Sagging furniture sales?

[UncleHoney]

Read an article in this mornings paper that a number of long time furniture stores around the area going belly up. I guess competition from some of the big box stores and sagging sales from no new home buyers are taking a toll.

After a little web searching it looks like it's happening around the country.

Anyone notice a change in their area?

 

[calmloki]

I'd sell my sagging furniture on Craigslist. Dunno - by the ads furniture and mattress stores always seem to be going out of business, yet they abide, they abide...

 

[Notmuchlonger]

I haven't notice but then really I haven't been looking for it. Makes sense if you have housing slowing down. Then again even in good times like Calmloki mentioned you get quite a few going out of business sales ad.

 

[W2R]

During the first year after Katrina there was a huge demand for furniture here, to replace what people lost. It was not uncommon to be told there was a 10 month waiting list when ordering furniture. Out of town discount stores got a foothold in the local market when they offered delivery in New Orleans in days instead of months.

Anyway, during the past couple of years at least one quality furniture store, Kirschman's, has closed their stores in the New Orleans metro area after maybe 100 years. Quite a few discount furniture places have opened up here, though. Their furniture is ugly, generic, and cheap. I can't imagine they'll last.

Hurwitz-Mintz, which has sold high quality furniture in New Orleans for many years, is still going strong although they closed one of their stores.

 

[FinanceDude]

I used to know a guy that made a fortune selling furniture. He told me if I ever wanted to get wealthy he would show me, and it wouldn't take long.........just work up a line of credit and float the credit yourself...........

 

[Nords]

Sagging furniture sales?

I'd sell my sagging furniture on Craigslist. Dunno - by the ads furniture and mattress stores always seem to be going out of business, yet they abide, they abide...

Yeah, I thought this was going to be a thread about bad upholstery too.

UH, those are a couple of possibilities.

But another possibility might be the growth of websites like Craigslist. Over the last couple years we've upgraded just about every piece of furniture and every major appliance in our house from Craigslist at 25-50 cents on the retail dollar, including our beds.

If a fire burned us to the slab then the first thing I'd do is start restocking through Craigslist or eBay. Maybe I'd eventually end up at a big box like Costco or a military exchange. But I'll never ever set foot in a retail furniture store again... not even one of Berkshire Hathaway's companies.

 

[FinanceDude]

But another possibility might be the growth of websites like Craigslist. Over the last couple years we've upgraded just about every piece of furniture and every major appliance in our house from Craigslist at 25-50 cents on the retail dollar, including our beds.

If a fire burned us to the slab then the first thing I'd do is start restocking through Craigslist or eBay. Maybe I'd eventually end up at a big box like Costco or a military exchange. But I'll never ever set foot in a retail furniture store again... not even one of Berkshire Hathaway's companies.

Craigslist may be the best thing to happen to the average Joe in a long time...........

 

[ProspectiveBum]

Funny timing, a co-worker just told me last week about how he was purchasing some furniture in a local furniture store a couple of weeks ago, and the salesman told him that that day was his last day there. He said that business had deteriorated to the point that he couldn't make a living anymore (and he'd been selling furniture for 15+ years).

The salesman blamed the slowdown on the real estate bubble bursting.