Don't lose sight of value you bring to consumers
Jerry Epperson -- Furniture Today, August 26, 2010
Jerry Epperson An insider’s view
In 2008 and 2009, the home furnishings industry suffered the equivalent of what a fire does to the forest, leaving us severely burned. This year our forest has seen some signs of growth, a sprig here or leaf there. But this summer has been so hot and arid, even that seems threatened.
Through all this, we sometimes lose sight of the good our industry provides, and the pride our customers receive from our furnishings.
In 1999, I met a widow who was hoping a local charity would help get her 11-year-old son a new bicycle for Christmas.
My wife bought a bike for the boy just a day or two before the holiday, and this lady was very grateful. Let's call her Pam.
Over the past decade, we have stayed in touch. She has been on disability for several reasons, including some form of cancer, and she has experienced many challenges in her life. Pam's son is grown now and lives elsewhere, but he is unemployed and unable to help his mother.
Pam lives on less than $1,000 per month plus food stamps but is fortunate to have found a home in a nice neighborhood, where she rents the upstairs from the homeowner who lives downstairs.
She called recently and was extremely excited. The homeowner was going to help her purchase a new bedroom suite. They shopped for several weeks.
In early June, she chose a bedroom from a local Ashley HomeStore, and was truly excited. Remember excited consumers? She wanted me to see it and she described it in glowing detail. It was supposed to be delivered in a month.
Having a month to prepare, Pam not only painted her room, the homeowner also replaced the carpet.
The bedroom suite arrived on the day promised with its mattress. She raved about how nice the two young men who delivered and assembled her new furniture were, and said the furniture is even nicer, heavier and more beautiful, and the mattress more comfortable, than it was in the store. Plus she has a new TV!
Pam is proudly showing her friends her new furniture, and speaking highly of the store and how wonderful the entire process was. For her, this was a major life event - and she deserves it.
Congratulations and thanks to Ashley, the Moehling family who own the store, and to everyone involved on a job well done.
We spend so much time complaining about business and our industry's challenges that we often do not give ourselves credit for bringing joy, pride, value and happiness to almost all of our customers.
Give yourself a round of applause. You deserve it.
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