Point of fact: "Shopper cadence" is just where shoppers are moving and stopping and looking at things. It does not mean their voices. They are not capturing your voices.
In other words, it's just a fancy way of saying "heat map", so stores know what's selling and what needs more attention. You know, a thing all stores do anyway if they actually want to stay in business.
You know how a store knows what's selling? By doing inventory. You don't need to have cameras fucking tracking your customers.
My dude every store already has cameras tracking customers
and they have for years
This is just a fancy heat map. It is really not that big of a deal. They're not using nanomachines in your skin and tracking you with biometrics.
Well they aren't with me because I have this hat made out of an amazing material protecting me...
It also helps that you have special brainwaves because you're your own grandfather.
Dedicated furniture retailers seem to be stuck in one of two ruts: They're either absurdly overpriced or they sell cheap plywood shit. Art Van is solidly in the first. While shopping for a new dining room table, my wife fell in love with one there, but it was $1100. The manufacturer sold direct and with shipping from them it was $450 with four chairs (which were an extra $250 each at Art Van). We actually ended up buying a set that Art Van had for almost $3000 because it was $850 elsewhere.
They've got to run some whole stores on the markup of a table and two lazyboys a day, and with even Michigan (once upon a time the cheapest place in the US to live) seeing property sales tank because boomers want to get decades of project investment back out of their dream homes, there's not that much demand to feed.
On the other side from their markups, Art Van also tried to run an honest business while everyone around them is doing the constant "going out of business"/"reopening a suspiciously identical store under new management but it's the same guy" cycle, perpetually passing off fake discounts as last-chance mega-liquidation. You can buy a $1000 table at Art Van, or you can go across the street to American Freight Liquidator who's going out of business for the fifth time in four years and get a similar table for $995, but *that* one says it was originally $2000 (spoiler alert: It was also $1000) so it's a way better table, right?
Yeah, it's not really a grand time to be a furniture store, especially in here in Michigan. What with the boomers trying to unload McMansions and contents into an already over-saturated market that can't afford either, well... there's just more out there than people know what to do with, and nobody's buying.
I mean, at this point the people buying have been knocked down to buying Ikea and other build-your-own kits because they can't afford a freaking $1000 table. If Art Van had been able to understand that millennials can't fucking afford $10k of furniture for an apartment, maybe they'd be just fine. But now, well... too late for them.
We bought a new family room set there in November. The accent chair was a special order, 8-10 week delay. As its been 16 weeks, I think we won’t be getting it.
Went in today and got store credit for it, turned it around to a different one and a rug, and still have $100...
I mean it's the same thing as Toys R' Us. Yeah furniture is not a great business line to be in and they may have expanded a bit too aggressively. But this is a direct result of the private-equity firm loading Art Van with the debit from the sale. Whether they'd make it another 10-20 years if Archie Van Elslander hadn't sold? Who knows, same with Toys R' Us; though usually you see store closings like with Blockbuster or GameStop when a retail company is having a hard time of it.
There's no point in closing under performing stores for the private-equity firm, the sooner they can get to bankruptcy the sooner they can get paid.
EDIT: I'm glad to hear the employee's treated you right though. If I showed up to work after a decade plus and was told I was out of a job, I might have just walked out.
The flip side to actual hardwood furniture is that it actually holds up for a long ass time; factors like humidity, bumping, spills and other things won't have near the effect on a proper oak table then it would on some particle board piece of crap and as such you can give pieces like that to your kids when they move out as opposed to having to replace them every couple of years.
Doesn't do jack shit for some kid who's fresh out of college and looking to furbish his first appartment though.
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Kane Red RobeMaster of MagicArcanusRegistered Userregular
The flip side to actual hardwood furniture is that it actually holds up for a long ass time; factors like humidity, bumping, spills and other things won't have near the effect on a proper oak table then it would on some particle board piece of crap and as such you can give pieces like that to your kids when they move out as opposed to having to replace them every couple of years.
Doesn't do jack shit for some kid who's fresh out of college and looking to furbish his first appartment though.
Except kids moving out are going to places that can't fit full sized hardwood furniture.
Yeah, this Art Van thing really came out of nowhere, seems like.
Also seems as though they’re already down to floor models.
Based on knowing 2 other people that had outstanding orders, I’m guessing the warehouse has been pretty bare for a while as inventory has been dropping and any special orders were just not being fulfilled.
