment of manufacturers have dipped down even lower.
"There's a hole there," Miskelly said. "We've got a vendor or two we're doing well with (at $799) but not enough manufacturers are out there. Everybody is chasing $399 and $499 and they're leaving some business on the table."
The same thing goes for better leather upholstery. Miskelly does well across the board with the category, and is doing exceptionally well with leather sofas from $1,299 to $1,999, from just a few SKUs. So he will be looking for more in that range.
For the retailer's reformatted Rooms by Miskelly — a former promotional house and clearance center — the company will continue to shop for promotional values, including $999 sofa, loveseat, chair and ottoman packages and occasional table packs from $99 to $199.
Miskelly also will be looking at what's new in imported case goods programs, paying particular attention to those with bridge pricing between suppliers' container and warehousing programs.
"If you don't have a bridge price, it better be a great deal," Miskelly said.
Like Miskelly, buyers from Miami Gardens, Fla.-based El Dorado Furniture will also be very specific and focused in their approach, said Pedro Capo, chief operating officer.
Fabric upholstery tops the company's list, as El Dorado aims to freshen its looks in sofas from $499 to $999. Capo, whose South Florida stores are facing one of the toughest business climates in the country, also is hoping to find more options in home entertainment furniture this time. The rise of flat-panel TVs has actually shrunk the size of entertainment units and, unfortunately, the dollars that are spent on them. El Dorado wants to see more than simple base cabinets here.
"We don't make money selling just a base. We're in the furniture business," Capo said, adding that he'll be looking in High Point for a way to get those wall-unit dollars back.
Business for the seven-store Schneiderman's Furniture of Lakeville, Minn., seems typical of what many retailers are reporting around the country. The only thing consistent about it is its inconsistency.
"It's been difficult to put of string of plus months together," said President and co-owner Larry Schneiderman.
The retailer is aiming to pull itself out of that pattern and separate itself from the competition in part by changing its strategy at market.
"What we're more consciously trying to do now is look to raise our price points in certain key areas," Schneiderman said. "It doesn't take anyone brilliant to realize if you can sell (bigger tickets) it's going to help your sales if you can do that frequently enough."
In the Twin Cities, competition is heated in the starting price points, so Schneiderman's will continue to distance itself from that race to the bottom. It's not uncommon for competitors to advertise $399 and $499 sofas, and Schneiderman said he has even seen $299.
Schneiderman's has started with sofas at $599 and is looking to move up to $699, he said.
The retailer has had success in higher-priced bedrooms (with queen beds staring at about $999) and dining rooms and will aim to expand its selection of those products here as well.
In categories that are not performing well, Schneiderman's will take a tougher-than-usual stance and look at making major changes as opposed to tinkering with minor adjustments as it has in the past, he said.
Schneiderman's also wants to "stretch our looks a bit" in a variety of furniture categories. It's always been a mainline traditional store, but now it's having some success with modern urban loft looks from Zocalo, for instance. There's even room to stretch its traditional looks with more ornate over-the-top styles.
"We know we have to show some things that will wow people," Schneiderman said.
While the retailer has been coming to furniture market for years and always swears off buying things that are "just safe," when it's time to place orders, "sometimes that objective goes out the window," Schneiderman said.
"We're hoping it will be different this year, honest," he said.
Business clearly continues to be a struggle for many retailers across the country, but there are exceptions and pockets of strength.
John Disa, president and CEO of the 41-store and growing Wickes Furniture of Wheeling, Ill., called business "steady." He said Wickes' Midwest and West Coast markets are meeting expectations.
"Our traffic is down a little bit, but we've been able to convert at better rates," he said, adding he ties that good performance to the retailer's investment in sales training.
In High Point, Wickes' buyers are looking for fresh ideas in case goods and upholstery, he said, as well ways to increase its mix of direct import upholstery.
Randy Gonigam, owner of the 50,000-square-foot World Furniture Mall in Plano, Ill., was hesitant to talk about business "because no one believes me," but then reported that sales are up 20% so far this year after a flat 2006.
He said his store "does a lot of things a little differently," and has enjoyed the fallout of waves of publicity late last year, when the store ran two promotions tied to pro football's Chicago Bears (free furniture if the Bears shut out the Green Bay Packers; it happened one out of the two times).
"I'm definitely looking for entertainment solutions," said Gonigam, who will be shopping High Point for seven days. "People are displaying (the new format big-screen TVs) differently, and we're still seeing that as a moving target. We're still looking for solutions in that field."
He added that he's looking for merchandise that's "fun and different as opposed to the same old same old."
"While I'm looking for value, I don't go to market looking for some incredible way to beat somebody up on price," he said. "I'm more interested in finding something that will excite our customers, make them want to come to our store and fire up their imagination."
Sales for Corvallis, Ore.-based Blackledge Furniture got off to a strong start in January and picked up even more in February, "but we're paying a little bit of the price for it in March," said co-owner Judy Blackledge. She won't be attending market this time, but husband Eric Blackledge will be here largely shopping some key sources that aren't showing yet in Las Vegas, including La-Z-Boy and Rowe.
It also will be a good time to shop other sources that are showing in Las Vegas but in much smaller spaces there than in High Point, she said. Lines at the World Market Center were long in January and appointments were sometimes abbreviated because of the crowds, so "we really didn't have as much time to work on quality programming of the lineup," she said.
Blackledge is a member of buying group Pacific Furniture Dealers, which now calls Las Vegas its primary market. PFD has never had very strong turnout in High Point, but this may be its worst yet — only Blackledge and PFD Executive Director Jeff Weinstein are confirmed as attendees.
Nevertheless, Weinstein said he'll be shopping the market thoroughly for PFD members. He said it's an opportunity to take a good look at the latest imported case goods and occasional tables as well as leather and fabric upholstery.
"I think this will be a very telltale (market) for High Point," Judy Blackledge said. The moving of the dates into March from April was an "unfortunate" decision, she said, because market now coincides with the spring break vacations for many families across the country.
That's why she's not going to be here, and she wondered how many others may have nixed their trips here for the same reason.
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