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Definitely think some of the older stores that have been doing things a certain way for so long will have to change the way they do business. A local furniture store salesperson told me in an email that H&M was closed until the end of May. Their store has been closed, so they might not know about the reopening, but you would think there would be some communication with customers during the down time. The ones that do are mostly chain stores.
HA! Well, to be fair to the store personnel you were speaking with, Hancock and Moore has not told their dealers they are back open via email blast or through the sales reps, it's all been crickets. I'm pretty relentless is pestering them however, so I found out by emailing certain individuals in their organization. They are not running at full capacity, from what I can ascertain they are about at 50%, so they may be delaying an announcement until a later time. They have been shipping however, as I have had four orders ship this week off their loading dock and am getting regular acknowledgements for new orders.
Del Starnes, CEO of Taylor King and I had a good conversation yesterday. Dell said they are back to 100%, all their workers are in place and they have no Covid-19 in their facility (and its been remarkably absent overall in that part of the country he tells me). Del further told me that he was really happy to get Taylor King back up and running, that he never realized how much he missed the symphony of pneumatic staplers popping, the fleet of sewing machines humming and frames being malletted together. Taylor King is his "Family", he missed all his staff and associates while they were closed, and said he went around to each one in the factory to welcome them back and see how they were doing. Del's a good guy that loves what he does and takes pride in the organization he runs and that's a good thing.
Production times as well as delivery (shipping) times are going to be difficult to nail down for the time being, however. Everything is very fluid in both manufacturing and shipping, so if you have something on order please be patient. I'm sure everyone knows this and I don't really have to remind them as the whole country is like this right now. I'll always be glad to make a phone call and check on an order in process.
Hi Duane, I am looking for updates on the H&M build times, in particular the JIT program. Had a reply from a local store tell me over the weekend it would be 4 weeks to order a recliner on the program, but in another post about a sectional, you mentioned 8 weeks. Also, this store wants 100% paid up front to order. No way we would do that right now. Thanks for any updates.
Are manufacturers running sales at all right now? I ask because the place I am buying my dining room and bedroom set from is technically closed but I can go in by appointment. If the stores are closed are they updating sales?
Our stores are open but very limited. I talked to one furniture store that is selling but not taking special orders for a couple of weeks. Another store claims to be running a tax sale but it is not posted and they want 100% up front to take an order. Would love to buy something already in stock vs ordering if we could find it.
In stock would be ideal for me but I think everything i have left to buy is going to be at least an 8-12 week wait...so I need to get on that even though I'd like to wait and see how sales shake out but I'd also like to have bedroom furniture by Christmas LOL. At least I have a mattress coming by next week so we can actually move to our new house. This has been an interesting situation moving during all this
Anyone that says they can give you a definite on shipping and arrival dates really is just guessing or making it up. The Truth is that there are so many finely tuned aspects of getting something like a recliner out the door, no one has any idea. Does Leggett and Platt have the mechanisms to ship out? Are the foam producers running a full staff? How about the leather suppliers, are they shipping? How many came to work today at Hancock and Moore and how many are too afraid of Covid 19 to return so soon? And then, once it gets shipped, how is the truck line or delivery company staffed? Are they running loads on a regular basis (most are not). It's all very fluid and likely to be for some time. I've had lots of conversations about delivery times, and right now the best answer I have is 8 weeks for all product if all the components are available for the build. Then double the normal transit time. Overall, plan on 3 months, and it may get there sooner - if so that's a bonus. What everyone is trying to avoid is that phone call from the client that begins with "You said "X" weeks and it's been "Y" weeks, where is my furniture?" Better to be conservative on estimated times than over-promise and under-deliver.
100% Prepaid orders is ridiculous. That's a sign that the business is floundering and your money is at risk if you agree to that. At my store, deposits are always 20% unless something is so custom that is being ordered that would prevent it being sold on the floor should the client not be able to complete the order, then its 50%.
You confirmed our thoughts. Thanks for your honesty and transparency.
1. As a customer I would appreciate some standardization in the industry. Instead of each company making 200 chairs - make 4 or 5 models but make these models customizable - like how plush it is, or how deep it is, or adjustments based on height of the user. Fewer models also increases the likelihood that you would have run into that model in real life in one of your friends house or at your doctors office or .. .
2. Credibility becomes a lot more important once you are buying things unseen - so sites that post honest critique, recommendations etc might have a huge advantage earning my business.
3. As a buyer I would expect the seller to do a lot more recommending compared to earlier - to understand my needs and then recommend something based on that.
Rather than Zoom (which requires you to be there at a specific time) think a youtube channel where you review or walk through some furniture piece in meticulous detail might find a lot of appeal. For instance check out what these guys do for cars - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgU...f-1uKOqG8XNcaQ . If you could do something similar for furniture then you might tap into a newly developed audience who wants to buy furniture but suddenly cannot experience it first hand. So if you did an indepth review and then did a limited time group buy of that piece then that could work.