Thank jeebus we got all 3 pieces of our sectional.
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Ninja Snarl PMy helmet is my burden.Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered Userregular
It really doesn't help that wage stagnation and the shift of money towards upper management salaries means that a) the common way to get a decent payraise is just to switch jobs, which can often mean moving, and b) it's pretty hard to justify paying the cost of a new car for outfitting a home when people are struggling to afford just the car already.
People want to buy decent furniture, they just don't want to have to take out a damn loan to do it. Which is the exact opposite of what all the skeezy furniture stores have set themselves up to do; they want to force everyone from cheap junk to expensive junk, with nothing reasonable in between.
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MortiousThe Nightmare BeginsMove to New ZealandRegistered Userregular
The flip side to actual hardwood furniture is that it actually holds up for a long ass time; factors like humidity, bumping, spills and other things won't have near the effect on a proper oak table then it would on some particle board piece of crap and as such you can give pieces like that to your kids when they move out as opposed to having to replace them every couple of years.
Doesn't do jack shit for some kid who's fresh out of college and looking to furbish his first appartment though.
Except kids moving out are going to places that can't fit full sized hardwood furniture.
That's where we are now. My mom wanted to give me a 10 seat dining room table and a 4 piece lounge suite now that she's downsized and there is no way we can fit either of those let alone both. (also I don't have enough friends to fill them up)
And she doesn't want to sell them even though comparable pieces are priced like cars, they're crazy expensive.
But they survived several children without a scratch so if you can afford them they're worth it.
The flip side to actual hardwood furniture is that it actually holds up for a long ass time; factors like humidity, bumping, spills and other things won't have near the effect on a proper oak table then it would on some particle board piece of crap and as such you can give pieces like that to your kids when they move out as opposed to having to replace them every couple of years.
Doesn't do jack shit for some kid who's fresh out of college and looking to furbish his first appartment though.
This is true, but is also my point about the absurdly overpriced side of the market. That table we first fell in love with, as well as the one we eventually got? Neither of them were solid hardwood. The table we ultimately got at Art Van was $3,000 for four middling quality wood chairs and a glorified kitchen countertop with hardwood legs, pressed plywood with laminate on top.
It's a price you'd expect of a solid oak monstrosity, but at least in Saginaw Art Van has very little to offer of that quality level.
Edit: Well, *had* very little, to add to what Doctor Detroit said, this was clearly planned way ahead even if it was only announced at the last minute, because the supply chain must be totally empty. In Saginaw the main Art Van warehouse is still open, but their showroom on Tittabawassee today was a dirty floor with a few damaged floor models left and no employees in sight, and their Flint store is already closed after both customers and employees became "unruly" enough to prompt police response. I've never seen even a tiny retailer empty out in only a couple days like that, even the tattered remains of our skeletal K-Mart held on for a solid month while the liquidation company sold off the ceiling tiles and light fixtures.
The flip side to actual hardwood furniture is that it actually holds up for a long ass time; factors like humidity, bumping, spills and other things won't have near the effect on a proper oak table then it would on some particle board piece of crap and as such you can give pieces like that to your kids when they move out as opposed to having to replace them every couple of years.
Doesn't do jack shit for some kid who's fresh out of college and looking to furbish his first appartment though.
This is true, but is also my point about the absurdly overpriced side of the market. That table we first fell in love with, as well as the one we eventually got? Neither of them were solid hardwood. The table we ultimately got at Art Van was $3,000 for four middling quality wood chairs and a glorified kitchen countertop with hardwood legs, pressed plywood with laminate on top.
It's a price you'd expect of a solid oak monstrosity, but at least in Saginaw Art Van has very little to offer of that quality level.
Edit: Well, *had* very little, to add to what Doctor Detroit said, this was clearly planned way ahead even if it was only announced at the last minute, because the supply chain must be totally empty. In Saginaw the main Art Van warehouse is still open, but their showroom on Tittabawassee today was a dirty floor with a few damaged floor models left and no employees in sight, and their Flint store is already closed after both customers and employees became "unruly" enough to prompt police response. I've never seen even a tiny retailer empty out in only a couple days like that, even the tattered remains of our skeletal K-Mart held on for a solid month while the liquidation company sold off the ceiling tiles and light fixtures.
