Sales are sagging at furniture stores
“It’s been devastating,” Epperson said. “Florida is mentioned by many retailers as certainly one of the worst states in the country.”
John Purvis, who owns Showcase Furniture in Mount Dora, said his store has experienced a 40 percent to 50 percent drop in sales since the peak of the housing boom. And Furniture Country Galleries, a Leesburg company, shuttered its Ocala store last month.
“There was no traffic in that store,” Furniture Country Galleries marketing director Sara LaFrance said. “No matter what we did for advertising, there’s just nobody there.”
Large retailers are feeling the pinch, too. Florida-based Rooms To Go Inc., the nation’s largest furniture retailer, has cut back on inventory to reflect lower demand, said Jeff Seaman, president and chief executive officer. But the company’s size, with about 150 stores and 7,500 employees, has helped insulate it.
“We’ve been trying to use our size to our advantage,” Seaman said. He said Rooms To Go can purchase furniture from manufacturers at lower prices because it buys in larger quantities than smaller stores.
He said the company’s presence outside of Florida — many other states have taken softer hits from the housing bust — has also helped the company avoid some of the problems that smaller retailers in states such as Florida and California face.
The slowdown isn’t exclusive to furniture, of course. Other products connected to home sales, such as appliances, have taken hits, too. But while appliances are often sold in large department or home-improvement stores that have other products to lean on for revenue, selling furniture is “as closely related to housing as anything you could pretty much find,” said Dan Wright, sales manager of the Ashley Furniture store at Waterford Lakes in east Orange County.
Not only are fewer homes in need of furnishings being sold; existing homeowners are also feeling the economic malaise brought on by the subprime mortgage meltdown and resulting credit crunch, experts say. In tough times, people will repair a car if they can’t get to work; they will buy a new refrigerator if the old one stops running. But a worn cushion or torn armrest is not always enough to make people spring for a new couch or recliner when money’s tight.
“People hold back,” said Bob Stroh, director of the Shimberg Center for Affordable Housing at the University of Florida. “People are probably feeling like they have less discretionary income to buy that sofa.”
Retirees Denis and Mary Proulx, who moved from Boynton Beach to Lake County recently, said they have been shopping for furniture every other day for two weeks. So far, they have bought a living-room set and enough other items to fill a day room, but they’re holding out on a master-bedroom set until they find one that fits their budget.
“We’re not living high off the hog,” Denis Proulx said, “but we’re not scraping the bottom of the barrel, either.”
He said there were few other shoppers in several of the stores they visited. Some showrooms have more salespeople than customers.
“In some places, it’s been pretty sparse,” Proulx said. “It picks up a little on the weekend, but even then I’m surprised it’s not more than it is.”
Persuading homeowners that now is the time for an upgrade is no easy task. Whitmire said he targets established customers with direct-mail advertisements and relies on their loyalty.
“We’re really trying to stay in contact with them and let them know of any special deals,” he said.
The deals have gotten better as customers hop from store to store looking for price cuts. Furniture Country Galleries, for example, has “been giving a lot more discounts than we have in the past,” LaFrance said. “Now we have to go with 20 percent or more.”
Showcase Furniture’s Purvis said even his lower-cost used furniture, which usually attracts some budget buyers, isn’t selling as fast. A yellow sign spans the front of his store announcing a sell-off. Another announces, “We discount to most humans.”
Sensing a bit of desperation, customers are demanding huge markdowns.
“People are in your face the moment they walk through the door,” Purvis said. Whereas price was a secondary concern for them before, “now they just tell you how much they want something for.”
Adrian G. Uribarri can be reached at auribarri@orlandosentinel.com or 352-742-5926.
GEORGE SKENE/ORLANDO SENTINEL PHOTOS.COM
More articles
Tags: chase, chief executive officer, credit crunch, Ford, Geo, nishi, s market, showrooms
