November 1,
2010 by in UnCategorized 
By Home Furnishings Business in Community/Charitable Support on November 2, 2010
LifeStyles Furniture in Moline, Ill., will be a major sponsor for the Holiday Hat Bash, an annual fundraiser to raise money for area assisted seniors.
The event, set for 5:30-8 p.m. on Nov. 18 in nearby Davenport, Iowa, will raise money to buy holiday gifts and food baskets for assisted seniors throughout the Quad Cities.
The Holiday Hat Bash requests attendees to wear home=made or non-home-made hats to the bash. Both serious and comical themes are encouraged. Attendees to the event can take part in outstanding appetizers, wine, beer, great music and raffle prizes. Furniture and seating will also be made available. New for this year's bash are a cigar bar and hat contest, which will feature prizes.
At last years 2009 Holiday Hat Bash, LifeStyles Furniture participated as a Top Hat Sponsor providing premium leather seating for the event with Kathy Ireland Home by Omnia Leather furniture as well as Ekornes Stressless leather furniture. The store also donated a Stressless recliner, which was raffled off for the charity that evening.
This year the store will again be providing high-end seating for the Holiday Hat Bash in 2010 for all attendees in the way of premium Omnia, Ekornes and Stressless modern home furnishings throughout the evening. LifeStyles Furniture will again provide a donation of furniture for raffle. This year's donation is an Elite Manufacturing bar set.
While walk-ins are welcome, online pre-registration, which is recommended by Nov. 12, is available at HolidayHatBash.com by clicking on RSVP and filling in information. A hat worn by those attending is requested but optional. Admission is a tax-deductable donation at the door of $20, which goes to raising money for food baskets and holiday gifts for area seniors in the Quad Cities. For additional details including registration information call 563.265.1428.
November 1,
2010 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Case Goods on November 2, 2010
Medium to high-end casegoods manufacture
r Leda Furniture has re-launched a newly updated Web site.
The new site offers an expanded catalog browsing experience to better inform visitors. Leda combined its two separate residential and office contract sites into one site. The office contract category now includes not only Leda designs but also images of custom projects, plus newly created categories for seating, common area and conference room furniture.
The site also also a sub-category showcasing hotel and hospitality projects Leda has completed.
We wanted the office contract section to showcase our strong custom capabilities for office, hotel and institutional work, said Marco L. Confalone, president.
Consumers can access product details and the site offers the ability to specify cross-category collections, and highlight multiple finish options. The new site also has a dealer locator.
We wanted the Web site to work not only as a resource for consumers but also a tool to assist sales reps and retailers on Leda product and information, Confalone said. We are very excited about our website and the responses we have already received from it. We took our time to develop a site that we could be proud of and is helpful and easy to use for any online visitors."
October 31,
2010 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in on November 1, 2010
No doubt, consumers these days remain antsy. They havent yet come back in full force as all in the retail and consumer products world would like. They continue to hold their money close and part with it often begrudgingly; even for items that can provide joysay a new sofaonce in the home. For the most part, the consumer remains in a holding pattern in a similar mindset to that she held last year.
External factors continue to weigh on her mindreal estate woes, jobless concerns, mid-term elections and a fragile economy that keeps sputtering. Ponder the external matters for a moment, swirl it around and think like a consumer.
Yes, shes price sensitive, but shes also hungryhungry for a welcoming, cozy home. A place that allows her to wrap her family in a safe, secure environment that keeps the scary stuff out. The question is whether or not youre communicating with her that your store can help furnish that safe haven.
Traditional marketing by retailers in my market continues to hawk price, price, price, as if thats the ONLY thing the consumer has on her mind.
Is price a relevant piece of the puzzle? Yes, but its not the only piece that we need to be addressing.
In the last few days, the latest catalog and other marketing materials from Ethan Allen have landed in my mail box. Lo and behold, a fresh approach on communicating with consumers. The retailer that has staked its claim on an everyday pricing strategy has a somewhat new message for consumers.
Instead of banking on consumers that can walk through the door and dish out money for an entire room or two of furniture, accessories and window treatments for 40 percent off, Ethan Allen is spreading the word that redecorating doesnt have to be done at once.
Imagine that. A reasonable approach to creating a a beautiful, welcoming home. A message on target with where many consumersa number under budget constraintsare today. One of Ethan Allens online magazines and printed collateral features an opening image of a slipper chair with a headline that urges A great room starts with a great piece.
Flip the page, and inside youll see a bold headline saying Relax. You dont have to do it all at once.
Ahhhhhhhh, not only are there beautiful images throughout, but the messaging almost gives consumers permission to take some time in furnishing their homes.
For those consumers who are time-starved instead of cash-strapped, the message relieves some of thedare I sayterror in furnishing their homes.
In this issue, we take a look at the consumer, where her mind is and what that means for furniture. One of the top roadblocks in purchasing furniture? Fear of making a mistake.
Shes afraid shes screw it up and then be stuck with a sofa or bedroom suite or dining group that she doesnt like, doesnt fit or isnt really her style.
Inside, youll find in-depth analysis on where the consumers mindset is this year, how other furniture retailers are talking to her and drawing her in to shop. Youll also find information from industry experts on why shes tunneled into a hole and when we can expect her to come out for some sun.
Your job is to ensure your store and employees are ready when she emerges.
October 31,
2010 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in on November 1, 2010
Furniture retailers and manufacturers alike will feel the teeth of a law that grants the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) additional powers and funding to police unsafe products.
The Consumer Product Safety Improve-ment Act (CPSIA) became law in 2008 under President George W. Bush. The legislation responded to widespread recalls of childrens toys and jewelry containing lead.
