In order to come out of bankruptcy, Chrysler did something that I at first thought was counterintuitive. They decided to close 25% of their dealerships. You would think, closing dealerships, especially profitable ones, would lower their overall sales. Well, at least, I would think that way and it seems some in Congress thought the same way. However, after listening to Chrysler executives and reading some pieces by financial experts, I understand what their reasoning was. 

When there are lots of dealers in close proximity to one another, those dealers have to depend on pricing to close a deal. The lower the pricing, the lower their profit. As profit levels fall, dealers don't have the capital to invest in physical plant or employee training.

Chrysler desperately needs to change their image from a low-end manufacturer. That’s hard to do when a cu...Read More

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The most recent issue of Casual Living included an article and a separate survey about licensing in our industry. I hope you don’t mind if I give you my quick take on it.

In the article, a furniture analyst, Jerry Epperson, is quoted as saying, “There aren't many consumer-recognizable furniture brands. Does it make sense to put a celebrity name on it? If nothing else, it gives the consumer warm and fuzzy emotions to say they bought that brand.” I agree that consumers don’t recognize many names in our industry. Brown Jordan is one of the few exceptions that customers ask for by name, year after year. Sometimes, we do notice an increase in consumers awareness of another brand when that manufacturer advertises heavily in consumer magazines. When that advertising dies down, the demand by brand goes away, too.

However, I don’t agr...Read More

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Let’s see - - - in the past two or three months I have been offered “never before sale pricing” (which I will refer to as NBSP from here on) from several vendors. They include, in no particular order, Brown Jordan, Pride, Gloster, Summer Classics, and Ebel. There have been other “deals” such as Cast Classics reverting back to their 2008 price list and Suncoast reducing prices on a few entry level frames in very specific color ways.

Had just one of these vendors held a sale event, I wouldn’t be talking about it. But when six or seven do it, I think it will have an interesting effect on our upcoming markets. And that is: IMHO I don’t think vendors are going to be able to raise their prices back to presale levels for 2010. They are going to meet a lot of resistance from retailers at market and consumers in our stores next year....Read More

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I have a friend who is an attorney. He is well educated and socially adept. You would think he needs to know what is happening in the world just to be successful as an lawyer. But, he doesn’t receive or read the newspaper nor does he follow the news in any way. When I asked him about it, he said, “Bruce, if it doesn’t happen in the immediate block where I live, it won’t affect me.”

For years, I thought his narrow worldview was ludicrous. However, as I get older, I am beginning to think he is right. With so much air time, Internet space, and newspaper inches to fill these days, reporters, bloggers, and tweeters, are desperate for something to call “news.”  What might have filled 30 seconds on the “Nightly News” with Chet and David in the 60’s and 70’s, is now hashed over for minutes, hours, days, and so...Read More

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Well, to my surprise, the dates for pre-market and regular market in Chicago have been announced through 2014. The last I had heard, the ICFA was discussing a single market probably to be held in late July or early August. Some manufacturers, Brown Jordan comes to mind, even announced at the 2008 pre-market that they were not going to participate in premarket after 2009. As they say, "The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry."

After putting all of these dates on my calendar for the next six years, I got a call from my daughter who lives permanently in Australia. She was excited to tell me that she, her husband, and my three grandchildren are coming to the States for a three-week visit at the end of June. Her visit would coincide with pre-market in Chicago and gift market in Atlanta. By attending both of those markets, I would miss four or five days of m...Read More

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As we say down here in the humid South, “When you’re up to your behind in alligators it is hard to remember you came to empty the swamp!” I believe we are all suffering from the "alligator syndrome" this season. We have had to do so many things just to stay in business that we are fogetting the our core practices that made us successful in the first place.

