Home Furnishings Retailer Features

Monday, February 13th, 2012

Casa Bella Galleria

Where Everybody Knows Your Name

The hit theme song to the 1980s sitcom Cheers ended with, “You wanna go where everybody knows your name…” which is exactly why the customers of Casa Bella Galleria keep coming back to the store. Opening in late 2004, Casa Bella Galleria has become family to its customers and transformed their living spaces into casa bellas (beautiful homes in Spanish and Italian).Located in Sacramento, Calif., Casa Bella Galleria offers customers impeccable design at an affordable price. Well-accessorized room vignettes greet customers and splashes of the latest color trends can be seen throughout the showroom. Husband and wife team, Shane Curry and Rhoda Santamaria, took their skills from other careers (marketing and advertising, respectively) and opened the store in a time where the real estate market was flourishing. “I realized I really had a passion for design,” said Rhoda. “Since the market was booming, we decided to open the store. Neither of us knew a thing about owning a furniture store. We went to a lot of seminars in the beginning, and I worked at La-Z-Boy for a year because they have a great training program. Working there made me realize that I really enjoy the furniture business.”

Over the years, Rhoda and Shane have learned the business and built relationships with their clients as well as local designers. This has helped bring in a steady stream of business, despite the decline in the economy. “We now have relationships with a lot of designers that always bring back customers, and those customers bring in new customers,” said Rhoda. “We advertise, but we have found most of our customers are return clients or referrals. We are like the Cheers of furniture stores, people come in here and we know their life story. At this point in time, we have furnished some homes twice already—they bought their first sofa when we opened and are now coming back in to purchase their second sofa.”

Along with Rhoda and Shane, their son and daughter-in-law work in the store. With only four people working in the store, customers have come to love and trust the consistency of who will help them when they walk in. “We are small, but we try to be like Nordstroms and take care of every problem as best as we can. We want to make everyone feel important. Also, I think we are consistent. Because there are so few of us, people know they are going to talk to one of the four of us when they need something—they won’t be shipped off to a customer service department. People appreciate that,” said Rhoda.

The team at Casa Bella has also realized that some customers are more willing to work with certain salespeople, and if a customer isn’t responsive to one person, the other takes over. “Because there are three of us [that sell], and we are all very different, we can take a shopper who comes in with the meanest look on their face and between the three of us, we generally turn the person around and they end up loving the store,” Rhoda added.

While Casa Bella Galleria has a great list of returning customers, they aren’t in the best location for attracting new business. “Rhoda is originally from Manhattan and saw a lot of potential in the neighborhood due to the rejuvenation that was occurring in 2004,” Shane said. “It was on a trend upwards and the city spent millions of dollars on the boulevard. By 2007, several developers had things in planning stage. Then the real estate market crashed. I think we suffered a little more of an impact because people were too afraid to move forward on their projects and just left the neighborhood.”

Even though many businesses have left, Shane is seeing signs of business starting to return to the boulevard. Not only is he hopeful about the return of business to his neighborhood, but the potential of the business excites him. “Even though we are in a recession, there is still a lot of potential,” he said. “I always feel like tomorrow things are going to break out and get better. We probably work harder than the average business at trying to make people happy. We often go above and beyond for our customers, and sometimes I think to myself, we don’t have to do it. But then you think, I am going above and beyond what is fair because I am building a future with this customer. It is the potential to grow, and the potential to have the right product to serve the people coming in. Our goal is to open another store in a different location, but the circumstances have to be right. It’s got to be the right location and timing.”

With the idea of a new store in the future, Shane and Rhoda have already figured out a plan to maintain what has made them so successful, their contact with their customers. “The goal would be to change this current location into more of a promotional furniture store, and maybe even some type of consignment store,” Shane said. “Then the next location would just duplicate what we have right now. Part of duplicating the store is to duplicate us, so the promotional furniture store would have to be staffed differently so we could be available to still work in the new location.”

The excitement and positive outlook that Shane and Rhoda have for the future will ensure they will one day be selling their loyal customers their tenth sofa.

Posted in Home Furnishings Retailer Features, Recent Articles | Leave Comment

Friday, February 3rd, 2012

Welcome Mister President–Introducing your 2012 WHFA President, Chris Sanders

Western Retailer magazine recently sat down with your incoming 2012 President, Chris Sanders, who is a partner at Everton Mattress & Furniture, and Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Therapedic-Restonic Bedding in Twin Falls, Idaho. From starting as a delivery driver in Butte, Montana to becoming partner of Everton Mattress, Chris has experienced every aspect of the home furnishings industry, and a little bit in between.

Western Retailer: Chris, describe your business.Chris Sanders: We are mattress manufacturers that run and own a specialty factory direct mattress store. It has evolved into a full-line furniture store located in Twin Falls, Idaho. We build and distribute two brands of bedding, Restonic and Therapedic, to furniture stores and mattress specialty stores through six Intermountain/Pacific Northwestern states.

WR: How many years have you been working in the industry?

CS: Twenty Plus

WR: How did you get involved in the industry?

CS: I started working for Rosenberg’s Furniture located in Butte, Montana as a delivery driver. Over the years, I transitioned into a retail sales associate. In 1994, I moved to Twin Falls and was the store manager for Everton Mattress retail. I transitioned from director of retail operations, then vice president of sales and marketing, eventually becoming partner in 2008.

WR: How has your company evolved over the years?

CS: Changed is the term I would like to use. We are a fourth generation, family-owned operation that has been in business since 1925. Our company has been through many highs and lows during that time. We have reinvented ourselves several times in order to exist, the most recent was we went from a 10-store factory direct outlet entity to just one store in our hometown of Twin Falls, and transitioning our efforts to be a top-quality mattress producer. We recently invested in our infrastructure in a time when it was challenging to do so. We upgraded our quilters and many other sewing operations. We also took the time to upgrade our employee work areas and hire skilled applicants. We are investing in our future and the future of our employees.

WR: What does a typical day look like for you?

CS: Depends on the day. Some days, I am working with factory representatives in the field, developing monthly marketing programs or sourcing better pricing on raw materials and processes. Or I will be working with retail associates on sales training. Other days, I am looking for new ways to provide better offerings to our customer base and prospects. No two days are ever the same.

WR: How many employees do you have?

CS: 40 employees between both entities.

WR: When you hire people, what traits do you look for?

CS: Energy, commitment and passion.

WR: How do you keep your team motivated for success?

CS: Identify the finish line and help them cross it. (Sometimes it’s easier said than done.)

WR: How are you helping your customers buy through technology?

CS: We recognize technology’s impact on the way the consumer researches and ultimately makes purchasing decisions. From a research prospective, we constantly update our website with new products and relevant product information. To enhance the in-store experience, we have added QR codes throughout the store and armed our sales staff with iPads that contain product catalogs and additional industry information.

WR: How is your company engaging in social media?

CS: Social media allows the consumer to interact with our store without ever setting foot in our location. In addition, we have the ability to stay in front of our customer base on a regular basis at a very low cost. Social media is the avenue we use to influence our consumer’s buying decision on a consistent basis.

WR: What do you want to be remembered for?

CS: Works hard, is trustworthy and maybe helped a few people along the way…

WR: Do you have a simple success philosophy you live by?

CS: If you believe it can happen, it will!

WR: When you aren’t busy working, what do you enjoy doing?

CS: I enjoy outdoor activities like skiing, fishing, etc. I am still trying to improve on work/life balance, you should probably refer to my wife on this question!

WR: How long have you been involved with WHFA?

CS: 15 years

WR: What are you looking forward to most as the 2012 WHFA President?

CS: Working in a collaborative manner with a diverse group of passionate people that want to do whatever it takes to make WHFA the best that it can be.

WR: What’s one thing our industry needs to do in order to succeed in the future?

CS: Our industry is a moving target. We need to be responsive, adaptable and provide products and services that over-exceed our consumers’ expectations. We will need to use tools and ideas that will be highly-tied to the consumer electronics category in order to sell more furniture and mattresses in the future. Social media networks will further need to be tapped into going forward in terms of hitting certain target demographics.

WR: What advice do you have for the future generations of the home furnishings industry?

