Quote:
Originally Posted by Carla B
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.
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.
|
Yes. That was the name of the developer’s furniture store. Thanks for the reminder.
In 2013, when we bought the turnkey from the original owner, I was told by a friend that when the southern most area of Lake Sumter Landing was being built, there was a “deal” to be had with the developer’s furniture store where the new buyers could choose a percentage of the cost of the house in furniture……
(It is possible that I have no idea what I am talking about
because we were not the original owners of the house. But what I do know is the furniture was nice. It was coordinated from room to room, and it had come from the store in LSL.)
That part of TV was being built at the time when the housing bubble was popping in the rest of the country, so maybe the furniture thing was part of an incentive. I don’t actually know. I don’t think TV suffered greatly from the housing bubble’s ending, but as sales slowed in other places, it must have had some kind of slowing effect on TV. (But, again, I might have no idea what I am talking about.)
There has always been a huge markup on retail furniture, but, even so, I guess it was not profitable enough for TV to continue in the market.
I always thought it was too bad that Southern Lifestyles went away and was replaced by what is there now. I guess it must be more profitable to rent the space out instead of selling furniture.
Btw, I heard recently that the millennials are now wanting “brown” furniture, aka, cherry, mahogany, etc., and are looking for the good stuff, at second-hand stores or auctions or at Grandma’s house.
If you would like to see what is happening with second-hand stuff and you are sitting in a waiting room or an airport or anywhere with time to burn, you might want to take a look at ebth.com which is
Everything But The House — an online auction site based in the ‘burbs of Cincinnati. Lots of different categories of things up for auction, sight unseen, but good descriptions and photos, some of it excellent, some of it quite hideous, all in the eye of the beholder.
Boomer