...if you are still interested in a solid oak monstrosity, my in-laws are downsizing and moving out of an old Victorian in Midland...
Nah, we downsized ourselves and are suffering for space at the moment - new house is bigger the old, but no basement or shed hurts and apparently my mother-in-law stayed the weekend and that was three months ago now and she hasn't left so that's nice.
The laminate is actually nice right now, though, because it's impervious to toddlers. Everything else will probably kill it in 5-10 years but by then they'll stop playing cars or drawing on it when we're not looking.
Apparently there was an almost full blown riot at the Warren location in addition to the fight at the Flint store. Both have closed down early. I'm shameless about picking over the corpses of dead retailers for bargains but people are kind of ridiculous about this.
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Ninja Snarl PMy helmet is my burden.Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered Userregular
Furniture is insanely expensive, doesn't surprise me that people might flip out over saving potentially thousands of dollars in trying to buy a decent couch or table.
I dunno, some good furniture is weirdly cheaper than expected, given the cost/utility ratio of other household items.
Marty: The future, it's where you're going? Doc: That's right, twenty five years into the future. I've always dreamed on seeing the future, looking beyond my years, seeing the progress of mankind. I'll also be able to see who wins the next twenty-five world series.
I dunno, some good furniture is weirdly cheaper than expected, given the cost/utility ratio of other household items.
If you go through other channels than old style showroom dealers, furniture prices are generally not that bad, but there's twin pitfalls of plywood flatbox kits and the chintzy furniture-as-art garbage you see at places like AtHome or Gordman's, in addition to the standard sight-unseen problem if you order online.
There's still decent warehouse dealers, Michigan has seen an invasion of this place called American Freight, which is basically just a maze of large boxes with displays crammed in between. Think Ikea but stocked with the same stuff as Art Van.
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Gabriel_Pitt(effective against Russian warships)Registered Userregular
Furniture is insanely expensive, doesn't surprise me that people might flip out over saving potentially thousands of dollars in trying to buy a decent couch or table.
Especially not when people just starting out also probably have educational debt on their minds. Bind an expensive ass set of furniture, or go cheap and use the rest of that money for paying the stuff that's got your life balance in the negative.
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ButtersA glass of some milksRegistered Userregular
Furniture sales is a racket that is rife with intentionally misleading pricing and information. I was fortunate enough to get an honest sales person when I was furnishing my first house and she revealed to me a few things I never imagined. For one, that the MSRP listed on the manufacturers website is often arbitrarily inflated to a level that pretty much no one pays; so unless a piece is marked for closeout it's rarely actually discounted from the seller's perspective. Example: the couch I bought was listed on the manufacturer's website to have an MSRP of like $4000 but it was never on the floor for more than like $2500.
Also, the discount percentage raises for event sales are fake. Price tags are typically in those little plastic sleeves because they're changed out for events with a new tag that has the same sale price as before but with a higher MSRP (which again is made up) to make the discount look bigger. You aren't actually saving any money by choosing to buy on President's Day versus any other day.
Finally, a lot of models are exclusive to the dealer making it difficult to compare prices between different stores even with product lines that have the same name. This makes mattress buying especially frustrating when you look at a product line at one store and then the same line (same manufacturer) vary by hundreds of dollars to another store. The prices are so much different because they aren't the same product despite having the same name. They probably have different product model numbers/keys but that key is likely exclusive to the seller.
I get all my furniture from IKEA and it's pretty great.
Amazon is also pretty great for furniture. That's especially true when you get brand names in the furniture stores and then find them at 30 percent of the cost online.
It's like shopping at Barnes and Noble for what you want on Amazon, just you don't feel guilty doing it.
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DaimarA Million Feet Tall of AwesomeRegistered Userregular
Finally, a lot of models are exclusive to the dealer making it difficult to compare prices between different stores even with product lines that have the same name. This makes mattress buying especially frustrating when you look at a product line at one store and then the same line (same manufacturer) vary by hundreds of dollars to another store. The prices are so much different because they aren't the same product despite having the same name. They probably have different product model numbers/keys but that key is likely exclusive to the seller.
This is so furniture stores can put out those ads which say "we cannot be undersold, we will beat any competitor's price by 10%" because those products only exist at that specific chain. The Brick has an almost identical mattress from Sealy for example as Leon's, but they have a different name and one feature is slightly different which means no one can find a competing, identical product that is cheaper.