According to the American Home Furnishings Alliance (AHFA), CPSIA radically changes the way that consumer products are manufactured, especially childrens products, and presents numerous challenges for the furniture industry, especially regarding potential complications arising from product-testing requirements and content.
Take lead for example. CPSIA originally banned any accessible part of a childrens product containing lead in excess of 300 parts per million as of August 2009; that limit will drop to 100 ppm in August. The ban is retroactive for products already in wholesale and retail inventories. The problem, AHFA says, is it essentially makes childrens beds and chests illegaldue to the nails and screws holding the pieces together.
CPSIA also reduced the level of lead allowed in paints and coatings for all household furniture from 600 ppm to 90 ppm, also retroactive. Manufacturers must destroy non-compliant goods, and retailers must pull those products or face criminal penalties.
Product testing requirements under CPSIA dictate that childrens products must be tested by a third-party, CPSC-recognized lab in order to obtain a Certificate of Conformity for each piece.
AHFA worries about those requirements effect on manufacturers cost-competitiveness: This creates a disadvantage for smaller manufacturers who cannot spread the cost of testing over millions of products and creates a competitive disadvantage to U.S.-based companies who must use U.S.-based testing facilities that are more expensive than foreign-based testing facilities.
The Good News
The good news is that the furniture industry is working hard to make its voice heard among those who make the rules, and some regulators appear open to listening.
Nancy Nord, for example, whos served as a CPSC commissioner since May 2005 and served as acting CPSC chairman from July 2006 until May 2009, spoke alongside several furniture executives at an AHFA-sponsored panel discussion during High Point Market examining regulatory impact on the industry.
Nord told the audience that new regulations defining testing and how often its done would lead to an unprecedented federal intrusion on the factory floor.
As a regulator ... it is absolutely critical that we hear from those of you who make the product, sell the product, use the product, and live with the regulations we make, she said. Back in 2007 there was a deplorable lack of quality control among several major players in the toy industry who were sourcing out of China. Congress rightly acted.
Noting that new lead content regulations included other products besides toys, including furniture, Nord observed, Were not seeing the kind of quality control issues (in furniture) that inspired this law.
I consider that with the furniture industry, were going beyond where we need to go. Congress had a legitimate concern about lead ... but to require everything to be tested for lead goes too far beyond, also third-party testing. This legislation has unintended consequences.
She came away from her first visit to High Point impressed with the industrys own efforts to produce safe products.
I strongly believe that we folks who write legislation need to get out of Washington and see where the products are being made, Nord said, adding that her showroom visits illustrated some of the challenges manufacturers face in testing childrens products: I was impressed at the Lea showroom how hard it is to determine whether (a product should be) under those regulations. The manufacturer has to make the decision at the design and manufacturing level, and as a government regulator I can second-guess those decisionssay youve made the wrong oneand that leads to gotcha regulation.
Building a Dialog
Taking a government is the enemy attitude is counterproductive when it comes to dealing with regulators, said Kevin Sauder, president and CEO of Sauder Woodworking, and a member of the furniture market panel.
We, manufacturers and retailers, tend to think of the government as someone doing something to us, he said. When I started to get over that attitude and be productive and work with the government, I got a whole new attitude toward regulations.
He noted that from 1985 through 2000, Sauder sold 27 million television stands.
We thought we were serious about safety, but still had 28 litigations and three product recalls for tipovers, he said. From 2000 to 2010, we sold 25 million television stands with zero litigations and zero recalls.
If you can point out things that are common sense like exempting testing lead in particle boardthere is no lead in particle boardyou can make an impact. We did some of the same things with the California Air Resources Board (CARB) on formaldehyde standards. CARB II will eventually become the the nationwide EPA standard. Going from a reactive mode (regarding regulation) to a proactive mode, getting to know the process and the regulators, can really make a difference.
Sligh Furniture Chairman and CEO Rob Sligh, another panel member, said the furniture industry cares about people and the environment, and voluntarily works hard to ensure product safety.
While voluntary action is our center stone, government has an important role in our lives, he said. The public good of market competition depends on well-defined property rights, contract rules and a legal infrastructure. We appreciate a government that shoulders its important responsibilities.
That doesnt mean well-intended laws and regulations can do more harm than good, and Sligh cited Californias Proposition 65 as an example.
Under Prop 65, companies selling furniture into California must either prove through scientific testing that exposure over a lifetime to products containing listed chemicals does not heighten the risk of cancer; or product displayed in California must carry a warning label saying, This product contains a chemical known to the State of California to cause cancer, he said. Failure to comply carries a fine of up to $2,500 a day. Last I heard California added to their list over 700 chemicals that, in large quantities, can increase the incidence of cancer in humans.
Lets be honest. The trace amounts of chemicals in our furniture (for example in the glue in veneer substrates) does not have an adverse effect on human health. ... Its like the boy who cried wolf. When there really is an important danger, its reasonable to wonder how many people will listen.
Sligh would like to see some changes in the governments approach to lawmaking and regulation: Making the establishment of a context for relative risk a required part of the law and rule-making processes; and requiring in those processes that compliance costs be estimated and assessed in relation to the anticipated risk reduction.
Paying a lot to reduce an important risk can make sense, Sligh said. Paying a lot to reduce risk only a little may not make sense. Its important that the cost-benefit trade-offs are openly assessed.
All of us in the home furnishings industry do a lot of things to voluntarily improve safety.
For example, Slighs voluntarily building of counterweights into its file cabinets, and use of locking systems that allow only one file drawer to be pulled out at a time, help prevent tip-over injuries; as does its StrongArm, which holds flat-screen televisions in place above TV consoles.
Product safety features are benefits that are noticed and appreciated by customers, Sligh said. That motivates voluntary action. This view is widely held in our industry: That is, safe products are good for business. HFB