Is there more or less to be made in retail?

[Mikey P]

Tom King can tell us some behind the scenes truths to how a store like this is ran, inventoried and can turn a profit.

 

[Ed Valentine]

This is why a lot of importers purchase from China. That's the only way they can discount and still make a menial living.

Thanks to all our Representatives in Washington, DC, btw.

( I could expand but will not pound this key board for the next 24 hours!--lol

 

[Lee Stockwell]

People have come to expect furniture industry marketing, the perpetual sale,...snake oil.

 

[Russ T.]

People have come to expect furniture industry marketing, the perpetual sale,...snake oil.

It's true. I'm ashamed to say the carpet cleaning industry is similar in their marketing.

 

[Goomer]

As long as your wares are difficult to ship third party, there will always be hope.

Good luck trying to retail anything that can be sourced online and shipped to you in 2 days for under 10 bucks.

 

[TomKing]

Looks like all the experts got it figure out.

Retail margins are lower than a service company every time.

The difference is the threshold of entry.

Any yahoo can call themselves a carpet cleaner. Selling reputable brands is not available to just any Yahoo. It also requires a much larger investment of capital. Some furniture brands require financial statements to open with them. Truck mount manufactures don't care who they sell to.

The example above could be they are trying to turn the showroom and move dead stock. Lots of reason for dead stock sales.

Like the $69 - 5 room carpet cleaners there will always be retailers that bait and switch.

To be honest some of those examples above are achievable with solid American made furniture. It would be very very low margins though. IF the goal was to increase showroom traffic it would work.

 

[TomKing]

People have come to expect furniture industry marketing, the perpetual sale,...snake oil.

Not the high end store. Most don't run sales.

Cort furniture, rent to you own crap sure, not the major fashion brands.

 

[Hoody]

Not the high end store. Most don't run sales.

Cort furniture, rent to you own crap sure, not the major fashion brands.

A lot of truth here. Think about it terms of cars. You see and hear a lot of radio and TV for your average Chevrolet, Ford, Honda, Nissan. You occasionally will see or hear advertisement for BMW, Mercedes, and Infinity but it's usually toward the last quarter of the year so they can move old inventory out but not constant through out the year. The even higher brands Ferrari, Lamborghini, Bugatti never mass market advertise. It's because the specific people who are buying those brands know where to get them from referrals from people of the same income status.

Furniture is the same way the 20-50k high end furniture suite retailers don't offer discounts and you don't see their advertisements. They work with high end builders and home designers and do really well.

If you find yourself cleaning these types of furniture suites it's always a good idea to ask where they bought it. We would do this and we built relationships with the retailer where we would apply protector for them and they would upsell as an option to the client. Worked out really well and we would get a good amount of referrals because everyone else was scared to touch the stuff.