Mail Bonding

April 30, 2008  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in on May 2008 It’s been a full mail bag with many comments we loved and others that made us sheepishly drop our heads. All the same, it seems as if our bonus issue in February that took a detailed look at the consumer struck a nerve with many of you out there.

In our continued effort to share the good and the bad with you from our collection of letters, here’s what we’ve got for you this month. Boots, the boot salesman in Texas from our March issue, garnered good and bad reviews—a fair and balanced view. Sally, our February 22, issue sparked a good bit of comment.

Read on for more from our readers.

Hey Amy,

Let me make sure I have this right.

You were happy that you were left alone and not bothered while shopping the furniture store after the October market, but you did not buy anything.

You were also happy that someone did wait on you when you were in Dallas shopping for boots; and you did buy something.

Sounds like you consider furniture sales consultants pests and boot salespeople saints.

Next time you are in Birmingham I have a friend with a great shoe store that would love to meet you.

Stuart Shevin
Standard Furniture
Birmingham, Ala.

I loved your story about Bones.

For the furniture industry, we chased Bones out years ago and replaced him with Mr. Price and Mr. I Have No Passion and Mr. I Only Want to Make Fast Money and Mr. I Do Not Want to Give Back Anything to this Industry.

I am Bones as a sales representative. I believe in North American manufacturing; I believe in fashion; I believe in quality; I believe in value; and I believe in impeccable service. And, I believe that this is what it will take to get you to buy that new bedroom set. We need to bring more Bones back into this wonderful industry.

Regards to you, and I’ll keep reading your articles.

Jim McCudden

I once asked our ad agency since consumers call it a couch, why don’t we? They looked at me like I had three eyeballs.

My other favorite is frame and cover. This is used not only in stores, but on manufacturers’ Web sites, too. Wouldn’t we connect better with Mrs. Jones if we said style and fabric?

Mike Vogt
Homestead Furniture Inc.
Nescopeck, Pa.

What can I say? WOW! Probably the most easy-to-read and informative issue I’ve read about consumer purchasing behavior in the seven-plus years I’ve been in this industry.

CONGRATS!

Now, if only the manufacturers and retailers will read it, use it and benefit from it instead of running NO PAYMENTS UNTIL YOU’RE DEAD!

Bill Napier
Napier Marketing Group Inc.

I just wanted to take a minute and share with you my thoughts on your magazine.

We are a recreational products retailer with 14 locations throughout the Midwest. Our product lines include patio furniture, home theater seating, barstools, bars, game tables, spas, pools, pool tables, outdoor kitchens, fireplaces and more. Most of our stores are around 50,000 square feet.

Having been in this industry for many years it is truly a joy to pick up a trade magazine and actually enjoy reading it. Your publication is extremely well-written. Each issue has useful, real life information, which the retailer can directly apply to their business.

Keep up the great work!

Erik Mueller
Watson’s of Cincinnati
Cinncinnati