The developer's store in Sumter Landing was called Southern Lifestyles. It was fun to go there and wander the store looking at the way the displays were beautifully set up. It was so disappointing when the developer closed the store and then leased space in Sumter to City Furniture. Having window shopped City Furniture a number of times in South FL, I already knew what to expect. Haven't been there to this day.
When we moved here we needed a lot of furniture. We picked out a bedroom set at a store in South FL that was reduced 50%. Southern Lifestyle advertised they would match any competitor's price in FL provided we gave them the SKU # so they could verify the price. We did and they agreed to match. But, their freight charge would be at the rate as if it were shipped from the South FL store to our house, rather than from the factory. It was over $500. So, I called Babette's, asked if they represented that manufacturer and would match the 50% off, which they would, and told them the quoted freight charge from Southern Lifestyles. Babette's answered that they would charge us $0.00 delivery. That response earned for them many more purchases from us. This occurred as the Great Recession was underway and they were anxious for business. As the economy recovered they have steadily raised their prices to where my husband doesn't even want to go there.
Another observation, when China got into making furniture, the quality went downhill. Among our purchases in 2008 were a couple of large Bernhardt LR/DR pieces. Bernhardt, while not known for being of the best quality, were supposed to be decent manufacturers. These pieces seem to have been finished with something like hairspray applied over factory dust.
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