The time is right for consignment stores
Jerry Epperson -- Furniture Today, January 30, 2012
Jerry Epperson An insider’s view
If you have no excess or underperforming store space, no salespeople or delivery personnel who want to earn more, and no need to make more money retailing home furnishings while meeting an obvious need of your local consumers, don't bother to read this column.
In the late 1970s, I read a lengthy article in an automotive publication about how the auto manufacturers resisted selling used cars in the 1920s, thinking that no one would buy a new car if they could purchase a less expensive used one. Today, most auto dealers say that they make almost all their profits from service and used cars, not selling new ones. How long would you keep your car if you could not get a reasonable trade-in value?
There have been several startups that focused on consignment or used furniture but today it remains a lot of small, inefficient used furniture stores and the other alternative of giving it to charity, an option we all support.
Doug Wolf and his father, John, have been friends and clients for decades. The family continues its success with 12 Wolf Furniture stores in Pennsylvania and Maryland.
He opened a separate 30,000-square-foot consignment store business in 2011, and it is now growing sales weekly, while increasing consignments and sales synergies with the Wolf stores. The goal is to make emptying rooms easier, so they can redecorate with new furniture from his Wolf stores.
Doug called me last week, and I cannot remember a more fun call. Like a proud new father, we discussed his new consignment store. Actually, I tried to find something he had overlooked, but he had everything covered.
He has bonus incentives for his sales and delivery persons to look for potential consignment sales. There are programs for arranging pickup, the pricing (including discounts and length of time on the floor), advertising to find consignments and for the store, and other important factors like the website, IT and store signage.
I believe Americans would buy furniture more frequently if we could help them capture some of the value of their existing furnishings. Plus, consumers are always trying to figure out what to do with Aunt Myrtle's furniture when she moves into the nursing home, or worse, moves in with them.
Does all the furniture have to be top notch to be consigned? Of course not. I still remember a friend in college who claims he decorated by picking up furniture on the curb before the garbage truck got it. College kids will take anything.
Doug Wolf and his team have done all the heavy lifting. You might want to talk to him about how you can help your consumers increase your sales and make some money. The time is right for this.
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Statistics suggest market for consignment furniture
Oct 14, 2011 -
Wolf Opens Consignment Store
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