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Hands on the Wheel

By Home Furnishings Business in on November 1, 2012

Lots of retailers bring containers of furniture in from overseas, but how many float them in the other direction?

One would be Nader€™s La Popular Furniture, a third-generation family owned business whose three stores and clearance center serve the cultural melting pot of Los Angeles€™ South Bay area.

A hands-on approach to running their stores; a high-profile in the communities where the stores are located; and a commitment to promotional to mid-price values delivered quickly have Nader€™s weather a tough economy and set up for challenges ahead.

GENERATIONS OF CUSTOMERS
 That kind of loyalty was years in the making. The store boasts three generations of customers to match three generations of management. Along with President Chuck Nader Jr., senior management includes his brothers George Nader, vice president and CFO; Fred Nader, vice president; and Paul Nader, vice president and warehouse and Carson store supervisor. Four of the Naders€™ sons also are coming up in the company.

Through the years, the Naders based their business on good deals on furniture, delivered fast.
€œOur father (Chuck Nader Sr.) started 56 years ago with a Sears Roebuck mentality,€ Chuck said. €œHe€™d been a salesman there and wanted his own business.
At the time, housing in the market Nader€™s served average around $10,000 a home, so it started out as a low-price dealer but eventually moved into middle price points.
The store always sold a lot from stock, but kicked that up even more the past 10 years, when it was able to by large container quantities of imported goods to hold in its 60,000-square foot Carson warehouse.
€œOver the years we€™ve brought in a large quantity of inventory, and we sell only what we have in stock for immediate delivery,€ Chuck said.
Most deliveries are next-day, though the retailer will work with customers who need the goods same-day. In addition to selling from stock, Nader€™s La Popular owns a five-truck fleet to service its fast-delivery commitment.
€œWe like to deliver from the warehouse instead of bothering the showroom floor,€ said George Nader. €œWe€™ll also order close-outs that we sell at the clearance center.€
Nader€™s La Popular always has written its own paper, and financing has been a key to its long-term customer relationships.
€œOur dad started with carrying his own paper, so from those original customers we have second and third generations coming to us for financing,€ Chuck said. €œWe serve a mixture of ethnic backgrounds from all over the Los Angeles area.€
More than 20 years ago, the family business joined the La Popular group of stores, which catered to the Hispanic community. The store has Spanish speaking sales staff, but the cultural customer mix goes way beyond Hispanics. Of the six original La Popular operations, just two remain in business. Nader€™s extended its reach to other customer bases to reflect the markets it serves.
€œOne of the reasons we€™re still around is we adapted and changed,€ Chuck said. €œIf you don€™t change, you die.€
That€™s where shipping containers comes in. Some customers like Nader€™s La Popular so much they don€™t want to deal with anyone else, even if it€™s for family or homes overseas.
€œWe€™ve shipped containers of products to Nigeria, Hawaii, Ecuador, Samoa,€ Chuck said. €œOne family of customers had a home in Nigeria. They liked what we€™d done for them here, so they wanted to furnish that other home with us.€

REACHING THE BASE
Nader€™s La Popular reaches customers through Nader€™s stores in Gardena, Carson and Signal Hill/Long Beach, and a clearance center at its warehouse in Carson. In addition to its namesake Web site, Nader€™s operates separate site, bestofferfurniture.com, that reaches customers throughout the United States.
€œWhat we key upon is the fact we€™ve been in business 56 years,€ said Fred Nader. €œWe€™re family owned, and we have a third generation coming in with fresh ideas. We€™ve listened to them and brought in more modern product.€
The brothers also keep their hands on the customer€™s pulse, managing from the front so they can react fast to shoppers€™ preferences.
€œWe€™re out there talking to the customers, so we€™re able to change the floor quickly if we need to, if there€™s something we find more people are looking for,€ Fred noted. €œCarson€™s a smaller store (than Gardena and Signal Hill), but they still have the same selections, just not as deep.€
From a merchandising point of view, the Carson and Signal Hill stores maintain what Chuck called €œthe best of the best€ of what€™s working at the Gardena location.
€œIf we try something new, we€™ll try it in Gardena before taking it to the other stores,€ he said.
Nader€™s La Popular also is front and center in the communities it serves€”George is a past president of the Kiwanis Club€”and the business is represented in groups such as Rotary, Elks and Lions clubs and chambers of commerce (the Gardena Chamber€™s 2012 Business Partner of the Year); and various charitable efforts (see sidebar: €œLending A Hand€).

SPREADING THE WORD
Nader€™s La Popular is a bit of a maverick relative to a lot of furniture retailers when it comes to advertising. The stores used to run television and radio ads, but have backed off that in favor of more targeted materials and print, including direct mail flyers, newspaper print, Facebook and Twitter, among others.
€œThe ads are going to have more of the promotional goods to get people into the stores,€ George said. €œFlyers still work the best, but we also do some wraps with the L.A. Times. We used to do TV and radio, but nothing works for us like direct mail.
€œWe send e-mails to homeowners, instant credit letters. We still write our own paper, so we want to keep those people coming in. We also offer layaway, so they can pay a purchase off over time; or they can get it if they roll it into and account.€
Those kinds of services were a big help in a tough economy. Another was that the Nader brothers helped absorb its impact on the business.
€œWe hung tight, we didn€™t bicker,€ Chuck said, while Fred added that management took personal cuts in pay that helped the store keep its employees.
€œIt goes back to what Fred was saying earlier,€ George said. €œWe€™ve been here for a lot of people a long time. People will tell their friends, €˜Go see the Naders,€™ and when you€™re in the store, you€™ll see a Nader.€
€œOur focus is working the floor and being a part of the everyday business,€ Chuck reiterated. €œWe€™re definitely hands-on people.€
Even when they aren€™t in the showrooms themselves, the brothers are set up to stay in the loop.
€œWe have video cameras in each of the offices to keep up with what€™s happening on the floors,€ Chuck noted.

SETTING UP TO WIN
Looking ahead, the Naders are gearing up to face a couple of particular challenges they see in the near future.
€œIn the upcoming year, I€™m worried about the cost of importing goods,€ Chuck said. €œI€™m hearing of possible (general rate increases) attached to containers starting Dec. 1 and another coming next year.
€œHolding price is the greatest challenge we€™ll see. The other challenge is the possible strike at East Coast ports. €¦ That would jam West Coast ports and raise the average container price from $3,000 to $4,000.€
Soaring gasoline price in California are another challenge that affect Nader€™s La Popular customers and cost of delivering product.
How to respond?
€œWe€™re loading up our warehouse and trying to get product in before Dec. 1,€ Chuck said. €œWe€™re approaching the busiest six months for furniture retailing, and people who have inventory in stock, especially if they bought it at a good price, are going to win.€
And the store will keep tweaking its approach in search of opportunity.
€œRight now we€™re throwing a lot of (ad) dollars at different avenues we haven€™t tried before€”if one of those kicks we€™ll keep it,€ George said. €œWe€™re throwing money at our (Nader€™s) Web site.  We€™ll get deeper into social media.
€œWe€™ll revisit it all and see what€™s actually kicking for us.€ HFB



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