Fast start for Ashley concept
By Gary Evans -- Furniture Today, May 3, 2010
HIGH POINT —
Enthusiasts for a new retail concept by Ashley Furniture heard compelling reports on it at a meeting during the High Point Market.
One after another, owners of the new stores told a crowd of several hundred of early successes with the Furnish 123 brand — even though the program was just announced at the Las Vegas Market in February.
The concept is based on presenting categories of value-priced merchandise — stationary upholstery, motion, bedroom, dining room, rugs, top-of-bed, occasional — with a your-choice, one-price selection set in a no-frills space, ideally under 5,000-square feet.
The business is run on a cash basis that discourages credit sales and promotes customer pick-up of merchandise, which comes from the factory so that furniture on the floor never moves.
Several speakers extolled the success of newly opened Furnish 123 stores, a brand that doesn't include the Ashley name.
Joe Beiter and Chrissi Kriner of Beiter Home Center, with stores in central Pennsylvania, said they put the concept in a “black hole” in the back of one store, and it is now averaging sales of $575 per square foot.
Others talked about the simplicity of shopping for consumers, who can easily go from category to category using the one-price concept to put together a room purchase.
And several speakers said they were attracting the 25 to 35 age group, which has been hard to get into stores.
Kerry Lebensburger, president of sales and marketing for Ashley, said Furnish 123's Web site will be geared to consumers who use social networking to communicate, with ads spoofing the furniture buying business designed to create buzz and hopefully go viral.
Lebensburger said that commitments to Furnish 123 were moving so fast he was having difficulty keeping up with the numbers.
“We were saying 500,” he told the market crowd. “You-all are scaring me. Now, we're talking about 1,000 stores.”
He said those opening stores are doing it “in multiples,” inspired by low set-up and inventory costs. Licensing a store is on a first-come basis.
Robert Coles was among the first to open one of the stores, in a Pottstown, Pa., mall, and plans six others this year. He says he is capitalizing on the abundance of vacant space available for rent — paying no more than $12.50 a square foot and as little as $3.50.
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