CS: Nothing happens overnight! Learn all aspects of the business so that you understand how each department impacts each other. Make it a habit to engineer outcomes in terms of goals; results-orientated management is just that—results sometimes might turn negative if left uncontrollable. Always watch your cash flow—profits are great but when you are out of cash, you are out of business!

Final thought: make as many friends as you can.

Posted in Home Furnishings Retailer Features | Leave Comment

Friday, December 2nd, 2011

Women in the Industry—Retailers Helping Retailers

Western Retailer recently sat down with four intelligent, women business owners from the state of Arizona to learn about their industry experiences and how they connect with other retailers in the industry. Read the fun and entertaining insights from Carol Bell and Tamara Scott-Anderson, Contents Interiors; Valerie Watters, Valerie’s Furniture and Accents; and Chris Ehgoetz, Michael Alan Furnishings about Retailers helping Retailers.

WR: How did you get started in the furniture industry?

Carol Bell, Tamara Scott-Anderson and Valerie Watters

Carol Bell: I majored in fashion in college and after I got married, I became involved in the antique business. The antique business led to the furniture business, and here I am, 20 years later in the furniture business. It was not necessarily my calling but my journey in life that brought me here.

Tamara Scott-Anderson: I received a degree in art education. Once I graduated, people weren’t hiring art teachers, so I got a job selling window treatments and accessories. That led me to Content Interiors where I did design and eventually furniture sales. Now Carol and I own it.

Chris Ehgoetz: My parents owned the business and then my sister and I purchased it 20 years ago. Next Friday, my sister and I are toasting to 30 years!

Valerie Watters: I never dreamed of owning my own business or being in furniture retail. I needed a job when I was 21 and a friend of mine worked in a furniture store. They hired me part time and I got sucked in. Fortunately, through the years and a lot of self learning at the library, I discovered a great passion for this industry. I love how it is ever-changing, and when I started, part of my motivation was to be successful in a male dominated world. It was one of those “I’m gonna show these guys…” kind of things.

CB: Valerie, how did you get the courage to open your own store?

VW: My friends talked me into it. I had been managing different stores for eight years and was thinking of getting out of furniture retail. My friends said that I needed to open my own store. They gave me the encouragement, so I went into the library and started reading books on how to own and operate a business.

CB: Tamara and I bought an existing business and often times have said to each other that we don’t know if we could’ve started it on our own. That’s very brave.

VW: Thank you. I started out small, with a small concept. The big thing was I always did my homework. I did a lot of research, and I have always been one of those penny-pinchers. I didn’t go into debt, started out small, built the company and here I am 23 years later. It is challenging, as we all know, we have our moments. But I do love the industry. Especially being involved with WHFA—they are the best people in the world!

CB: Great people, great support. When you talk about passion, there is nothing more exciting than going to High Point and seeing the excitement behind the new styles and the passion that goes into it.

VW: And the thought that you can get into someone’s home and help them—because some of them don’t have a clue—you can help them create a home. I love people. I always thought I would be an actress; well my showroom is like my stage.

WR: Over the years, how has your relationship with other retailers evolved?

CB: Since we first started, we’ve belonged to the Fort Lowell Furniture District. Back when times were better, there wasn’t the attitude of helping each other as much as there is now.

TS: It [Fort Lowell Furniture District] is a cooperative for advertising, so we used to share information on that level. But everyone kept the cards close to their chest on their products. Being a part of the Contemporary Design Group, we saw the value of sharing between retailers that took place. When we became active in the WHFA, it just triple-folded what we learn from other retailers around the country.

CB: Over the course of the last 10 years, I think there is a lot more sharing. At least in our world, maybe we are more open to it.

CE: We have always been a part of performance groups. We have always been open to sharing with other retailers and come back from every meeting with new ideas for our store. We would not be where we are today without performance groups.

VW: For me, it has been about gaining friendships with other retailers. I’ve always felt like I was such a small store in Cave Creek. I am not a big, multi-million dollar, multi-location store, so that intimidated me at events. I used to think, “What do I have to contribute?” but the neat thing I have found is it doesn’t matter if I am a small store in the WHFA. We always talk about the passion for the industry, and when you are involved in an industry and you are passionate about it, it doesn’t matter if you sell $1 million or $10 million a year, you have ideas to contribute. I am proud that I can be a part of it even though I am just a little slice of the pie.

WR: Do you share business information with each other?

Chris Ehgoetz and Carrie Hemme, owners of Michael Alan Furnishings

: We call each other for advice when we have questions like, “How did they market this”, “how did they handle an employee issue”, etc. I did take a trip up to Chris’ store years ago, and I was so impressed by the things they were doing in the store and got great ideas for mine.

CE: I think it is always exciting to go to other stores when I am traveling. I always learn so much. When I am in another town, one of the first things I do is check out the other stores. If you get one little nugget of something new to take back to your store, it is so exciting.

CB: We were just at the WHFA board meeting, and Chris had an idea that I brought back to our store. Whenever you are with a retailer, if you are listening at all, you will pick up some pearl of wisdom. When we started this business, we knew a lot about furniture and design, but as far as knowing anything about running a business… hmmm—we might not have known enough.

CE: Like how to do a balance sheet!

CB: We depended on other retailers to help us out and learn the business. For the first several years, we were on the phone learning from others.

TS: I have to say that because Carol and I are equal business partners, we get to bounce ideas off each other that sometimes an individual owner wouldn’t have. I am actively involved in ASID, so I am always gathering information and sharing it on that level and don’t let Carol kid you, she is a wiz at keeping us on track with our buying, our open to buy, etc. She keeps us in check on all of those business things.

CB: One thing that I wanted to say about the association, is that when you have your own business, there are so many things that you need to know and some of them I admit that I am not too terribly interested in. To belong to WHFA where there are people to negotiate the great credit card processing rates for me through a program, it makes it easy for me to just say, “OK, I will use their program”, and I don’t have to take the hundred phone calls a week on the credit card processing, insurance, etc. To be a part of an association where you get that kind of support, frees you up to do the things you are better at which is important.

VW: We are running businesses, so whether you have a passion or an eye for color, you still have to watch the business side of things too. I have to credit a lot of my success to having an awesome accountant. He keeps on top of everything, takes care of me. For years, he kept telling me to buy my own building. I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t want to be a million dollars in debt. But thank god I finally bought my building 10 years ago. I just listen to his advice and I learn a lot from him. He set up my Quickbooks and teaches me all the tax laws so I know what I can and can’t do. That is invaluable information.

CB: It is so true because I can remember spending the afternoon talking to the tax person asking them to explain certain parts again.

VW: Especially now, it is important when we are counting every penny. You need to know where your money is spent, how it’s spent, and try to be the best. It is challenging out there right now. I think it has been more challenging the last few years than when I first opened.

All: Definitely.

VW: It is a little disheartening to work so hard and just be treading water. Although we are because we are still survivors, but man, I am on the cheap beer and I can’t handle it!

[Laughs]

WR: Do you think since the economy has been a challenge, retailers are more open to working together and sharing ideas?

VW: I would say yes. I’ve seen it more with people who are competitors. I don’t really have competitors; I think the more the merrier. I have noticed I am getting more phone calls from people who might consider me a competitor, asking how I do things. I think people are panicking and when people panic, you join together and realize you are all going through the same thing. You survive and try to help each other out.

TS: There is a rug store in Tucson, who’s almost a one man operation and he is constantly taking Carol and I to happy hour because he wants us to help him out and is great in asking for advice.

CB: And we are all about people taking us out to happy hour!

[Laughs]

CE: I think it makes for good competition too.

TS: We are also now renting warehouse space from the Copenhagen store across the street. We needed a little extra space, and they have 60,000 square feet, so we are renting a little bit of their space. We just asked if we could put some stuff in there, and they were fine with it.

CB: It is a good relationship we have with them.

VW: But I do wonder where you got that new sofa Carol?

CB: [Laughs] Yeah, we now have new Ekornes lines over here! [Joking]

WR: What is it like to be a female business owner in a predominately male industry?

CE: I don’t think there are any issues.

