Interesting tidbit I found in one of the Furniture trade magazines (Furniture Today, Aug 2, 2018). Before the 2008 Recession, the TOP 100 dealers in the country sold 56 % of all furniture.

After the Recession that number skyrocketed to 79% of all sales. That means little stores nationwide now account for just 21 % off total furniture sales.

And prior to to 2008, the Top 100 were 50% of all sales and gained to 55% by 2007. So that tells us a couple of things.

1) Small stores could not weather the Recession and were wiped out.

2) The trend in new furniture is to buy large lots to achieve maximum discount, then warehouse them and blow them out. Then repeat. This is going to be mostly Chinese and offshore product, that comes in containers and is warehoused. That's how the big guys are getting bigger.

Little stores like mine cannot compete in that market, and instead focus on better USA-made product that is more custom-made and higher quality. That's a niche market the big furniture stores don't want to be bothered with as it cannot generate big numbers, takes more time per customer to make a sale, and requires a higher quality sales staff.