What should I order for stock leather on an Austin High Back Tilt Chair?

[Stealthq]

So am I, and I agree with BevoGal. Even better, seeing the Capri on a larger piece should inspire people to take the plunge on a nicer leather on other pieces as well.

[drcollie]

I ordered a chair/ottoman in Capri Butternut today....

[TLoomis]

Hi Duane,

What type of cushions did you order for this Capri Butternut chair? Are they the Q21 Extra firm or the standard? Or, are they standard, extra full?

I'm wondering if I made the right decision ordering this same chair in the Q21 Extra firm. I'm going to have to call you back tomorrow to discuss. I re-read all of the posts here discussing cushions for the Austin 2038 Tilt Back, and it's a little confusing.

Does this Capri Butternut Austin you have in stock sit just the way you like it? It looks like the casings are filled out just perfectly in this chair.

Tami

[drcollie]

Those are standard cores, but keep in mind that chair has just arrived and been sat in only a few minutes. The cores will relax when broken in as we discussed today on the phone.

[Ci2Eye]

Whatever happened with this chair? I saw that it was delivered a couple of months ago so did it sell or is it languishing on the floor collecting dust?

I am still waiting on my chair in the same leather but wondered how this worked out.

[drcollie]

Its in the store...waiting for a buyer.

[needstuff]

The salesperson for my local dealer said they don't order things for the sales floor in the unprotected leathers, because since they are more costly it's a bigger problem if they get damaged.

A consequence of this approach though is their buyers never get to see what a completed piece looks like in one of the nicer leathers, and can't compare them to the protected leathers that are out on the floor. Except for those little swatches.

I don't know if that's really good or bad though, from a sales perspective. On the one hand, if a customer can't see an unprotected leather on a completed piece, they might be less likely to comprehend the difference and then order one. On the other hand, with no highest-end leathers on the floor, there is no ready comparison to make them disatisfied with the protected leather piece out on the floor that they can actually afford. So they might be more likely to buy that one, vs. maybe not do anything if they can't afford "the good one". Or it could work the other way too I suppose, they might conclude that for them the difference wouldn't justify the cost difference, or they prefer the protected one. Whereas working with just a swatch this may not have been so clear.

From a customer's perspective though, it would be helpful to have examples of as many different options as possible available to check out. Not just with respect to various leathers, but also the different cushion options, for example.

But that doesn't mean that upcharge features have to be on the biggest piece on the floor, in the highest-trafficked area.
Just someplace, on a completed piece that's there. Could be the smallest, cheapest piece, but for the leather. Just so they can have something bigger than a swatch that can help them realistically extrapolate what their piece might be like in that leather.

I guess one needs to sell that floor model at some point too, and not have it sit forever due to sticker shock while waiting for it to get damaged. So whatever gets ordered with upcharge features on spec probably best be a particularly desirable furntiture+ leather combination which has widest appeal. Whatever that might be.

That's what makes sense to me.

But I don't sell furniture, so what do I know.

[needstuff]

By the way, that same chair that my local dealer had on the floor in a Tier 1 leather was being displayed at a nearby Baker Store in Quintessence. So evidently not everybody shares their philosophy about what they put out on the sales floor.
I was wondering why the Baker one was so much more costly. Now I know.

If you do have the "higher tier" items out, it's probably best to not have those be your only ones. Buyers should be made able to clearly tell that the cost is attributable to the particular features of that item, not because your store is a price-gauger.

[drcollie]

I put a mix on my floor so I can show a range of leathers and find that works well. If folks want to see a Document - I have it on a Kodiak sofa. If they want Capri, its on the Austin Tilt Back Chair. Cavalier? On the Austin Sofa. A lot of stores are very adverse to putting on better leathers as the price goes up and they literally are 'trained' by their customers to keep prices as low as possible on a sign - consumer price resistance is a Very Big Deal. But you know if car dealers were like that, you'd never see a Corvette at the Chevy dealer, just Cruize's.

The first assumption I make is that my customers are intelligent and can sort things through in their minds, so I don't need to insult them by thinking a red Day-Glo sign with the lowest possible price is necessary to do business. The next thing is that its all about Choices. And I have to give folks a range to choose from. My experience is that when shown the top level leathers, very few customers will then go the basement ones. Once you see and touch Capri - Document seems just yucky. I run the same margins on the low end leathers as I do the high end ones, so it really makes little difference to me which they select, but I do want to expose them to the broad spectrum they have available to them. Finally, I get bored to death looking at painted hides, YUCK.

Oh, and for the record, I brought home my new H&M Office Chair in Quintessence today for my home library. I'm sitting in it for the first time as I type this and its MAGNIFICENT. My 20 year old Bradington Young office chair was due for retirement. it served me well, but this new H&M 1452 Bailey is just wonderful.

[needstuff]

Maybe it's more like both dealers have Corvettes, but one has the base model and the other has a fully loaded model with the upgrade trim packages, 20-way Bose speakers, moonroof, etc. And of course the pricing is lots different. But they look similar when you look at them (especially in isolation), and they both say they're Corvettes.

FWIW, in the case of one particular consumer-me- I was a lot more accustomed to differential pricing for various options on cars than I was with furniture leather options. I saw the less costly chair first, and when I saw the second one, which was so much more, I did think at first that maybe that store was a non-no and the first chair was so much better a deal. Then I thought "maybe it's the leather, then "no, It couldn't possibly make that much difference". Then I found this forum. But lots of people probably don't take that extra step.

I agree consumers are intelligent and can sort things out, but they need to have the information to do so. Since they may not be fully informed, it's probably best to help them get there. Like maybe on the tag for the upcharge item write "CAPRI LEATHER (GRADE 4) in caps, or something. Just so they are alerted right when they see the tag that there is something particular about this, that may have something to do with its pricing. The tag I saw said "Quintessence" but that meant nothing to me at the time I saw the item.

Anyway that's my reaction to this, based on my recent experience as a fledgling consumer.

Rant out.