CB: It has occasionally been an issue for us. Since we are a part of both the WHFA and Contemporary Design Group, which are both well accepted, it hasn’t really mattered. Every once and awhile, since Tamara and I are business partners, at Market a vendor might look at us like we are designers and tell give tell us they only want to work with people from furniture stores. Needless to say, our business cards now have a picture of our beautiful store. Vendors now are like, “Oh, you have a store”.

TS: They realize then that we aren’t interior designers just shopping for one client.

Carol: That is probably the biggest issue that we had to get past—oh and the we aren’t gay part. Other than that, the groups that we belong to are so accepting, so for the longest time, we didn’t even notice it was a male dominated business.

TS: I think that with so many family furniture businesses, females are involved in some way, whether is it the wife or a daughter. There is female input that goes into so many businesses. I do think being a woman in the business makes us more in-tuned to when things aren’t working out. One of the things that Carol and I have learned is as a small business, you are a little closer to everything, so you can change faster than a big business. Women have the sense of when things aren’t working and will question it. Things aren’t working here, what do we need to do? I think in that sense, it is a benefit to being a small woman owned business and we aren’t a part of the “good ol’ boy environment”.

VW: I feel the industry has changed a lot. When I first opened my store at 29, I was going to Markets and applying for credit all by myself. I did get some of the, “Well are your parents involved, is your husband going to do this?” Times have changed a lot in the last 20 years. Look at the WHFA, there are so many more women on the Board. It is history making!

I feel it is much more accepted today but back in the day I did feel I could use it [being a woman] to my advantage. I was the little blonde asking, “Can you help me figure out this pricing?” You couldn’t really be a bitch and get your way in the industry back then, so I went the innocent route and asked for help. I remember years ago some of the old guys would take me under their wings. They would show me the ropes. They saw that I was a hard worker, so they would make sure I was making smart decisions—sort of adopted me. It was definitely male dominated back then and now women are running freight companies, furniture stores, etc. It is a good movement that is better for the world and better for the furniture industry for sure.

CE: I’ve never felt the good ol’ boys club, but maybe it’s because I have always been so involved in performance groups. I have always felt like everyone was there to help me, and give me advice. I have never felt it though. Sometimes I do see how people at Market would think women walking in are designers, but I think two gay men walking in would get the same treatment. I think it goes both ways on that. I have never had anything but true help from the industry.

In our industry, the buyer is female. It only makes sense to have females working in the business. I think many men are starting to see this and having female accessory buyers because they truly are more in-touch with the female buyer who is our customer.

WR: What is one valuable tip you have come away with from sharing with others?

CB: One of our stores from the CDG started a realtor program, getting home furnishings set up with the housing industry. So we have been emulating their program. We have put a little money into it and we just had our first payback to it. SO far, it is a good idea that hasn’t made any money. But that was an idea that we took from a store in Florida and hooked us up with their staff person that is in charge of the program.

Also, we have never visited a store and not learned some sort of new merchandising tip!

TS: Valerie shared some of her accessory sources with us cause we dabble a little in Western accessories. We learn a lot about western cause she is an expert.

CE: I think when people share their best sellers it is helpful. We get so locked into what our store looks like and what we liked. Sometimes I will buy something that I would never put into my house and it is a best seller. The business has changed so much in the past few years that we have to be more open to best sellers and even if we don’t really like them, but they sell, then we like them.

VW: I would say learning what not to do and merchandising ideas are always valuable .

Tags: Retailers helping Retailers, Women in the Industry
Posted in Home Furnishings Retailer Features, Recent Articles | Leave Comment

Monday, October 17th, 2011

Building Holiday Traditions

The holidays are a time for family and friends to gather and celebrate with each other. There is a feeling of warmth and happiness. It is a time for parties and events. Learn how two retailers have transformed this warm and festive season into memorable events and inviting décor in their showrooms.

High Fashion Holiday Style
High-end home furnishings store C.S. Wo & Sons in Honolulu, Hawaii and Costa Mesa, Calif., has found a unique way to showcase high fashion holiday style in their showrooms. Their flagship location in Honolulu features a stunning display of holiday trees filled with gold ornaments and cherubs. A 14-foot tree can be found in the three-story atrium in the center of the showroom. Floating down the three-story atrium are 10, life-size cherubs, all carrying green-lit boughs toward the 14-foot tree.

The elegant décor continues with smaller lit trees throughout the showroom and green lit wreaths with gold-wired ribbon on all of the windows. Retail items are added to the tree displays and are displayed based on the color and style of the area. If it is a contemporary venue, then the trees are decorated with contemporary accessories.

Customers are greeted with the sounds of holiday music while smelling fresh-baked cookies and coffee. C.S. Wo offers customers a variety of seasonal merchandise to purchase, “We have many holiday items for sale including a variety of lit trees, Santas, angels, elves, ornaments, poinsettias, potpourri, holiday candles and Christmas CDs,” said Wendell Wo, owner, and Brad Harris, division manager. “We have Christmas items spread throughout the store and transform our 2,000 square foot accent gallery into a Christmas shop.”

Twelve years ago, C.S. Wo contacted island-newcomer Neiman Marcus to see if they were interested in partnering on a holiday event. Neiman Marcus agreed since they were new to Honolulu and C.S. Wo had a similar clientele. Since then, a beautiful partnership has been formed for the annual C.S. Wo holiday party. “We are very lucky to have the partnership with Neiman’s,” Wendell said. “After the success of the first year, they wanted to do it again, which is rare for Neiman’s to host events outside of their store. They said our event was a first-class event, and they liked how we portrayed them. Neiman’s also saw many of our clients from the party visit their store to purchase the displays that they had seen in our showroom.”

Today, the team at Neiman Marcus comes up with a theme for the holiday dining settings. Two weeks prior to the event, Neiman Marcus comes into C.S. Wo to set up eight, themed dining settings, which includes fresh flowers and fruits, their latest china patterns, crystal and silverware. One of the past themes was the Seven Deadly Sins with each dining table displayed to portray one of the seven sins.

The Saturday prior to Thanksgiving, the store is closed for a private event for C.S. Wo’s top 10 percent of customers (customers have to have spent a certain dollar amount in the store over the last five years).

The evening is meant to be a thank you to these customers, giving them the opportunity to view the gorgeous dining sets provided by Neiman Marcus as well as enjoy the elegant holiday atmosphere that has been created within the showroom. Small but dramatic touches, such as suggesting Judith Leiber crystal clutches as favors, or using Monolo Blahnik shoes for drinking vessels always makes for a memorable evening.

“We have food stations serving gourmet dishes, a martini bar and two full service bars in the showroom,” Wendell and Brad said. “There is a fashion show during the event with models showing the latest styles from Neiman Marcus.” Diamond Head Theatre’s childrens’ performing group called Shooting Stars sings carols throughout the showroom and a high school quintet performs in the center of the store.

The following day, C.S. Wo opens its doors to the rest of their customers. They send out an invitation and run a full page ad in the newspaper featuring the new Neiman’s displays. This day has turned into a popular day for C.S. Wo with customers purchasing holiday items, and has also helped Neiman Marcus sell the specialty items that are displayed in C.S. Wo & Sons.

The lavish Christmas party isn’t the only event C.S. Wo is known for. Their annual Chinese New Year’s event is a popular event for their clientele. The showroom is turned into a colorful display with strings of large, authentic golden lanterns that hang throughout the store. The evening focuses around a featured Asian (or Asian-inspired) designer and artist, with an area set up to display about 10 fashion outfits on mannequins and 30-40 pieces of artwork on easels.

“During this event, we have food cooking stations featuring Asian specialties such as suckling pig on buns, Thai curry chicken, Vietnamese soup and Korean spicy ribs. We also feature two open bars and a sake bar. Calligraphers and a fortune teller are stationed around the store for entertainment,” said Wendell and Brad. “About halfway through the evening, we start a fashion show that has models coming down the three flights of stairs in the building’s atrium. A troupe of 10 Chinese Lion Dancers follow the final set of models down the stairway and allow guests to ‘feed’ money to the lion for good luck.”

