I'm going to retire my Flexsteel dealership.

The stuff from China they have is CRAP. I was taking one apart yesterday (to move upstairs in my showroom) and I really started to look hard at the interior of it. If they could make this any cheaper I don't know how.....they actually use Poster Board (like you use in school projects), cover it with the cheapest closed cell foam you can imagine (glued on) then cover that with a leather hide. That's the entire back of the Chinese made Latitudes recliner!

I found that poster board used all inside the piece, and cheap foam used all over it. That's disgusting to pass that off to a consumer. When that paper poster board absorbs some humidity over time, it will simply degrade and lose what little rigidity it has. I don't want to sell that in my store.

I know, I know, I have some misguided ethics where I can't sell what I don't believe in, like I take everything personally. Bad for business, but good for sleeping through the night. I effectively cut myself off from those customers that will not, or can not buy in the quality product price tiers however, so that's not a good thing.

The Chinese-made Flexsteel Leather Recliner sells for $ 879. The Hancock and Moore that is made in the USA of the right stuff for twice that and it will last 4 x as long. Even though $ 879 seems like a lot to some, it can't buy a decent leather recliner. I fight that battle every day with almost every customer trying to convince them to spend a bit more and get something worth having.

Cheap furniture is just cheap, nothing else.

Next trip through here that the Flexsteel Rep makes I'm going to have him pick up the catalogs and samples and take me off the website as an Authorized Dealer. I just can't tolerate the cheapness of Flexsteel construction. I'm know I'm bucking the trend in not selling inexpensive furniture but and will lose those sales to another dealers but I just can't do it in good conscience.

Duane