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ButtersA glass of some milksRegistered Userregular
I get all my furniture from IKEA and it's pretty great.
I have some ikea furniture I am pleased with but ikea sells some shit that I wouldn't pay half their retail price for. The rectangular adjustable height desks I got from them are nice and sturdy but the L-shaped ones I wanted from the same product line (similar price) could be knocked over by a bedroom fan they were so wobbly.
Furniture sales is a racket that is rife with intentionally misleading pricing and information. I was fortunate enough to get an honest sales person when I was furnishing my first house and she revealed to me a few things I never imagined. For one, that the MSRP listed on the manufacturers website is often arbitrarily inflated to a level that pretty much no one pays; so unless a piece is marked for closeout it's rarely actually discounted from the seller's perspective. Example: the couch I bought was listed on the manufacturer's website to have an MSRP of like $4000 but it was never on the floor for more than like $2500.
Also, the discount percentage raises for event sales are fake. Price tags are typically in those little plastic sleeves because they're changed out for events with a new tag that has the same sale price as before but with a higher MSRP (which again is made up) to make the discount look bigger. You aren't actually saving any money by choosing to buy on President's Day versus any other day. Finally, a lot of models are exclusive to the dealer making it difficult to compare prices between different stores even with product lines that have the same name. This makes mattress buying especially frustrating when you look at a product line at one store and then the same line (same manufacturer) vary by hundreds of dollars to another store. The prices are so much different because they aren't the same product despite having the same name. They probably have different product model numbers/keys but that key is likely exclusive to the seller.
The bolded is super illegal where I am (although that's not to say it doesn't ever happen). The italics stuff, though, is legal and does happen.
It's super illegal a lot of places, but virtually impossible to actually prove is happening. "What the very ethical salesperson told me," is at best hearsay, of course all the numbers reported by every company in the supply chain are 100% accurate and correct.
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ButtersA glass of some milksRegistered Userregular
Hearsay that makes perfect sense because why would a store lower their profit margin over a meaningless holiday? They wouldn't because that's ridiculous if you actually think about it. The moral of the story is most of the time the "sale price" is actually just the price. If it's not on clearance (because the item is expiring or proved over time it can't be sold for the desired profit) then it's more likely just a retail gimmick.
Makes perfect sense and there's articles all over the internet about how it works and hell I can tell you exactly how a Harbor Freight used to do it (they changed things up about 4-5 years ago so it's both MUCH more obvious and MUCH harder to hold accountable), but there's also the legal equivalent of a Nobel or Pulitzer in it for you if you actually win a case in court on it, because plenty of retailers have successfully defended themselves on it, at best there's been a handful settled rather than go to court but I can't find even one successful case that wasn't a settlement before discovery, the paper trails are *very* well covered, to the point that many corporations delude themselves on the books as much as they strive to delude customers.
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ButtersA glass of some milksRegistered Userregular
No less than half of the products on Target's shelf are "regularly" more than the permanent "sale price."
The flip side to actual hardwood furniture is that it actually holds up for a long ass time; factors like humidity, bumping, spills and other things won't have near the effect on a proper oak table then it would on some particle board piece of crap and as such you can give pieces like that to your kids when they move out as opposed to having to replace them every couple of years.
Doesn't do jack shit for some kid who's fresh out of college and looking to furbish his first appartment though.
Yeah, the basic problem is that it's kind of like the Vimes Boots thing. Real solid furniture is a long-term investment but is thus very expensive. Cheap crap from IKEA on the other hand, doesn't last that long before looking kinda shitty but is very affordable. This sets low expectations for the price of furniture and makes it a big jump from the entry level stuff to the good quality stuff, which makes the business of selling real actual good furniture more difficult.
See, this is why I get my furniture either used on Craigslist or the like, or at antique stores. I furnished a house 15 years ago with beautiful antique oriental and art deco furniture for under $2,000 and it's still in pristine shape and it'll last forever. If I'd tried to do the same even at Ikea, it would have cost three times as much and been kindling after five years.
I submitted an entry to Lego Ideas, and if 10,000 people support me, it'll be turned into an actual Lego set!If you'd like to see and support my submission, follow this link.
This is why I'm getting into woodworking and investing in tools.
