Thomasville's new approach
By Carole Sloan -- Furniture Today, April 30, 2007
Woodbury, Minn. — Thomasville launched its first corporate prototype store here this month with all the elements of the new retailing environment and full home furnishings assortment the company has been developing for the past 18 months.
The 15,000-square-foot store in this Minneapolis-St. Paul suburb is a complete retail environment that embraces the new showroom presentation unveiled last year by Nancy Webster, president and CEO of the Furniture Brands International division.
"We're trying to make shopping for furniture and home furnishings appealing," she said.
At the spring High Point Market, the company showcased its reinvented store in its showroom in Thomasville, N.C.
The Minnesota store, the 15th corporate-owned Thomasville unit, has an open flow in its 12,300 square feet of net selling space. It reflects the philosophy that consumers will buy from a collection based on its design, without all pieces in the group shown on the floor — an approach that reduces clutter and density on the floor.
Major collections are featured front and center, with older groups and occasional collections in areas of lesser prominence.
Thomasville has grown its company-owned store count from five to 15 in the past several years. Webster said that in the near term, the company "will concentrate on getting the other 14 up to the standards of merchandising and presentation that are evident here."
All told, there are 156 dedicated Thomasville stores, 141 of them dealer-owned. The 15 corporate stores are in San Francisco, St. Louis, Minneapolis-St. Paul and Washington, D.C.
Webster, who was a top executive at Target before joining Thomasville in September 2005, said the prototype store won't be a static model.
"These stores will always be evolving. Retailing is always changing," she said.
A key element in the Woodbury store is the Design Lab, an area that offers customers a comfortable, easy-to-shop environment for selecting additional pieces from furniture collections as well as fabrics, trims and design options. There's also a computer that can be used for room planning and as a source of decorating ideas.
Another important new part of the store is the Dream Shop, featuring exclusive bedding and mattress programs, including the private-label Thomasville by Simmons Beautyrest line. Also on display are 460-count cotton sheets, silk quilts and bed pillows that have been designed and sourced by Thomasville.
The top-of-bed items, along with a growing assortment of private-label lamps and rugs, are shown throughout the store and also are showcased in fixtures in mini-departments designed to encourage "cash and carry purchases," Webster said. To facilitate these purchases, the store has a check-out desk with special packaging and wraps.
Webster added that the Internet is increasingly part of the company's ongoing communications with consumers. Thomasville has upgraded its Web site, including the listing of prices, but does not yet sell online, she said.
"While we have determined that 86% of consumers shop first online before they go to a store to look for and buy furniture, we have to really understand how do we do retail and the Web," Webster said.
