March 25,
2007 by in UnCategorized 
By Home Furnishings Business in on March 2007
14 Notes from Sheila
16 A Message from Amy
18 Mail Bonding
We’ve got mail!
20 High Society
Take a peek at what transpired at recent industry events.
24 Buzz
The latest in industry news.
28 Retail Tech Talk
By Jo Fleischer
Retailers say they need just enough
technology to stay ahead of local
competition.
32 Future of Technology
By Powell Slaughter
Advances in retail technology available
for the asking.
35 Stop Thieves with Tech
By Howard Whitman
Technology offers ability to eliminate
business theft.
40 What’s Hot
Retailers pick top-selling occasional tables.
46 De Facto Furniture
By Janice Chamberlain
Demystifying the housing myth and how home sales relate to furniture sales.
Hot Seat
BRUCE BIRNBACH, PRESIDENT OF AMERICAN LEATHER, REMINISCES ABOUT HIS FIRST YEAR
AT THE HELM OF THE DOMESTIC LEATHER
PRODUCER, ROLE MODELS AND CHALLENGES.
That quarter-to-
quarter mentality is not a great way to run a business, especially in an industry
like ours that is changing
at such a fast pace.
— Bruce Birnbach
March 25,
2007 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in on March 2007
50 Retail Snapshot
By Powell Slaughter
Pilgrim Furniture City spices up the
furniture shopping experience with fun
entertainment.
58 Business Class
Books, wine and tech tips for moving
your business forward.
62 Getting IT Right
By Ren Baker
Same old actions net same results.
Look forward to new techniques.
64 On Technology
By Jere Richardson
Engage customers and build credibility by using video to showcase success stories.
66 Power Selling
By Kelley Robertson
Avoid the barf factor in the selling process.
68 Green Speak
By Margaret Casey
Sowing the seeds of change at an
eco-friendly High Point Market.
70 Book Review
By Michael K. Dugan
Jeffrey Gittomer’s
Little Red Book of Selling packs a wallop despite its small size.
72 From the Other Side
By Andy Counts
Retailers beware: Flammability issue
relevant to your business plan.
74 Lesson Learned
By Howard Whitman
Security issues and low-cost tips for
protecting your store.
Household
Name
CINDY CRAWFORD CHATS IT UP ABOUT
HER ONGOING RELATIONSHIP WITH ROOMS TO GO AND THE EXPANSION OF HER
PRODUCT LINE.
You can’t be
everything to everyone, but I like a lot of different things, and I’ve lived with a lot of different things.
— Cindy Crawford
March 25,
2007 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in on March 2007
Jesus (JR) Capo, CIO of El Dorado in Miami Gardens, Fla. The retailer currently has 10 stores in the competitive South Florida market. The retailer is a creative merchant, and its Boulevard concept of store design underscores the importance of making furniture shopping fun and entertaining.
Tom Daley, executive vice president and general manager of Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Breuners Arizona. The family-owned and operated four-store retailer is a creative brand builder in its market. The stores make the most of television exposure—including making regular donations to ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition."
Janice Kanter, CEO and buyer for family-owned Theodore’s in Washington, D.C. The one-store, contemporary specialist has made a name for itself in the country’s capital since opening its doors in 1969 by offering sleek, urban designs. The store prides itself on offering a wealth of exclusive lines that have helped earn the store an international reputation for sophistication.
Jerry Kiser, president and owner of Ethan Allen Interiors in Columbia, S.C. The manufacturing-executive-turned-retailer has been in his growing market area for a little more than a year. A recent remodeling project has the store on its way to reaching out to other cities for consumers, and the backing of one of the industry’s strongest retail names makes for a powerful combination.
Shelley V. Sarmiento is the owner and creative director of Annapolis, Md.-based Alister and Ruby Enterprises, a business that operates two furniture showrooms under the name of Alister and Ruby and three women’s fashion boutiques trading under ALiRu Boutique. SNAP, a pre-teen retail concept will be launched later this year. Alister and Ruby recently added a private label fashion division and a wholesale division dedicated to private label bedding and furniture. As the former co-owner of White House/ Black Market, a 140-store chain of women’s clothing stores, Shelley has earned industry recognition for branding and bridging the gap between the fashion and furniture worlds.
Perry Sigesmund, co-owner of Pittsburgh-based Perlora. The two-store retailer offers a unique mix of contemporary and traditional furniture. Its second store, Perlora Leather, focuses on leather upholstery. The creative retailer is known for its in-store events, including happy hours, and is consistently named “Best Furniture Store in Pittsburgh” by readers of one of the city’s newspapers.
Ron Werner, co-owner of HW Home in Denver. A three-location retailer, HW Home takes a lifestyle approach to merchandising and product offering. The creative merchant offers a unique manner of conducting business in upscale stores and is set to open its fourth location later this year.
March 25,
2007 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in on March 2007
Ren Baker is president and CEO of CDS Solutions Group, a technology and retail management system provider. Ren and his team have worked with clients in developing and implementing systems that help streamline their operations and grow their businesses. Ren is a seasoned educator and has participated in numerous training and trade seminars. He has also served as a guest instructor for the Management Development Institute at High Point University by teaching a technology course. Ren can be reached via e-mail at rbaker@CDSgroup.com.
Janice Chamberlain is a 15-year veteran of the home furnishing industry. She has written and provided research for a variety of publications, including Furniture/Today, Home Textiles Today and Home Accents Today, as well as worked with a number of industry analysts and experts. Her specialties include industry research and financial reporting. Janice has a B.A. in English from Albion College, Albion, Mich., and an M.B.A. from Indiana University. She studied business journalism at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Janice can be reached at jchamberlain@northstate.net.