C.S. Wo created the two events as a way to say thank you to their customers, but over the years have found that these events are a great way to promote specific products: holiday décor during Christmas and antiques during the Chinese New Year.

Both events incorporate high fashion and style that has become synonymous with C.S. Wo & Sons.

Creating Lifelong Memories
The residents of Sumner, Wash., can always count on The Old Cannery Warehouse to provide them with great holiday memories. The 10-acre warehouse furniture store hosts fun and entertaining events throughout the year to thank the community for their support.

The holiday season is no different, and starts in early October when the entire showroom is transformed into a fall harvest. The Old Cannery Warehouse receives cornhusks and pumpkins from local pumpkin farms to decorate the showroom. The center of the store features a blow-up haunted house for children to walk through. At the very end, each child receives a free pumpkin to take home. “We want to make the store as fun as possible for the kids,” said The Old Cannery’s Events and Promotions Coordinator, Jackie Shaffer.

The holiday fun continues the day after Thanksgiving with The Old Cannery’s annual bridge lighting. “We put 10,000 white lights all over an antique bridge from the 1920s that is in our parking lot, and at 5 p.m. we have a countdown to the lighting of the bridge,” Jackie said.

Starting 12 years ago, attending the annual bridge lighting has become a tradition for many families in Sumner and the surrounding communities. The event has grown from 500 attendees the first year, to over 5,000 last year. “It has become a tradition for customers that know our store. They will do all of their shopping during the day, and then by five, they come in to watch the bridge lighting. It is a fun, family atmosphere and really has that ‘hometown’ feeling,” mentioned Jackie.

During the day of the bridge lighting, local vendors set up booths in the parking lot to sell items, and the Old Cannery provides roasted nuts, hot chocolate and coffee to keep attendees warm and happy. At 5 p.m., Santa, the mayor, the head of the Chamber of Commerce, and The Old Cannery CEO David Radcliff, are hoisted up into a lift above everyone to start the event. From the lift, they sing carols into microphones and they lead the countdown for the bridge lighting. Once the bridge is glowing, a firework show, hosted by Heritage Bank of Sumner, delights the attendees and helps them ring in the Christmas holiday season.

Along with the bridge lighting, one area of The Old Cannery Warehouse is transformed in Santa Land. Starting the day after Thanksgiving, customers can have a free photo taken with Santa. Santa Land is decorated to the nines with holiday-themed items and makes children feel like they have been transported to the North Pole. “We have the best Santa in the world—not only does he take a photo with each child, but he will stop and ask if the child has been good and what he or she might want for Christmas,” said Jackie. “I also hire elves to help Santa out every year. They lead the child from the line, up to Santa. It is really more than just taking a picture, it is creating a moment.”

Customers are willing to wait in line for sometimes up to an hour for this special moment. Once children are done talking to Santa, they walk through an archway, then over a chocolate river where they can take some candy. At the very end, another elf greets the children and hands them a balloon and their picture with Santa.

Two weeks prior to Christmas, old-fashioned, horse-drawn carriages are available to take customers for free rides around the outside of the warehouse. Customers might occasionally see a holiday mascot roaming the aisles as well—Frosty the Snowman has been known to make an appearance or two before Christmas and gives kids high fives throughout the store.

“All of our holiday events and décor are geared around families and children,” Jackie said. We aren’t trying to get people into our store to just shop—it’s our way of giving back to the community and creating memories for future generations. We have been here for 25 years, and the community has been good to us. In turn, we want to always give back to them.”

By Melissa Dressler, Western Retailer editor

Tags: holiday events, holiday traditions, retail holiday traditions
Posted in Home Furnishings Retailer Features, Recent Articles | Leave Comment

Monday, September 12th, 2011

California Backyard

Outdoor living is synonymous with California lifestyle. With 260 days of sunshine on average, Californians have extended their homes by creating outdoor living spaces to entertain and relax in.

California Backyard customers enjoy a wide array of outdoor furniture & accessories.

When California Backyard first opened its doors in 1989 in Roseville, Calif., owner Buzz Homsy saw a need for casual furniture in the Sacramento area. At this time, California Backyard’s primary category was indoor casual furniture. Over the years, California Backyard phased out the indoor casual furniture and focused primarily on outdoor living. “In 2004 we dropped indoor casual furniture because we felt it was too confusing to customers to offer both indoor and outdoor casual,” said California Backyard General Manager, Tom Tapken. “Many of our customers didn’t understand the term ‘indoor casual furniture’, and it wasn’t as popular as it had been twenty years ago, so we decided to focus primarily on outdoor furnishings.”

Today, California Backyard has created a niche for themselves in Northern California and Nevada by offering its customers anything they need to create an outdoor oasis, from casual furniture and barbeques to swim spas and hot tubs. “Outdoor casual furniture is now our largest category and dominates most of our stores but we sell a variety of barbeques, mainly Webers, hot tubs, swim spas, pool chemicals and outdoor accessories. We put a lot of effort into creating our lifestyle settings, and when customers visit they see ideas they can implement in their backyard,” Tom mentioned. “Many customers don’t realize the different options they have when furnishing their outdoor living space and are often surprised when they first enter our store. They then start to see the possibilities for creating a great backyard living space that they might not have been aware of—by adding collections of outdoor products like rugs and pillows to transform a backyard into an outdoor room.”

One area that Tom feels is very special about these outdoor living spaces is its ability to bring people together and create a sense of community. The outdoor living space is one area that doesn’t compete for family time and instead gives families an area to gather. “The way families come together is to have a beautiful, inviting space outside—to have a hot, bubbling hot tub waiting for you and your family. It is impossible to sit in a hot tub and not talk,” he said.

Tom explains creating this sense of family time and community to each of his salespeople. California Backyard doesn’t sell a single item that takes families apart from each other. Everything is sold to make the customer feel like they can bring people together, and the entire store is designed to create this sense of community and togetherness, “This isn’t just decorating a room, it’s creating a sense of family, togetherness and community,” Tom said.

California Backyard’s roots start with family. As a family-owned and operated business, there are four family members that currently work within the business; Tom’s wife Denise, father-in-law Buzz and mother-in-law Wilma. The store was originally opened by Buzz who had relocated to the Sacramento area after working for Pool, Patio and Things in the Bay Area. After showing Denise and Tom around the Sacramento area, Buzz suggested they move up from Southern California. He said if they moved to Sacramento, he would open up a business. Twenty-two years later, California Backyard is a strong and successful business with six locations throughout Northern California and Nevada.

Their extended family is their 43 employees. California Backyard believes in keeping their extended family educated, motivated and ready to assist any customer’s need. Tom holds hour and a half training sessions each week with every employee to help them build up a company he calls ‘Me Inc.’. “The point that I always try to make with salespeople is that—I am in charge of getting people into the store through advertising, the website, etc.,” he said. “Once the customer is in the store, it is totally dependant on the salesperson to make the sale.

So we really emphasize the power of you—the power of the individual person to make a difference. Our training these days is only about 25 percent on product and 75 percent motivational—we really focus on the power of change.”

Along with motivating employees with weekly training, California Backyard religiously honors employee anniversaries. Most of California Backyard’s employees have been long term employees, with their longest employee working with them for 19 years. They did downsize over the last few years due to the economy but have recently added a few new employees. On an employee’s tenth anniversary, they receive a free hot tub. “After 30 years at Bank of America, you get a flat screen TV, but after 10 years at California Backyard, you get a free hot tub! We really make a big deal out of everyone’s anniversary,” Tom said.

While California Backyard did lose many employees over the last few years due to lower sales, Tom is hopeful for the future and is finding new ways to bring customers into the store. “The economy still hasn’t recovered in the Sacramento area, and people still haven’t recovered equity in their homes. We are trying to add to the breadth of our product lines instead of the depth,” he said. “We added gas fire logs two seasons ago, pool chemicals this season and will be adding dry saunas and hearth items next season. The idea is to broaden the products so our salespeople can sell more to the same customer. We are also really focusing on our relationships with our customers as well. We will do everything for the customer out of our store—install, deliver and service everything we sell.”