I'll make my own furniture that lasts! I probably won't actually save all that much money, but fuck I'll know if it sucks that it was me that ripped me off.
See, this is why I get my furniture either used on Craigslist or the like, or at antique stores. I furnished a house 15 years ago with beautiful antique oriental and art deco furniture for under $2,000 and it's still in pristine shape and it'll last forever. If I'd tried to do the same even at Ikea, it would have cost three times as much and been kindling after five years.
Real good kindling too since it's made out of wood pulp and oil products
Sticking oil in it made it cheaper but it last 1/3rd the time of actual wood furniture and burns faster and hotter
See, this is why I get my furniture either used on Craigslist or the like, or at antique stores. I furnished a house 15 years ago with beautiful antique oriental and art deco furniture for under $2,000 and it's still in pristine shape and it'll last forever. If I'd tried to do the same even at Ikea, it would have cost three times as much and been kindling after five years.
Estatesales.net
I found a card catalog that was available the same month we closed on the condo. I just need to print out labels to make it the most organized liquor cabinet ever.
This is why I'm getting into woodworking and investing in tools.
I'll make my own furniture that lasts! I probably won't actually save all that much money, but fuck I'll know if it sucks that it was me that ripped me off.
Doing the same. I wanted some shelving units so I can finally unpack the rest of my stuff, but the ones I was looking at cost $texas, so I decided I would build something instead. Two months later, I still have no shelves, but I have $montana in tools and clamps...
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AthenorBattle Hardened OptimistThe Skies of HiigaraRegistered Userregular
edited March 2020
I'm enjoying the conversation, as I grew up with a mom who loved shopping consignment stores for all her furniture.
Edit: Damn, the thread title can only be 90 chars but the field lets you put in 95 or so. That's annoying.
The flip side to actual hardwood furniture is that it actually holds up for a long ass time; factors like humidity, bumping, spills and other things won't have near the effect on a proper oak table then it would on some particle board piece of crap and as such you can give pieces like that to your kids when they move out as opposed to having to replace them every couple of years.
Doesn't do jack shit for some kid who's fresh out of college and looking to furbish his first appartment though.
Yeah, the basic problem is that it's kind of like the Vimes Boots thing. Real solid furniture is a long-term investment but is thus very expensive. Cheap crap from IKEA on the other hand, doesn't last that long before looking kinda shitty but is very affordable. This sets low expectations for the price of furniture and makes it a big jump from the entry level stuff to the good quality stuff, which makes the business of selling real actual good furniture more difficult.
In my opinion, if you can't afford real solid furniture then "cheap crap from ikea" and whatnot is actually the best way to go. You need to put your stuff and your ass in/on something and middle-priced furniture lacks the kind of structural features that make higher end stuff last so much longer.
Also, I definitely agree with @ElJeffe on used and antique pieces. I've bought a lot of stuff on craigslist, facebook marketplace, and at consignment shops I've been happy with.
The flip side to actual hardwood furniture is that it actually holds up for a long ass time; factors like humidity, bumping, spills and other things won't have near the effect on a proper oak table then it would on some particle board piece of crap and as such you can give pieces like that to your kids when they move out as opposed to having to replace them every couple of years.
Doesn't do jack shit for some kid who's fresh out of college and looking to furbish his first appartment though.
Yeah, the basic problem is that it's kind of like the Vimes Boots thing. Real solid furniture is a long-term investment but is thus very expensive. Cheap crap from IKEA on the other hand, doesn't last that long before looking kinda shitty but is very affordable. This sets low expectations for the price of furniture and makes it a big jump from the entry level stuff to the good quality stuff, which makes the business of selling real actual good furniture more difficult.
In my opinion, if you can't afford real solid furniture then "cheap crap from ikea" and whatnot is actually the best way to go. You need to put your stuff and your ass in/on something and middle-priced furniture lacks the kind of structural features that make higher end stuff last so much longer.
Also, I definitely agree with @ElJeffe on used and antique pieces. I've bought a lot of stuff on craigslist, facebook marketplace, and at consignment shops I've been happy with.