Andy Counts is the executive director of the American Home Furnishings Alliance. Prior to joining the trade association in 1997, Counts had been the project manager for Malcolm Pirnie Inc., a national environmental engineering consulting firm in Charlotte. Prior to that, he had been a senior environmental engineer for the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality in Chesapeake, Va. A native of Marion, Va., he received a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1992. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Young Home Furnishings Professionals. Andy can be reached at acounts@ahfa.us
Michael K. Dugan is currently Chair of the Charles M. Snipes School of Business at Lenoir-Rhyne College in Hickory, N.C. He is also the Alex Lee Professor of Business at the college.
A 35-year veteran of the furniture industry, Dugan was president and chief executive officer
of Henredon from 1987 to 2004. Earlier in his career, he directed marketing and sales at Pennsylvania House for 10 years and co-founded Jamestown Sterling. Mike can be reached at
DuganM@lrc.edu.
Jere Richardson is the vice president of sales and marketing at FMP, a digital media and event production company. FMP works consultatively with clients to help them communicate their message more effectively through the use of a range of communications media. Jere has 20 years of experience in building and managing sales and marketing teams and has worked with a variety of clients from Fortune 500 to small and mid-size companies. Jere lives in West Chester, Pa., with his wife and three children. Jere can be reached via e-mail to jere.richardson@fmpmedia.com.
Kelley Robertson is a professional speaker and trainer on sales, negotiating, customer service and employee motivation. Kelley left the corporate world to start The Robertson Training Group in 2002. Since then, he has worked with dozens of different retailers and businesses. His retail client list includes companies like 1000 Island Duty Free, Crabtree & Evelyn, Conestoga Shopping Centre, Hillebrand Estates Winery, Home Hardware, J. Michaels, Nutrition House, Part Source and Peller Estates Winery. Kelley can be reached at kelley@robertsontraininggroup.com.
Ed Williams, marketing director for the News & Record in Greensboro, N.C., has written about the wine industry since 1990. In addition to a News & Record wine column, he currently contributes to On The Vine, Latitudes, Domicile, Carolina Country and the N.C. Wine Journal newsletter.
March 25,
2007 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Furniture Retailing on March 2007
Following years of delay, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is under intense pressure from congressional critics and various special interest groups to finalize a furniture flammability regulation in 2007. If you are a retailer who has considered this decades-long effort a “manufacturer issue,” you might want to think again.
Last November, the National Association of State Fire Marshals (NASFM) opened another front in this long-running controversy by petitioning the U.S. Department of Transportation to classify polyurethane foam and the furniture containing it as “hazardous material.” If successful, this effort could result in all trucks carrying upholstered furniture being required to meet burdensome hazmat requirements.
NASFM has also initiated a campaign to have furniture stores classified as hazardous occupancies—a move that would result in a host of more stringent building and fire code restrictions for any store housing upholstered furniture. The tactic could result in the closure of hundreds of retail locations.
Why the sudden hardball tactics with the nation’s residential furniture industry?
Over the last three decades, the furniture industry has made great strides in reducing the flammability risks associated with upholstered furniture by modifying materials and construction to better resist ignition by smoldering cigarettes—the leading source of ignition in fires involving upholstered furniture.
Hot Issue
However, the fire marshals and their allies in the flame-retardant chemical industry are focused instead on small, open-flame ignition sources, such as matches, lighters and candles. And solutions currently under consideration for addressing upholstery fires caused by these sources all involve the use of flame-retardant chemicals.
Unfortunately, the flame-retardant compounds used to treat fabrics and cushioning materials are coming under increased scrutiny as carcinogens and environmental toxins. Although the furniture industry remains committed to pursuing greater fire safety, we believe it is critical that we not impose offsetting chemical risks to our customers and employees.
These flame-retardant compounds have been banned or restricted in Europe, and several states are considering similar measures. In February, a senior member of the California state legislature introduced a bill that would ban the use of halogenated flame retardants in products such as upholstered furniture, mattresses and bedding sold in California. The legislation directs the California Bureau of Home Furnishings and Thermal Insulation to amend its current upholstered furniture regulation (TB117) to ensure that complying furniture can be made without the use of suspect chemicals.
Several years ago the Environmental Protection Agency, in partnership with Great Lakes Chemical Company (now Chemtura), removed another widely used and effective flame retardant, penta-bromodiphenyl ether, from the marketplace. Staff from the American Home Furnishings Alliance co-chaired a committee that worked with key stakeholders to identify emerging, less-toxic flame retardants to replace the banned chemical. It appears we may now be challenged to do the same for halogenated compounds.
Get Involved
What can the retail community do to help ensure that any product modifications required by a federal or state flammability standard result in products that are both fire safe and environmentally safe?
First, it is imperative that you make your voice heard. Get face-to-face with the people elected to represent you at the federal and state levels. It takes individual voices with a unified message to effectively communicate our industry’s interests to individual legislators. A unified industry voice is our strongest weapon against some of the onerous regulations currently being debated.
Second, sell only products manufactured in compliance with the voluntary Upholstered Furniture Action Council (UFAC) standard, which the furniture industry developed to make upholstery more resistant to ignition by cigarettes. Do not remove the gold UFAC hangtag, since all of the industry’s safety information encourages consumers to look for this tag when they are shopping for upholstered furniture.
Today our industry spends a lot of time discussing new channels of retail distribution and new business models for manufacturing and marketing our products. However, let’s not lose sight of the fact that despite our diversity, we do have some ongoing issues in common. Were it not for the efforts of the organizations that champion those common interests, especially those who have supported the UFAC over the last several decades, all retailers, manufacturers and marketers of upholstered home furnishings products would today face onerous, scientifically unsound regulations. HFB