By Melissa Dressler, Western Retailer

Tags: California Backyard, casual furniture
Posted in Home Furnishings Retailer Features, Recent Articles | Leave Comment

Wednesday, August 17th, 2011

Cool Retailers, Hot Ideas

Innovation and creativity are vital components to keeping a business successful. In the home furnishings industry, we are constantly faced with new challenges on how to build and grow a successful business. This month we look at five retailers who have implemented hot ideas in their stores to help their employees, sales and customers. Check out what makes these retailers cool and discover new opportunities to make your business sizzle. ~ Melissa Dressler

Incentivizing with Modified Commissions

Jim Hering and Ron Werner, owners of HW Home in Boulder, Colorado

Since day one, HW Home has had salaried salespeople instead of commission-based. We strongly believe in being a salaried-based enterprise because we feel it is beneficial for our team and our customers. We also recognize that we have held employee pay for several years now just because we are dealing with a slow economy. To help keep our employees motivated and selling, we recently created a new incentive plan.

On certain orders, there has to be a minimum size to the order, we are going to start paying an incentive on those sales. The incentive is based on order’s size and discounting. If a salesperson has an order that meets the minimum order amount, he can lump two orders together. So if you sold a customer something today, and they return within a two week period, you can lump the second sale into the first one and tie the profits together. If there is no discount on the product, then our employees will get a higher payout. If there is an added discount, which is subjective by us, we are going to reduce the payout.

I think this gives our team a huge extra incentive. I guess you would call it modified commission. It is another way for our employees to supplement their current salaries. We wanted a way to help our employees while also helping the business. We needed to create a little extra motivation to get them hustling more. Instead of giving our employees a pay raise, we are now giving them their base salary, and then we now want them out their hustling to make the sale. So if they sell someone a bed, I want the salesperson to remember to ask for the mattress order and the additional add-ons. Is it going to cost us money? Yes. But I believe we will be successful in creating more sales.

Our staff also does a lot of team sales, so we developed a program where there can be two salespeople that can split the incentive. If two people end up helping a customer, we will split it 50/50. We will only split it between two salespeople, not three. We have to manage this thing, which I am sure will be some work. We are just rolling this program out but I feel it is going to be very successful.
–Ron Werner, Owner, HW Home, Boulder, Colorado

Keeping Staff Physically and Mentally Fit
When I took over as warehouse manager about three years ago, I had just lost 70 pounds. I was very into creating a healthy lifestyle for myself, some would say a fitness fanatic, and when I took over the warehouse team, if someone was doing something wrong I would tell them, “OK, drop, we are doing push-ups.” The warehouse team member and I would then do some push-ups.

The healthy (and buff!) members of the Michael Alan Furnishings warehouse team.

What was once considered a “punishment” eventually became a fun time for team-building. Everyone in the warehouse wanted to participate. We started to have challenges in the warehouse where we would do races up and down the alleyway, or run up and down an aisle. If one person was doing push-ups, others would join in. We eventually got an abdominal crunch machine for our alleyway, so every time we walk buy it, we do some abdominal crunches. Every few months, we have some sort of silly competition within the department, like the best abs or biceps on the team. The sales staff come out, feels our arms and judges us on the best biceps or stomach.

Along with the time our staff has been dedicating to fitness in the warehouse, we also sit down every day for lunch together, for what we call Family Time. This is the time for our warehouse team to connect and talk about everything—not work stuff, but about our personal lives and what is going on. Slowly, everyone started bringing healthier meals, and we now give each other a hard time if one of us is eating badly. We all take care of each other.

We have seen a shift in our team’s mental attitude. The team is healthier mentally and physically. One of our team members has quit drinking and has almost quit smoking. The entire team feels better and works hard—in fact, the exercising has made work easier for everyone. The challenges and abdominal machine are actually making our team stronger, which means they are less likely to get hurt on the job. I am very lucky that the owners of Michael Alan don’t give us a hard time about it and support everything we are doing. They see that it benefits our team to be physically fit and not have hernias or back problems. The strong the group is, the fewer problems you will have.
–Clint Pastorius, Warehouse Manager, Michael Alan Furnishings, Lake Havasu, Arizona

Using Real World Events to Inspire In-Store Events

The von Hemert Family during the Royal Wedding event (l-r): Mickey von Hemert, Kelly von Hemert, Barry von Hemert, Susan von Hemert and Carrie von Hemert

My goal for this year was to step outside the box and come up with a unique idea for an in-store event. We have been trying to get out in the community more and bring excitement to our company via social media, events, charities and networking. With social media, we started to really engage with people through Twitter over the last six months and hired a company called The Kaleidoscope Partnership to help us with our social media strategy.

Right after the Royal Wedding engagement, Leslie Carothers, owner of The Kaleidoscope Partnership, and I had been discussing the excitement surrounding the engagement. She had a few ideas for a Royal Wedding-inspired event to take place. I kept thinking about this idea, and decided we should throw a Royal Wedding event in our store during the month of April, which is historically the slowest month for our store.

We ended up holding the event on April 28, the night before the actual Royal Wedding, which made it even more exciting. We asked Emily Eerdmans, contributing editor of House Beautiful, to speak about English design during the event. We also wanted to have some fun and unique products from local vendors throughout Orange County, so I reached out to local fashion designer Oday Shakar (who has become well-known in the fashion industry) to see if he would be interested in lending us gowns for the evening. To my surprise, he was very interested and lent us two to three dozen gowns for models to wear throughout the night, as well as one for my sister and I. We were trying to create a hip vibe and bring in a younger audience with this event, and by having Oday Shakar in attendance, this really helped draw in some fun excitement and energy.

Union Jack Mini Cooper and the Royal Wedding Cake by Christopher Garren's Cake

Also on hand that night was royally inspired gems from the de Young collection in New York. The models wore the gems throughout the night and there were two tiaras, one of which was a Cartier tiara, on hand for attendees to try on. The Cartier tiara was worth over a million dollars! I also wanted a fabulous cake for the event, but knew that we couldn’t afford to pay thousands of dollars for one. I remembered seeing an episode of Access Hollywood where they had asked a local Costa Mesa bakery, Christopher Garren’s Bakery, how they would design a wedding cake for William and Catherine. I called him up, and he was willing to loan us the cake for the evening—it was 5 feet tall! We served Hors d’œuvres, red velvet and berry cake (not the one that was on loan!). The 300 people in attendance could walk throughout the showroom and see a beautiful display of over a hundred pieces of English furniture reproductions by manufacturer Theodore Alexander. We had a Union Jack Mini Cooper in the showroom for people to get in and have a photo taken. The car made quite a statement in the middle of our store!

The event created a lot of online excitement as well. During the night, we gave away a Joanna LHuillier Union Jack Beaded Clutch. Leading up to the event, we also held an online competition for one other person to win the LHuillier clutch on Facebook. We called it The Clutch Wars, and people had to grab an item from our website, post it on our Facebook page and say why they thought Prince William and Catherine should have that piece in their home. The winner of The Clutch Wars was from England.

There was also a lot of blog coverage on our event. One blogger who lived in England had heard about the event and wrote a blog on it—which was featured on the Harrods of London Facebook page as their blog of the week. It was very exciting to get the global attention on our event!

Five percent of von Hemert Interiors sales and jewelry sales from the weekend benefitted the American Red Cross Japanese disaster relief. It has also helped us bring more traffic and sales to our store. We still have people coming in after the event and finalizing their purchases. Overall, it was a magical evening and event.
–Carrie von Hemert, Owner, von Hemert Interiors, Orange County, CA

Selling Furniture Online
For the last six months, Michael’s Furniture Warehouse has been selling furniture online. At first, I will admit that I was hesitant about offering furniture through my website. Now I have seen it benefits my store in two ways. First, there are some people out there that don’t want to come into a store to shop. They don’t want to deal with salespeople and some people just prefer to buy things online. Secondly, the online store acts like another advertisement for my business because we can include the prices online and people can see the inventory our store offers. We send out promotional flyers, but you can only include so much information—with the site, you can give them an unlimited amount of information to help them make their decision.

