Eric Sinclair was on the road early one weekday in August, crossing wide open spaces on his way from his home near Sioux Falls, S.D., to Aberdeen. It’s a three-hour drive but a journey of 132 years for his family. Sinclair is president of Montgomery’s and the great-great-grandson of George
Like other furniture retailers this summer, Home Furnishings Association member City Furniture has become a rare hot spot in an economy that is, at best, lukewarm. Since the first days of reopening in the coronavirus pandemic, the Florida-based retailer has enjoyed what City CEO Keith Koenig earlier this year described
Home Furnishings Association member Baer’s Furniture will open its newest store Sept. 5 in Jacksonville, Fla. It will be the company’s northernmost store in the state. Construction of the two-story, almost 85,000-square-foot store, across the street from an Ikea, is wrapping up this week. President and CEO Jerry Baer
A lot has changed rapidly in the past six-plus months and left many retailers feeling unsure about what to do to keep momentum for their businesses. The answer is actually quite simple – focus on digital! According to the Global Web Index, social media usage in the U.S. has increased
With a powerful hurricane barreling toward the Texas-Louisiana coast, Howell Furniture closed its three stores Monday as evacuations began. “You don’t know what you’re going to come back to,” third-generation co-owner Shawn Hanley said today. Hanley is in Oklahoma, where her daughter gave birth to a boy Tuesday – a
Massachusetts had some of the strictest COVID-19 shutdown orders in the country earlier this year. Not only was Home Furnishings Association member Rotmans forced to close its doors in Worcester, Mass., but it also couldn’t sell online because its warehouse was forced to shutter, too. But summer has been a
When it rains, it pours. New Home Furnishings Association member Doug Samsen might push back on that old chestnut because, for Samsen and his employees, 2020 has been more like a monsoon. First came the news in March that his Art Van store in Genoa, Ohio, was in peril after
With Preferred Lease, customers who are turned down for credit no longer need to leave empty handed. “We turn the negative experience of a credit decline into a positive, allowing customers to get the product they selected, with no credit needed,” said Robert Reckinger, senior director of business development for
Furniture retailers and manufacturers often develop strong relationships over the years, but the Coconis-England bond is especially strong. It goes back a half-century. Paul Coconis and Dwight England were friends. So, when Coconis needed a delivery for an after-Christmas sale in 1972, England wouldn’t let the fact that he didn’t
If you’ve been in business for a century, you’ve pushed through some hard times. “In the same spirit of overcoming past challenges, we’ve overcome this one,” Darvin Furniture & Mattress President Will Harris said in a recent conversation. Strict stay-at-home orders during the coronavirus crisis kept Darvin’s store in Orland
Sam Rehal was pleased to see $4,000 appear in his bank account the other day. He was also a little
Furniture stores were allowed to reopen in South Carolina this week, with some restrictions. Among them: No more than five
As one of the most creative entrepreneurs in retail furniture, Mary Liz Curtin generates plenty of ideas. But never enough.
Hang around the furniture retail industry long enough, like Joe Milevsky and his staff at JRM Sales & Management, and
Ronald G. Wanek, the son of sharecroppers who built one of the world’s leading furniture companies, has been named a
Congress and the Trump administration are preparing another Covid-19 relief package. The Home Furnishings Association’s Washington representative, Chris Andresen, and government relations liaison Doug Clark
Everyone is trying to figure out what the “new normal” will look like when your stores reopen. What will recovery look like to you and
