Mor Furniture For Less opens two more California stores

Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, June 22, 2012

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. — Mor Furniture For Less has opened two more Southern California stores, continuing an aggressive expansion strategy into new territory, this time the greater Palm Springs area.

The Top 100 company opened its 25th store in Rancho Mirage, Calif., on Highway 111 in May and followed with a store in Cathedral City, Calif., 10 miles away, on Thursday. Mor is promoting a grand opening event for both stores simultaneously.

Among the suppliers noted in a press release are AICO and Tempur-Pedic. The Cathedral City store on East Palm Canyon Drive includes a full-line showroom, clearance center, and a home delivery and customer pickup warehouse that will serve a large area of Southern California.

Both were vacant retail spaces. The Rancho Mirage location is a former Legacy Furniture location and Cathedral City was a Linder's. Mor did not disclose its investment in the stores or sales projections. It said the stores will create 40 to 50 new jobs.

Special touches in the showrooms include complimentary fresh-baked cookies, popcorn, soda and coffee while shoppers browse.

Mor is No. 31 on furniture/Today's Top 100 with estimated sales last year of $238.4 million at 21 stores, up 3.3% from the year before.

The retailer opened its first store in Richland, Wash., in the Tri-Cities area in November (not included in the Top 100 count) and stores earlier this year in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., and the Seattle suburb of Lynnwood, Wash.