We have seen an increase in sales. While there aren’t many new customers purchasing online, we are seeing that people who are familiar with our store are using it. It is easy to see what I have in the store, and they can buy it from their living room. I love having eCommerce on my site. It has given us the opportunity to sell furniture to more
people online.
–Darin Reisman, Owner, Michael’s Furniture Warehouse, Van Nuys, California

Connecting with Community Organizations

Thom Filicia, Marc Szafran, President of Thom Filicia, Inc., Bob and Cindy Masin at the DIFFA Fundraising Event.

Masins Fine Furnishings has been partnering with DIFFA (Design Industry Foundation Fighting AIDS) for the last six years by hosting events in our stores. Our latest event was held last May, and we raised $15,000 for DIFFA through a silent auction that was held in the store. We hired models to walk around the event showing off the latest designer fashions from Barneys. Thom Filicia, known for his time on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and now his a furniture and fabric collections, was the face of our event. This year’s event drew in a much more sophisticated crowd of clients—I would hope it had something to do with Thom! He is a great guy, very down-to-earth, and spent the event chatting with other attendees. We don’t sell any furniture during the night—it is more our way of allowing a charity we support to host an event in our showroom.

Seattle is a small community, so hosting charity events in our store gives us a chance to give back to the community that has been so giving to us over the years. Masins began partnering with DIFFA because our PR person, John Stevens, was on the board. We support many different charities, but DIFFA is synonymous with design and are very well recognized in the interior design field, so it is important for us to support them.

Most businesses have a charity that they like to give money too. You can easily reach out to these charities and offer them the opportunity to host an event in your store, and you can offer a certain percentage of sales to go back to the charity organization. Most organizations would be happy to share their mailing list and get a crowd into your store. A celebrity like Thom Felicia might not be a draw for all stores, so find something that will bring customers in for the night. It could even be as simple as wine and cheese. Ultimately, the more people you get into your store and visibility you gain, the better off you are. All of these efforts support the community and your business.
–Dave Masin, Vice President, Masins Fine Furniture, Seattle, Washington

Hot Ideas from Other Industries
Starbucks: Listening to your customers. Starbucks created a feedback site called MyStarbucksIdea.com, which has received almost 98,000 ideas submitted by customers—and 100 have been adopted. Among the ideas that Starbucks adopted are: donating unsold pastries to local homeless shelters and food ktichens, giving baristas name badges, selling reusable sleeves, and bringing back Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate.

Using this in your store: Create a customer feedback area on your website or social media pages and ask them what they want. Maybe they would like more design services, or a great assortment of dining tables. You will never know until you ask.

Nordstroms: The flagship Nordstroms in Seattle store created interactive window displays that caught the attention of customers. Using the technology through Microsoft’s Kinect motion controller, Nordstroms allowed passrsby to hand “paint” lighted letters into the display. A sign was posted instructing people walking by to “Please DO touch the glass.” Watch the video at http://tinyurl.com/nordyoutube.

Using this in your store: While using a Microsoft Kinect motion controller in your store windows might be pricey, think about creating window displays that will catch the attention of people walking by. This is especially great if your store is in an area that sees a lot of foot traffic, such as a downtown location. On weekends, hire models to sit in your store windows and showcase the beautiful furniture you are selling.

Tags: cool retail ideas, member stories
Posted in Home Furnishings Retailer Features, Recent Articles | Leave Comment

Wednesday, June 1st, 2011

Colleen’s Classic Consignment – Las Vegas, Nevada

A Hidden Treasure Hunt in Las Vegas

“We don’t sell icky stuff,” is Colleen’s Classic Consignment’s tagline and they stick by that rule.

Kevin Aiken and Colleen Aiken, Colleen's Classic Consignment

Colleen’s Classic Consignment wants their customers to know that they aren’t your ordinary consignment store; they are a place to find unique, gently used items as well as brand new products they have received directly from the manufacturer.

“Marketing our unique product mix is a big part of our current branding strategy,” said Kevin Aiken, CEO/CMO of Colleen’s. “What makes our store fun is we have a mix of new and gently used furniture, so you are going to see furniture that is really nice. We are trying to tell our customers that while yes, we are a consignment store, we aren’t consignment like you might expect. Through our website, Facebook and our commercials, we are really focusing on letting people know that we aren’t your normal, consignment warehouse store.”

Sixteen years ago, Colleen’s Classic Consignment opened its doors to the Las Vegas market as a Terri’s Consign and Design store. Kevin’s mother, Colleen Aiken, had just moved to Las Vegas and worked with Terri’s Consign and Design to open up a franchise operation in the city. Eventually, Colleen decided to venture into the business world on her own, created a new business plan and renamed all of her stores “Colleen’s Classic Consignment”.

Colleen assists a customer shopping.

In August 2010, Kevin joined the family business since he is an only child and saw that it was the right time to help his mom out. “Quite honestly, in my youth, I ran as far away from the family business as possible,” he said. “It is now getting to a point where my mom is close to retirement and the business was becoming much more successful. With me being the only real heir here, my mom felt the business was at a point where she could commit to bringing me on the team, while she works towards retirement.”

Prior to joining the home furnishings industry, Kevin worked in the travel industry, having last worked for Travelocity. With outside industry experience, Kevin is able to bring fresh ideas into Colleen’s as well as a positive outlook on the future. He exudes excitement to learn the home furnishings industry as well as the potential for it in the future. “Coming from another industry, I see huge potential in the home furnishings industry. I feel the furniture world might be a couple steps behind the rest of the world in technology, which isn’t a bad thing, but it just shows there is so much potential out there for future growth and it makes it exciting,” he said.

When customers walk into one of the four Colleen’s Classic Consignment stores in Las Vegas, they are welcomed by a fresh and exciting product mix.

Consignment stores often have a rotating floor, so it may not look the same two weeks in a row. “We have interior decorators in each of our stores, and our furniture is grouped into vignettes. As we sell merchandise, we are selling it directly off the floor. Often we will sell an entire vignette and then replace that empty spot with something brand new. It keeps our floor fresh and customers visit the stores often. It makes shopping at Colleen’s fun because we might not have what a customer is looking for today, but if they come back in a week, we will have the exact set that they are looking for. That ‘finding a hidden treasure’ thing keeps people interested and coming back in,” Kevin said.
It’s important for Colleen’s to continually market to people who are interested in consigning their furniture in order to have a constant flow of new merchandise. This is one area where Kevin and his team are focusing more effort than they have in the past. They recently created a marketing campaign to inform people about consignment through Colleen’s. “We just launched a commercial that says, ‘Today’s Lesson: What is Consignment?,’” he said. “We are trying to educate people on what consignment is. That commercial, mixed with our new website, which was built around generating more consignment business, are our first steps in educating people and gaining more consignment customers.”

They are also educating people on the benefits of using consignment as opposed to selling furniture on their own. One of their main competitors for finding consignors is the ability for consumers to place used items on Craigslist. To help educate, and find great products, Colleen’s has a few employees that do outreach to possible customers. They comb yard sales, estate sales and Craigslist for products—as well as educate the person who is selling the item. “We are always looking for deals, the best products and ways to educate the people selling the product. We inform them it is safer and easier to work with a consignment store like us. You only have one person coming to your home, we will pick up the product for you, do all of the leg work, and then mail you a check,” Kevin said.

The product mix of Colleen’s Classic Consignment makes the business unique compared to other consignment stores. They also deal directly with manufacturers, many that show at the Las Vegas Market, and offer their customers brand new furniture at a price point that others can’t compete with. This unique mix has helped Colleen’s stay profitable even through the tough economy that hit the Las Vegas housing market hard.

Kevin and Colleen are very excited about the future of their business. They see many opportunities on the horizon and are motivated to create a stronger business for their employees. “Our future will revolve around generating revenue online as well as expanding into other markets outside of the Las Vegas area,” Kevin said. “Our consignment model is really unique, and we have the ability to bring something new to the marketplace. If we have a business in New York and one in Vegas, and a customer happens to be moving from one city to another, they could essentially consign their furniture in one location, and build up credit for them to purchase new furniture at a different location. Essentially you could consign in New York, and pick out furniture in Las Vegas. I think this is an area where many companies haven’t really tapped into the possibilities, and I am excited to see what we can do.”

