But tough conditions may limit action
\nLAS VEGAS \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Retailers should be out in force at
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\nthe fourth home furnishings market here, but tough business conditions, heavy inventories and too many furniture markets could keep buying on the light side.<\/p>\n
In interviews, retailers characterized recent business as so-so to soft, and hold little hope for significant shifts anytime soon as a weak housing market and other economic uncertainties continue to weigh on consumers.<\/p>\n
Still, dealers will be here, many staying longer to check out the World Market Center\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s second building. Some are focusing on bedding \u00e2\u20ac\u201d a strong category in Las Vegas \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and generally looking for outstanding deals to lure consumers.<\/p>\n
“Were trying to find ways we can drive some business into the store, some good values. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to be our main focus,” said Jeff Child, president of Salt Lake City-based R.C. Willey.<\/p>\n
The company, with 14 stores in greater Salt Lake City, Las Vegas and Reno, Nev., Boise, Idaho, and now Sacramento, Calif., will be shopping all categories. Home office, one of the strongest furniture categories for the retailer now, will get plenty of attention, Child said. He noted that the company has done particularly well with groups priced from $1,500 to $2,500, so it will be looking for the latest looks in that range.<\/p>\n
“We definitely don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need a lot of product, so it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to have to be really good,” he said.<\/p>\n
Child described business as fairly good, saying that Las Vegas is the softest market for the retailer. While he said he hears Sacramento \u00e2\u20ac\u201d where the retailer opened its first store last year \u00e2\u20ac\u201d is a tough market, R.C. Wiley has no track record for comparison and, so far, the store is meeting expectations.<\/p>\n
Child bemoaned the dilemma of too many markets.<\/p>\n
“We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re being bombarded with so many new products,” he said. “Our buyers haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even gotten (goods) from the past (High Point) market and they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to Vegas and seeing new product.<\/p>\n
“I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s healthy. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think we give product a long enough time on the floor anymore. If something doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t work (soon after) it hits the floor, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re getting rid of it. Used to be it took awhile,” said Child.<\/p>\n
Chris Pelcher, general merchandise manager for Smithton, Pa.,-based Levin Furniture, agreed, saying, “It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just silly at this point. Basically, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re still waiting for everything we picked up in September and October” (in High Point and from a buying trip to China).<\/p>\n
Levin took care of most of its lineup changes in the fall. That, combined with a productive two days at High Point\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mini-market earlier this month, limit the Top 100 company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s open-to-buy for Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
“We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re at a point now where something really has to be an amazing value, a deal-we-can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t-refuse type of thing,” Pelcher said.<\/p>\n
In Levin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Cleveland and Pittsburgh markets, business has been a battle every day, he said. What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more, Levin has had to contend with going-out-of-business sales at La-Z-Boy stores in Pittsburgh, which has it looking to counter with strong motion and recliner promotions of its own.<\/p>\n
“That would be our biggest need if we had any right now,” he said.<\/p>\n
Like Levin, Kane\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Furniture of Pinellas Park, Fla., attended the Lifestyle Enterprise-led mini-market in High Point and will buy some goods. But that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not affecting its shopping plans here.<\/p>\n
“If we see it and we like it, we buy it,” said CEO Irwin Novack.<\/p>\n
In the hard-hit Florida market, where Novack said home sales last year were off 50% from the year before, business has been spotty and inconsistent, he said. But Kane\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s is still in the market for fresh product.<\/p>\n
In July, Kane\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s skipped Las Vegas because he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel there was enough new product at the second show to make the trip worthwhile.<\/p>\n
“With the opening of Building B, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to give it another try,” Novack said. “There will be more vendors showing and hopefully more new product.”<\/p>\n
Among other things, Kane\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s will check out what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s new in direct container imported upholstery programs, a category he said is “just starting to explode.”<\/p>\n
Kris Woodcock, vice president and general manager for Wheeling, Ill.-based Wickes Furniture, said her buyers will be here primarily to fill in between High Point markets, seeking special purchases and values in everything from upholstery to case goods. Wickes also will focus here on California suppliers for its 14 Los Angeles-area stores.<\/p>\n
On Woodcock\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s shopping list: deals in casual contemporary sofas at $399 and wood beds it can retail for $299 to $399.<\/p>\n
“We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re bringing our bedding buyer along,” she added. “Las Vegas is the big bedding market, so he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be shopping bedding, and we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re investigating the specialty bedding arena.”<\/p>\n
Wickes carries Tempur-Pedic, but “we want to look at some other things too,” she said.<\/p>\n
Taylor Ganz, vice president of the 17-store Los Angeles-based McMahan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, will look to add color to his upholstery mix, starting at $399 sofas and across the board to $1,119 frames.<\/p>\n
“The proliferation of earth tones continues, and we need to break that up,” Ganz said.<\/p>\n
Jake Jabs, president and CEO of Englewood, Colo.-based American Furniture Warehouse, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t expecting much in the way of upholstery here. Most of AFW\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s key vendors in the category aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t showing, although Jabs said he will be eager to see what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s new at Ashley, Klaussner, Douglas and GuildCraft of California.<\/p>\n
He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s expecting more luck in the home accents category, noting that past Las Vegas markets have yielded some great surprises, including $299 marble-top sink cabinets from K.Y.O. Trading, which the retailer has been selling by the container load, and Max Win, which has become a great source for traffic items such as hall trees, mirrors and vanities.<\/p>\n
Bedding also will get AFW\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s full attention, especially new offerings in memory foam from Chinese sources.<\/p>\n
AFW\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sales in December were off $3 million from a year ago, Jabs said, thanks to back-to-back weekend snowstorms that shut the stores down for several days. This month, the company is running an “Everything on Sale” promotion, playing up the fact that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s overstocked.<\/p>\n
“We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re giving 3% off \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s working,” Jabs said. “We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re up 10% for January.”<\/p>\n
Jabs is expecting a good crowd at the Las Vegas Market despite difficult business conditions around the country for many retailers.<\/p>\n
“Every little dealer I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve talked to said they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to be there,” he said. “There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s that appeal to Vegas.<\/p>\n
“In fact, my wife is going with me \u00e2\u20ac\u201d her first furniture market in 30 years. I guess I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m caught in the same trap.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
But tough conditions may limit action LAS VEGAS \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Retailers should be out in force at<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-furniture-world-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3176\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}