EncA Fool with CompassionPronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered Userregular
Re: furniture costs, it depends. Your MDF fiberboard mass market stuff applies to most of what I've seen on here. A couch or table in the 3 grand range tends to be the better bargain in the long run though. A hardwood, craftsman-quality high-end couch will survive 80 years or more with only needing reupholstery of a couple hundred bucks every decade or so. Most of what you buy in the 800-1800 range at places like Rooms to Go and Ashley are essentially the same things you can get off of Amazon or at Ikea for 150-400 (specifically, mdf and fiberboard composites, assembled cheaply (if at all) with weak stress points that will eventually give even with careful care). Over the same time you end up paying more.
It's one of those things that allows the rich to stay rich with the Sam Vimes Theory.
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It also helps that you have special brainwaves because you're your own grandfather.
Art Van Store Closings furniture bankruptcy liquidation
They've got to run some whole stores on the markup of a table and two lazyboys a day, and with even Michigan (once upon a time the cheapest place in the US to live) seeing property sales tank because boomers want to get decades of project investment back out of their dream homes, there's not that much demand to feed.
On the other side from their markups, Art Van also tried to run an honest business while everyone around them is doing the constant "going out of business"/"reopening a suspiciously identical store under new management but it's the same guy" cycle, perpetually passing off fake discounts as last-chance mega-liquidation. You can buy a $1000 table at Art Van, or you can go across the street to American Freight Liquidator who's going out of business for the fifth time in four years and get a similar table for $995, but *that* one says it was originally $2000 (spoiler alert: It was also $1000) so it's a way better table, right?
I mean, at this point the people buying have been knocked down to buying Ikea and other build-your-own kits because they can't afford a freaking $1000 table. If Art Van had been able to understand that millennials can't fucking afford $10k of furniture for an apartment, maybe they'd be just fine. But now, well... too late for them.
I can has cheezburger, yes?
Went in today and got store credit for it, turned it around to a different one and a rug, and still have $100...
There's no point in closing under performing stores for the private-equity firm, the sooner they can get to bankruptcy the sooner they can get paid.
EDIT: I'm glad to hear the employee's treated you right though. If I showed up to work after a decade plus and was told I was out of a job, I might have just walked out.
Doesn't do jack shit for some kid who's fresh out of college and looking to furbish his first appartment though.
Except kids moving out are going to places that can't fit full sized hardwood furniture.
Also seems as though they’re already down to floor models.
Based on knowing 2 other people that had outstanding orders, I’m guessing the warehouse has been pretty bare for a while as inventory has been dropping and any special orders were just not being fulfilled.
Thank jeebus we got all 3 pieces of our sectional.
People want to buy decent furniture, they just don't want to have to take out a damn loan to do it. Which is the exact opposite of what all the skeezy furniture stores have set themselves up to do; they want to force everyone from cheap junk to expensive junk, with nothing reasonable in between.
That's where we are now. My mom wanted to give me a 10 seat dining room table and a 4 piece lounge suite now that she's downsized and there is no way we can fit either of those let alone both. (also I don't have enough friends to fill them up)
And she doesn't want to sell them even though comparable pieces are priced like cars, they're crazy expensive.
But they survived several children without a scratch so if you can afford them they're worth it.
It’s not a very important country most of the time
http://steamcommunity.com/id/mortious
This is true, but is also my point about the absurdly overpriced side of the market. That table we first fell in love with, as well as the one we eventually got? Neither of them were solid hardwood. The table we ultimately got at Art Van was $3,000 for four middling quality wood chairs and a glorified kitchen countertop with hardwood legs, pressed plywood with laminate on top.
It's a price you'd expect of a solid oak monstrosity, but at least in Saginaw Art Van has very little to offer of that quality level.
Edit: Well, *had* very little, to add to what Doctor Detroit said, this was clearly planned way ahead even if it was only announced at the last minute, because the supply chain must be totally empty. In Saginaw the main Art Van warehouse is still open, but their showroom on Tittabawassee today was a dirty floor with a few damaged floor models left and no employees in sight, and their Flint store is already closed after both customers and employees became "unruly" enough to prompt police response. I've never seen even a tiny retailer empty out in only a couple days like that, even the tattered remains of our skeletal K-Mart held on for a solid month while the liquidation company sold off the ceiling tiles and light fixtures.
I wonder if once those ran out, they were promised with delivery...
...if you are still interested in a solid oak monstrosity, my in-laws are downsizing and moving out of an old Victorian in Midland...