Another area where Kevin sees a great deal of growth potential is offering online selling opportunities. While the plan hasn’t been finalized, it would entail creating an area of their website to a product that would be offered for a limited amount of time. Once that time is up (or the product has sold), a new product will be featured. “We are sort of modeling our idea after the company Steep and Cheap,” Kevin said. “They put a product on their site for 30 minutes, or until it sells out, and customers then have X amount of time to buy the product. This creates a sense of urgency and if a product doesn’t sell, it rotates to the next piece of merchandise to keep people tuned in and the merchandise fresh.”

With all of the excitement, outside industry experience and positive outlook for the future, Colleen’s Classic Consignment will be furnishing the homes of many markets for years to come.

by Melissa Dressler, Managing Editor, Western Retailer

Tags: Colleen's Classic Consignment, Member Profile
Posted in General, Home Furnishings Retailer Features | Leave Comment

Sunday, May 1st, 2011

Concept : : Home – Spokane, Washington

When customers enter through the front door of Concept : : Home, they often feel like they have been transported to Seattle, Los Angeles or New York—not Spokane, Washington. The boutique store offers contemporary home furnishings amongst brick walls, with urban music playing overhead, and gives Spokane shoppers a unique shopping experience that they used to have to travel at least four hours—and over one large mountain pass—for.

“When you go to LA or Seattle, most of the furniture stores are contemporary. Then, when you come further inland, the stores become more traditional,” said Concept : : Home’s owner, Heather Hanley. “For those people who are relocating inland but still want a more contemporary look, and not the typical furniture store version of contemporary, they used to have to travel to larger, urban cities. We are trying to be the source of contemporary furniture for the people living in Spokane so they no longer have to travel to Seattle.”

Heather Hanley, owner of Concept : : Home

When Heather opened Concept : : Home in 2008, she was not new to the retail business—her family has been working in retail since the 1950s when they opened a television store that eventually started selling home furnishings. Over the years, this business evolved from Acme TV to The Tin Roof, and the product lines shifted. Ten years ago, Heather moved back from California and became the owner of the family business.

Located in a downtown building that Heather owns, Concept : : Home, which occupies 5,000 square feet of the bottom floor, was a completely new business venture, “My father and I wanted to buy a downtown building—I have had the idea since I moved back from California in 2000,” she said. “One day a copy of the MLS book popped into my lap, and there was a great building that was perfect for a condo conversion. We bought the building with the intent of putting a new store on the bottom floor and converting the upper two floors into lofts—and I would live in one of the lofts.”

The idea for Concept : : Home was then born shortly after Heather participated in furnishing a very contemporary home that was showcased on the Street of Dreams. While The Tin Roof offered a few contemporary and transitional pieces, Heather saw that there was a great need and market in the Spokane area for a contemporary boutique store. “There really aren’t any other contemporary stores in town,” she said. “Even half of our best selling pieces at The Tin Roof are fairly contemporary pieces.”

Along with having a unique product line for the Spokane area, Heather has created unique opportunities for potential customers to shop. After attending an educational session by Mary Liz Curtin, who owns a home furnishings store called Leon & Lulu in Michigan, Heather decided to open Concept : : Home up to local businesses, nonprofits and customers to host parties. “It is sort of like opening up your living room for people to have a party, but instead we have 10 living rooms,” Heather said. “We have had birthday parties, meetings and gatherings in the space. For most events, we will provide the space and the group provides the party. If the event is for a nonprofit and a purchase is made during it, a portion of the sale goes to that nonprofit—just like Leon & Lulu. We do about two events a month as well as participate in our downtown First Fridays. We always have a great turnout for that since we are amongst all of these art galleries and art displays really well in our showroom.”

Another unique way Heather shows Concept : : Home’s product is by creating room settings for local functions. One charity recently approached Heather and asked her to set up a hip, LA-type club atmosphere in the area where they were hosting a cocktail reception. Heather and her team created this great lounge area and were able to get their furniture, and name, in front of possible customers.

Outside of hosting events, Heather has found unique ways to connect with her customers. She recently tried a deal with the company Groupon, and while she didn’t sell many Groupons, it did create buzz about the business. Heather has also found Facebook to be an effective way of connecting with her customers. “I am a big fan of Facebook. I think it is a great way to interact with your customers and clientele without being obnoxious about it. They choose whether or not they are going to read your posts. It is a way for them to be able to connect with you without having to get an email every day like Restoration Hardware and Pottery Barn do,” Heather added.

As for the future, Heather feels they have discovered the type of contemporary furniture the people of Spokane will buy, so her goal is to focus on marketing and gaining more business. She has found that one of her largest competitors is the Internet—even though the quality of products being sold on these sites is much less than what Concept : : Home sells. Heather eventually would consider adding an ecommerce portion to the business but wants to commit to doing one thing at a time in order to create the best possible product.

With two successful businesses, and a downtown loft building, under her belt, there is nothing stopping Heather and the continued success of Concept : : Home and The Tin Roof.

Tags: Concept : : Home, Spokane Contemporary Store
Posted in Home Furnishings Retailer Features | Leave Comment

Friday, April 1st, 2011

Contents Interiors – Tucson, Arizona

Beautiful design, contemporary southwest products and a great partnership are a few things that come to mind when people think of Contents Interiors in Tucson, Ariz. Today, this full-service design center is owned by business partners Carol Bell and Tamara Scott-Anderson, who have found the recipe for success.

Contents first opened its doors in 1979, offering home furnishings to the town of Tucson. At that time, it was owned by Ken and Linda Smalley. Carol and Tamara first met while working for the store, as store manager and a designer respectively. Tamara eventually left Contents to work for a design center where she learned more about the construction side of design. In 2001, Carol was offered the opportunity to purchase Contents Interiors, contacted Tamara, and a beautiful partnership was formed.

“When Carol was offered the opportunity to purchase Contents, she wanted a business partner and she called me,” Tamara said. “We hadn’t spoken much over the six years that I had been gone, but we did run into each other once. I was ready for a change and she didn’t want to find a new job, so we said OK, and took a leap of faith. We are very lucky at how our partnership has worked out. We are joined at the hip sometimes but together we are the perfect person. We had a business consultant give us one of those personality tests to find out our strengths and weaknesses. When they printed out the graph, her strengths and weaknesses were the opposite of mine, and she was the left half of the graph and I was the right half. We are thankful ever day and both appreciate how well we work together, and how much we accomplish.”

Tamara Scott-Anderson and Carol Bell, Owners of Contents Interiors

Carol and Tamara’s goal for Contents today is to maintain their reputation of quality home furnishings and exemplary customer service, while adding their individual styles, personalities and passions. When Tamara came back on board as owner, she transitioned the business from just being a home furnishings store into a full service design firm, which included them getting a contractor’s license to be able to do non-structural construction work in their customers’ homes. Carol took over as buyer for the store and has created an eclectic product mix for their customers. Together, with their six trained interior designers, they use their skills and unique home furnishings to create beautiful rooms for their clients.

When customers walk into the contemporary-styled building located in the Fort Lowell Furniture District, they will see the two different styles that Contents focuses on: contemporary and southwestern. “To the left, we have some of our Southwestern, Old World products and when you look to the right, we have contemporary products,” Tamara said. “When we used to keep all of our contemporary items at the front door, people would peek their head in and think we only sold contemporary, so they would leave. Now we try to keep our soft contemporary and transitional up front, and then as you go towards the back of the store, you start seeing the more traditional, southwestern and Old World looks.”

“Carol and I were driving back from Phoenix sometime last year, and had an epiphany,” Tamara said. “We have always done the contemporary and the western—we can do cowboy style with the best of them. We had heard some people call our products ‘contemporary southwest’, so we started asking around about where people shop for contemporary southwest, and everyone said ‘We come to you!’ So we have now been trying to define contemporary southwest and show people that that’s our niche. We have done photo shoots of contemporary southwest and vignettes showing it, to really help people know that yes, Contents is the place to get the contemporary southwest look.”