I mention this because of an article I read in the most recent “Casual Living.” Several manufacturers were interviewed and asked what retailers have to do to survive the economic downturn. The answer that really stuck with me was that retailers have to continue providing the same top-notch service their market has come to expect. Personally, I buy into that; but, I wonder if manufacturers realize this is a two-way street. Manufacturers who are going to survive past 2009 are the on...Read More

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A few weeks ago, I blogged that I thought early buys, as we have know them for years, are changing. In the past few days, I am realizing how we handle in-season buys need to change, too. I am getting low on some of my bread and butter extruded aluminum. Normally, I would create a truckload fill-in order. This year, I am concerned about taking on that additional debt load. When the invoice comes due for this truck, so will my early buys. If business continues the upward trend I have been seeing for the past month, no problem. But if business takes a sudden decline, paying for this and other fill-in orders could become problematic.

A couple of days ago, I was discussing this problem with another retailer, Keith Guidry, of Percy Guidry’s in Lafayette, Louisiana. He gave me an idea whose time, I think, has come. Instead of waiting to place one large fill-in order after ...Read More

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Business last weekend (March 27 and 29) was unexpectedly good, especially our special order business (which we don’t count in sales until the merchandise arrives). We wrote huge business with Brown Jordan all because of their “unprecedented sale” promotion. We advertised this event heavily on television and it paid off.

We also got notification from Summer Classics regarding their “Promotional Coupon” program. Essentially, they will give the retailer a $100 rebate on any custom order worth over $1,000. All we need to do is send in our logo and contact info and they will create a printable coupon we can mail out to customers. Since I had such success with the Brown Jordan program, I think we will advertise this through television rather than using direct mail. Since the rebate is $100 in wholesale value, we are going to make it a $200 rebate...Read More

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For those of you who are still getting snow and winter, I hope this blog gives you a ray of hope. I recently got an email from a friend which said, “Due to the economy, we have had to make certain cutbacks, including turning off the light at the end of the tunnel!” I think the light has been relit!

With the coming of Spring we are finally seeing our fair share of customers. It has taken longer than usual, but at least the floodgates seem to have cracked a bit. Perhaps the fact that the beginning of Spring coincided with a week of “up” days on the stock market was the determining factor. Or maybe, our customers are getting “Cabin Fever” and have decided to do something good for themselves after doing without for so many months. I don’t know, but I am not complaining.

It is interesting, though, that most of our busine...Read More

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Mardi Gras came and went last week here in New Orleans. The first weekend after that when the weather is good is usually a bell weather for our year. The weather for Mardi Gras was glorious. Warmish, sunny, everything we could want. But we were closed; so, that did us no good. When we reopened for business on Wednesday, of course, the weather started to get colder, cloudier, and rainy. By that weekend, it was winter again. This weekend it is supposed to be in the high 70’s or low 80’s and sunny. I’ll let you know how we do.

I don’t know about you, but some of my reps are being hit hard by the slowdown. I am beginning to lose reps, some who have been rep'ing for a short time and some who have been rep'ing for years to other industries or jobs. Between that and the number of outdoor specialty retailers who have closed recently, I have begun to wonde...Read More

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I sense a change in the "early buy" wind.  In the past, vendors gave retailers reason to load up our warehouses with merchandise in exchange for large early buy discounts and dating. Supposedly this kept their factories busy and they wouldn’t have to lay off hard-to-replace skilled workers during the slow season. But at what risk? All of the merchandise they pushed out of their doors in the winter wouldn’t be paid for till April, May, June, and July. If spring and summer were late in coming or, heaven forbid, there was an economic downturn, retailers might not do enough business to pay off their early buys. In times like that, vendors who hadn’t insured their early buy paper were left out in the cold.

The system worked for years. Sure, there were cold and rainy summers where some retailers were left with stock, but, for the most part, ret...Read More

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I had to fire Monty Hall. He was making way too many deals! But, for the past few weeks, I’ve thought I might have to hire him all over again. No matter how much of a discount we have been giving, our customers think they deserve more.  “After all,” they say, “everyone is offering big discounts because the economy is so bad. I think you should, too!” In fact, one of our customers insisted I call the manufacturer to ask for a further discount before we were finally able to strike a deal.

In the past, we priced our products based on our cost (after all early buy or reorder discounts) with a keystone markup. We don’t add freight to our cost before coming to our selling price unless we are dealing with container goods. This means most of the furniture on our floor is priced anywhere from 20% to 48% less than the MSRP. We do offer a sma...Read More

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