Why we ask all those questions
Ray Allegrezza, Editor in chief -- Furniture Today, May 21, 2007
If you are a retailer, you've probably received a big, white envelope from our research department. Inside, you found a four-page form asking about topics ranging from your merchandise mix and who you source from to how much you pay your staff.
Our aim is to merge a massive amount of information into the industry's most comprehensive benchmark study, the Furniture/Today Furniture Store Performance Report.
This invaluable report answers questions our research team constantly receives from retailers who want to know how their store's performance stacks up against industry norms.
We send our questionnaire to a randomly selected 3,000 retailers from across the country.
For many years, we've worked with a Certified Public Accountant, who receives the completed surveys and reviews them for us. The key here is that your answers are completely confidential, secure and anonymous. Our research staff works only with the aggregated data from everyone who responded.
If you're asking why you should complete the survey, here are a few good reasons:
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The aggregated results give you benchmarks for evaluating your store's performance, with an eye toward boosting your profitability.
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The results highlight the best practices of your peers, and can help you better run your business.
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It's the type of information a potential buyer of your store would want to know. Or a potential investor or lender.
If we weren't asking these questions, we wouldn't be doing our job. And if you've responded in the past, you know your data is secure. No individual store data has ever been nor will ever be published. That's been our guarantee since 1992.
So, please answer as many questions on the form as you can. It will be time well spent — for your store and for the industry as a whole.