Along with their unique contemporary southwest niche, customers of Contents keep coming back because of their exemplary customer service. Many employees give out their personal cell phone numbers and will come in on their day off to assist their client. The goal of Contents is to build long-lasting relationships with their customers. “I am sure every store tells you that their customer service is the best, but ours really is,” Carol said. “We have a professional staff of educated designers, and their goal is to build a relationship with the clients. As people come in through the door, they know that they are in a happy place because our staff enjoys working here. They enjoy their jobs and we hear from our customers all the time that our staff is so friendly, helpful, and they know what they are doing.”

Carol, Tamara and the Contents team are also very involved in their local and home furnishings community. They support numerous organizations such as Angel Charity, the Heart Association, Southern Arizona Aides Foundation and the Humane Society. Tamara is a member of ASID and is currently the public relations chairperson for the Arizona South Chapter. Carol is serving on the WHFA board, and Contents has been a longtime member of the Contemporary Design Group. Contents Interiors is also a member of the Sustainable Furniture Council, with a majority of their products coming from manufacturers who practice sustainable furniture creation.

Contents, like everyone else, suffered during the economic crash, but they are hopeful they will rebound and continue to grow. “Two years ago, when everything happened, it was our worst year ever,” said Carol. “Last year, we were up double digits from the year before. We plan to be up double digits again this year. We focus on that goal all the time and we will plan for it.”

“We have seen many stores go down on our street and within our community,” Tamara added. “We are determined to be the last good furniture store standing and that we will still be here and thriving.”

With Carol and Tamara’s passion for their business, employees and customers, there is no doubt they will quickly rebound and continue to flourish in the future.

By Melissa Dressler, Western Retailer Managing Editor

Tags: Arizona Contempory Furniture, Contents Interiors, Tucson
Posted in Home Furnishings Retailer Features | Leave Comment

Sunday, July 5th, 2009

Fitterer’s Furniture

In 1896, gold was discovered in the Klondike, Cracker Jacks and Tootsie Rolls were first introduced and Philip and Frank Fitterer opened Fitterer Brother’s Furniture in Ellensburg, WA. Prior to opening their own home furnishings store, Philip and Frank managed a popular Ellensburg Hotel, the Horton House. Once the hotel closed in 1896, the brothers realized they had a considerable amount of furniture and household goods on their hands. They decided to open their own furniture business to dispose of the excess goods.

The business was an immediate success, and Philip and Frank began to acquire more furniture from traveling salesmen and catalogs. When the Milwaukee railroad finished with their most northern line, Philip and Frank purchased the surplus of furniture. Eventually, the road to Seattle and Tacoma was completed, which provided Fitterer’s Furniture access to many more products. In 1909, Fitterer’s Furniture moved to its current location at the corner of Fourth and Main streets in downtown Ellensburg.

Today, the fourth generation of the Fitterer family continues to operate the store. Cousins Jon and Brad Fitterer are co-owners and continue to place emphasis and respect on their family history and traditions. “One thing our family has instilled in us is the pride that you have as a family-owned business,” Jon said. “The honesty and integrity that the family has was instilled by my great grandfather. Those are historic and enviable qualities that a family can have. We are a pretty unique furniture business.”

Fitterer’s attention to honesty and integrity is apparent in every aspect of their business, from their welcoming store environment, to home staging and delivery. Their attention to the customer is also evident through the generations of family members that visit the store.

A Welcoming Environment
The first thing you will notice when you walk through the doors of Fitterer’s Furniture is the sound of two parakeets. As the guardians of the store, their pleasant chirp often attracts the attention of children and adults. “If you came in and you had your children with you, that is the fist place they would focus on and it creates a bond that would start an immediate friendship with the birds and the store,” Jon said.

To make customers feel more welcomed in the store, everyone is greeted and offered refreshments and an Otis Spunkmeyer cookie. Customers can either sit down and enjoy their refreshments or start their journey through three-stories of furniture. “Our store is a lovely 1907 brick building that has a lot of unique character involved in it including a second floor that is suspended by steel rods. We have gallerized and individually roomed that area so it spider webs you through very desirable bedding and dining rooms,” said Jon. “We have done a focus on our third floor — which is by no means an attic — that is our sleep area. We have very subtle lighting which casts a nice, relaxing ambience on the area. When you come into our sleep area, it is developed for relaxation.”

Through creating different experiences throughout the store, Jon and Brad have tried to create a store atmosphere that is sensitive to the needs of the customer. They focus on what the customer will see, feel and hear throughout the experience and address these components to make it the best shopping experience for customers. Even the customer’s interaction with Fitterer’s employees is sensitive to the customer’s feelings and needs. By taking the time to learn about each customer’s life, employees develop relationships with each customer and are able to understand and address their wishes.

Free Delivery Anywhere within Washington
Fitterer’s Furniture offers customers free delivery anywhere within the state of Washington. This service has become a helpful tool in closing sales and creating loyal customers.

In order to provide this service free of charge with today’s high gas prices, Fitterer’s batches their orders dependent on where it will be delivered. “We don’t just deliver to the Seattle area, which is 150 miles away, every day,” Jon said. “What we have done is batch things so we can go to Western Washington and then go North on one day. The next we will go to Western Washington and go South.”

By batching their orders, they are able to deliver items all in one trip. Jon also makes sure each trip out to Western Washington is worthwhile by picking up items from their suppliers that are located in the region. “We have learned to make sure the truck that is coming back [from Western Washington] comes back with a back haul on it from three of our warehouse suppliers,” he said. “We will bring our freight back with us, so that offsets our fuel costs because we are picking up the freight ourselves. It is a big selling point and a huge closer for many customers.”

Home Staging
Fitterer’s Furniture offers home staging which assists their customers in selling their homes more quickly, while also getting the Fitterer’s store name and products out to a new audience. Since only 10 percent of home buyers are able to visualize the potential of a new home without any furniture, home staging has become an important aspect of the sale. Recently, Fitterer’s in-house interior designer, Amanda Johnson, staged multiple homes for a large company in the area, “Amanda just finished one of the most accomplished home stagings that we have ever done. Rather than staging the home and charging the company on a monthly basis, the business actually bought all of the furniture,” Jon said.

Occasionally the new home buyer will want to purchase the furniture that the home has been staged with. When Fitterer’s Furniture staged a preview home in the Suncadia Resort in Eastern Washington, they were delighted that one of the buyers purchased a large amount of their furniture as well and it added a little extra to their bottom line.

The Legacy of Fitterer’s Furniture
Through the 112 years in business, Fitterer’s Furniture hasn’t faced anything as tough as the next challenge Jon and Brad face — finding a successor of the business. With no family members interested in taking it over, that is the tough task the two will be focusing on in the next few years. “Both Brad and I are maturing, and we don’t have a family representative that appears to want to take over the business,” Jon said. “So that is where our goals are set, to see what the future is for Fitterer’s Furniture and make sure that we plan a succession. I don’t think either of us wants to see this business closed and the assets sold.”

No matter what happens with the future of Fitterer’s Furniture, their great family history and legacy of being respectable, honest people will remain in Ellensburg for generations to come.

By Melissa Dressler, Western Retailer Managing Editor
Originally published in 2007.

Tags: Fitterer’s Furniture, Member Profile
Posted in Home Furnishings Retailer Features | Leave Comment

Page 1 of 212

Home Furnishings Retailer Features

Casa Bella Galleria

Welcome Mister President–Introducing your 2012 WHFA President, Chris Sanders

Women in the Industry—Retailers Helping Retailers

Building Holiday Traditions

California Backyard

Outdoor living is synonymous with California lifestyle. With 260 days of sunshine on average, Californians have extended their homes by creating outdoor living spaces to entertain and relax in.

Cool Retailers, Hot Ideas

Colleen’s Classic Consignment – Las Vegas, Nevada

Concept : : Home – Spokane, Washington

Contents Interiors – Tucson, Arizona

Fitterer’s Furniture

Categories

Archives

Home Furnishings Retailer Features

Outdoor living is synonymous with California lifestyle. With 260 days of sunshine on average, Californians have extended their homes by creating outdoor living spaces to entertain and relax in.

Categories

Archives

Popular Tags