PHILADELPHIA — American Signature has stepped up the rollout of its new Rooms Today format, opening five stores in this area, with more to come.


The Top 100 company, which operates Value City, American Signature and Rooms Today stores, opened the new format in the Philadelphia suburbs of Langhorne and Lansdale, Pa., and Moorestown, N.J.
It also converted former Value City Furniture stores to Rooms Today in nearby Allentown, Pa., and Bear, Del.

In December, American Signature will open its sixth Philly-area Rooms Today in Plymouth Meeting, Pa. Eventually, it will have more than 10 stores in the market, said David Thompson, American Signature president. That includes the Plymouth Meeting and a store planned for northeast Philadelphia.

The 125-store Columbus, Ohio-based retailer launched the Rooms Today format this summer with two 50,000-square-foot stores in Kentwood and Kalamazoo, Mich.

It called the concept a bridge between its price-oriented Value City chain and the more upscale American Signature stores. Rooms Today stores have been about 50,000 square feet with roughly 40,000 square feet of selling space.

The room-package store leans toward hip, contemporary styles but has a flexible merchandising strategy that can adjust the product lineup to local tastes, Thompson said.

Thompson said that with the Philadelphia launch, Rooms Today has moved past the test phase.

“We’ve had nice improvements (in the Michigan stores) and we’re committed to the Rooms Today brand,” Thompson said. He called Philadelphia a “great town” and a big market with limited competition, which is among the reasons Rooms Today is making its first major push there.

By the end of its fiscal year next July, American Signature expects to have 11 Rooms Today stores open. Thompson wouldn’t disclose other target markets, but previously said the company will look to Rooms Today to help it expand in the East and Midwest.

American Signature described the new stores’ offering as “fun, fashionable and affordable furniture,” presented in a casual, relaxed atmosphere. 

About half of the assortment comes from the various American Signature store-brand lines, including case goods and upholstery, bedding, accents, top-of-bed, and urban loft styles from its American Signature Studio line. American Signature is displayed in a gallery in the front center of the Rooms Today stores.

The other half of the Rooms Today lineup is shown in an area called “The Marketplace,” and features goods from vendors including Berkline, iJoy, Powell and Kroehler — the latter an American Signature-owned upholstery factory based in Conover, N.C., that dates back to 1893.

American Signature owns furniture factories in the United States, China, Mexico and other countries. It also sources proprietary goods for its three store brands from other manufacturers worldwide.

Thompson said Rooms To-day’s marketing approach gives it the flexibility to shift the assortment up and down the company’s price spectrum. Fabric sofas, for instance, top out at about $799 at price-oriented Value City and go up to $1,299 at American Signature, but Rooms Today can offer product from anywhere in that range.

“This gives us an opportunity to throw more fashion at it,” Thompson said.

He has said it’s unlikely Value City and Rooms Today would operate in the same market, though it’s possible for Rooms Today to overlap with American Signature stores.

By the end of its fiscal year, American Signature’s store count is expected to jump to 134 with the opening of four more Rooms Today stores, three Value City showrooms and two American Signature stores.

“We expect all three brands to work well for us in the future,” Thompson said. Company sales which topped $1.1 billion in the latest fiscal year will grow past $1.2 billion this year, he said.

The company was No. 8 on Furniture/Today’s most recent Top 100 report with estimated furniture, bedding and accessories sales of $830 million in the year ended July 30, 2012.

American Signature also is in the final planning stages for a more than 500,000-square-foot Northeast distribution center to serve stores in Baltimore-Washington, Pennsylvania and upstate New York. It would open by January 2015, Thompson said, though he wouldn’t identify the location. American Signature has other distribution centers in Virginia, Ohio, Georgia and Indiana.