tries a mattress at Off Track Bedding.
While the local economy is sluggish in its recovery from a recession, furniture sales have plodded steadily along, in some cases exceeding expectations, and show no signs of slowing as we approach the holiday season.
According to Thomas Barron, co-owner of Providence-based Off-Track Bedding along with his wife Roanne, the slowing economy has not affected bedding and furniture sales at their stores. This year, in fact, the company opened two new stores, in South Attleboro and Norton, Mass.
“We’re still having double-digit increases,” Thomas Barron said. “We’re not doing anything abnormal” in the way of special sales, “but we are aggressive.”
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Barron said that Off-Track Bedding simply offers the lowest prices and has been selling that guarantee for more than 10 years. While there has been word that the furniture business in general has had problems this year because of the economy, Barron said his stores have not been impacted.
“It has affected the furniture business,” he said of the slow economy. “This fall it’s had problems but fortunately we haven’t.” Barron added that Off-Track Bedding’s major competitor, Mattress Discounters Corp., recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
This was after it reached an agreement with creditors and investors on reorganizing the company, which includes $6 million in new financing.
Barron said sales at Off-Track Bedding stores in Rhode Island and Massachusetts have increased this year.
“People are staying home [more] and are putting more money into fixing up their homes, and this is a one-stop shop” for bedroom furniture.
Christopher Curran, owner of Ocean State Furniture in West Warwick, said that his furniture business hasn’t really fallen on hard times because, unlike larger companies like Cardi’s and Alperts, it depends on repeat customers and referrals, not the mentality of a one-time furniture buyer.
“It’s consistent,” he said of business. “I’m not going to say that we’re doing a stellar business, but it’s steady business.” Curran said his sales have stayed consistent this year, and are within a few points of what they were last year at this time.
Furniture sales should be doing well, according to Leonard Lardaro, University of Rhode Island economics professor and creator and author of the Current Conditions Index, a measurement of the strength of the present economic climate in Rhode Island, measured by the behavior of 12 indicators, including retail sales.
“Furniture is so tied to housing and housing is doing so well; retail sales in Rhode Island have done so well,” Lardaro said. Sales for bedding and furniture, “normally when the economy is not doing well,” reflect that, he said, “but this is an anomaly.”
Lardaro attributes the steady stream of furniture sales to the equally thriving home sales and low interest rates for both markets. Furniture carriers are often offering low or no interest or payments until a year later, and the continued low mortgage and interest rates have kept people buying homes.
Many people are also using their home equity to fix up their homes and buy new furniture, since September 11, he said.
“I’d be surprised if there was any weakness in furniture sales,” he said.
Hershel Alpert, CEO of Alperts Furniture Showplace in Seekonk, said the furniture retail market is usually six months behind the real estate sales market. It takes that long for a new home to be built, or those who have just purchased a home usually make do with old furniture for about six months before deciding to purchase new furnishings.
“Traditionally one figures that lower interest rates produce greater sales,” he added, which applies to both home and retail interest rates. Currently, Alperts is advertising for no interest on certain purchases until 2005.
Although Alpert said he would not divulge specific figures of his privately held company’s earnings, he did say, “our business is ahead for the year. We’re certainly satisfied with the business.”
Alperts recently renovated and expanded its store to a 90,000-square-foot facility with an attached 60,000-square-foot warehouse. The Seekonk location is their only store, Alpert said.
“In this marketplace, we tend to be very aggressive,” he said. “We certainly have competitors. There are no miracles in this business. If we’re doing [good] business, then others like Cardi’s and Off-Track Bedding are also doing business.”
Alpert said if there are any furniture retailers on the market right now complaining that they aren’t doing well, it’s because they aren’t aggressive in selling and can’t compete with the deals others are offering.
“Customers aren’t stupid; they want the good deals,” he said.
For Chariho Furniture, it’s business as usual, according to company president Ed Smith. The store will be celebrating its 15-year of business this month.
This year, so far, has been steady, Smith said, but without significant growth.
“Year-to-date, we’re flat for the first time ever,” he said of the store’s sales growth. “We’ve always had double-digit growth,” he said, adding that if he added sales from another Chariho store that sells only mattresses, the company would be well ahead.
“It’s not a bad thing, but I’ve been told by (some) factory reps that furniture isn’t doing too good,” said Smith
He said he doesn’t think furniture sales are as closely tied to housing as Lardaro and others might think. People he knows in real estate say their sales are “off the wall.”
He added, “We’re not having off-the-wall sales.
“People are thinking a lot longer and harder, especially on the high-end stuff,” which Chariho Furniture specializes in, he said. But “there’s no such thing as recession-proof.” Chariho Furniture is simply unique to Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut, which it considers its customer base.
People do come from as far as New York to purchase the reproduction and country-style items. Although Smith said the company doesn’t have many direct competitors, “anyone who says Cardi’s isn’t a competitor is a fool.”
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