Daily News
From Home Furnishing Business
Fast Fact: Furniture Store Fronts Dropped 20%, 2007 to 2018
March 18,
2019 by Laurie Northington in Economic News, Industry 
Over the last ten years, dramatic shifts in the furniture industry’s distribution channels has greatly affected retail in-store counts, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The U.S. became over-stored in many channels during the 1990’s and early 2000’s as developers kept building shopping centers and companies continued opening retail outlets.
The number of brick and mortar furniture stores peaked in 2007 at 27,630 before falling down to 22,052 store fronts in 2018. The 20.2 percent total decline or annual CAGR of 2 percent loss represents the largest decrease of all the key channels 2007 to 2018 Q1.Home furnishings stores did not fare much better, falling 19.4 percent in number over the 10 plus years, but showed a slight uptick in the first quarter of 2018 of 0.3 percent.
During the same time period, 2007 to 2018 Q1, pure electronic shopping and mail order houses surged by 100.9 percent or 6.5 percent annual growth.
For an in-depth look at the distribution channels, click here.