The laminate is actually nice right now, though, because it's impervious to toddlers. Everything else will probably kill it in 5-10 years but by then they'll stop playing cars or drawing on it when we're not looking.
Doc: That's right, twenty five years into the future. I've always dreamed on seeing the future, looking beyond my years, seeing the progress of mankind. I'll also be able to see who wins the next twenty-five world series.
If you go through other channels than old style showroom dealers, furniture prices are generally not that bad, but there's twin pitfalls of plywood flatbox kits and the chintzy furniture-as-art garbage you see at places like AtHome or Gordman's, in addition to the standard sight-unseen problem if you order online.
There's still decent warehouse dealers, Michigan has seen an invasion of this place called American Freight, which is basically just a maze of large boxes with displays crammed in between. Think Ikea but stocked with the same stuff as Art Van.
Especially not when people just starting out also probably have educational debt on their minds. Bind an expensive ass set of furniture, or go cheap and use the rest of that money for paying the stuff that's got your life balance in the negative.
Also, the discount percentage raises for event sales are fake. Price tags are typically in those little plastic sleeves because they're changed out for events with a new tag that has the same sale price as before but with a higher MSRP (which again is made up) to make the discount look bigger. You aren't actually saving any money by choosing to buy on President's Day versus any other day.
Finally, a lot of models are exclusive to the dealer making it difficult to compare prices between different stores even with product lines that have the same name. This makes mattress buying especially frustrating when you look at a product line at one store and then the same line (same manufacturer) vary by hundreds of dollars to another store. The prices are so much different because they aren't the same product despite having the same name. They probably have different product model numbers/keys but that key is likely exclusive to the seller.
Amazon is also pretty great for furniture. That's especially true when you get brand names in the furniture stores and then find them at 30 percent of the cost online.
It's like shopping at Barnes and Noble for what you want on Amazon, just you don't feel guilty doing it.
This is so furniture stores can put out those ads which say "we cannot be undersold, we will beat any competitor's price by 10%" because those products only exist at that specific chain. The Brick has an almost identical mattress from Sealy for example as Leon's, but they have a different name and one feature is slightly different which means no one can find a competing, identical product that is cheaper.
I have some ikea furniture I am pleased with but ikea sells some shit that I wouldn't pay half their retail price for. The rectangular adjustable height desks I got from them are nice and sturdy but the L-shaped ones I wanted from the same product line (similar price) could be knocked over by a bedroom fan they were so wobbly.
The bolded is super illegal where I am (although that's not to say it doesn't ever happen). The italics stuff, though, is legal and does happen.
Yeah, the basic problem is that it's kind of like the Vimes Boots thing. Real solid furniture is a long-term investment but is thus very expensive. Cheap crap from IKEA on the other hand, doesn't last that long before looking kinda shitty but is very affordable. This sets low expectations for the price of furniture and makes it a big jump from the entry level stuff to the good quality stuff, which makes the business of selling real actual good furniture more difficult.
I'll make my own furniture that lasts! I probably won't actually save all that much money, but fuck I'll know if it sucks that it was me that ripped me off.
Real good kindling too since it's made out of wood pulp and oil products
Sticking oil in it made it cheaper but it last 1/3rd the time of actual wood furniture and burns faster and hotter
Gotta love our use of oil!
Estatesales.net
I found a card catalog that was available the same month we closed on the condo. I just need to print out labels to make it the most organized liquor cabinet ever.
Doing the same. I wanted some shelving units so I can finally unpack the rest of my stuff, but the ones I was looking at cost $texas, so I decided I would build something instead. Two months later, I still have no shelves, but I have $montana in tools and clamps...
Edit: Damn, the thread title can only be 90 chars but the field lets you put in 95 or so. That's annoying.
In my opinion, if you can't afford real solid furniture then "cheap crap from ikea" and whatnot is actually the best way to go. You need to put your stuff and your ass in/on something and middle-priced furniture lacks the kind of structural features that make higher end stuff last so much longer.
Also, I definitely agree with @ElJeffe on used and antique pieces. I've bought a lot of stuff on craigslist, facebook marketplace, and at consignment shops I've been happy with.
That's the Sam Vimes Theory of Economic Injustice, more commonly known as the Vimes Boot Theory, in action.
It's one of those things that allows the rich to stay rich with the Sam Vimes Theory.
/former high-end furniture salesperson