Slowdown on Buyers

[Inconceivable]

Now we regret those cancellations! We are low on stock, having had a wave of buyers who want something quickly. We are scrambling to find inventory, even our inbound stock has been purchased by clients not wanting to wait until Fall. I will have to see if Hancock and Moore can sell us some of their High Point Market stock (Market is first weekend in April), but its probably already been sold.

I have no explanation for the slow start in 2022, then brisk sales the past three weeks. War in Ukraine, Covid easing, Stock Market on a see-saw - it's hard to time it all out and figure what's what. This I can tell you for sure though - if you even think you want something for Fall, you need to order it now. I'm already projecting October deliveries for orders placed this month. Production times are definitely not improving.

Uncertain times indeed. Glad the business picked up...maybe you can "un-cancel" those prior orders but that seems unlikely. Will the store be open on Saturday April 2nd and will you be there given the show is going on?

Thanks,

Jason

[drcollie]

Oh no, once we cancel and order - its gone because the "old" orders were done at lower price points.

Yes, we will be closed Saturday April 2nd and be at the High Point Market that day and Sunday.

[Inconceivable]

Oh no! Well that is unfortunate. Any chance you will be open on the Monday, April 4th?

I only ask because my wife and I have tickets to fly into Reagan airport on Friday April 1st at 6:40 pm and leaving Tuesday April 5th in the morning. We are making this trip to DC just to visit your store! We are actually staying at the Hampton Inn down the street from the store.

Please let me know if you opening Monday is not an option and we will change our plans.

Thank you!

[drcollie]

We are always closed Sundays and Mondays (will be driving back from Market Sunday evening), however I will be glad to come and open the store for you, just let me know what time you want to arrive.

[Inconceivable]

Wow Duane....My wife and I really appreciate it.

We are excited to visit Mount Venon but The Keeping Room was our main reason to visit. We haven't seen more than 4-5 H&C pieces in a store and most of it is T&C group 1. I understand why they stock those items but the sales people don't bring anything to the table. They often don't even know what the model is on their own showroom floor let alone what type of seat cushion or what leather a given piece is...quite discouraging.

We would prefer to come in the morning but don't want you to have to wake up on your day off. We can settle on a specific time as we get a little closer but we do want to be respectful of your time.

Thanks so much and looking forward to meeting you in person!!

[drcollie]

Surely! I will plan to be here at 9:30 a.m. on Monday, which is when we usually open. Mt. Vernon is just a few miles away from the store. I think we currently have around (50) Hancock and Moore pieces on the floor.

See you then.

[Inconceivable]

Safe Travels this weekend!!!

Hopefully lots of juicy news on the T&C and Your Way programs....and new leathers!!!

Either way the pictures are always fun and educational.

My wife and I are both looking forward to meeting you in person at the shop on Monday (9:30 is perfect). Our only experience with an unprotected leather is Tilton Lager haha.

Thanks again so very much for opening the store on your day off and after a long weekend. Extremely appreciated!!

[SueCT]

Curious, why do you say "haha" about Tilton Lager? It is still in the lineup. Didn't you like it?

[drcollie]

It will be a busy weekend, see you Monday.

Interesting aside on this original thread..... Truck drivers know EVERYTHING that is going on at every store. My regular driver tells me that stores have far too much inventory right now and no where to put it, and its backing up at their terminals. Buying furniture was red-hot a year ago, so what did all the stores do? They ordered based on that premise and now the product has arrived and their stores and warehouses are full. So full in fact, they cannot accept delivery. One store operator near me (will not name them) has nineteen trailer loads of product for one location, twelve for another on 53' tractor trailers at the freight terminal and can't accept them. That is a LOT of product. Another store north of us had four trailers full they can't take.

So...it will be a good opportunity to buy off the floor for most everyone. These pieces were ordered 6 to 12 months ago, so they are at least two price increases older, the stores need to move product - you will see some good prices on showrooms for existing stock. Take advantage of that while you can, because we are still seeing price increases on new orders, there is no letup in shipping costs especially with fuel costs what they now are.

I saw this coming, being small means we can react fast, and cancelled half our incoming floor stock before we were committed to take it, and our store is full. We probably will not buy a lot at Market this weekend because I am not sure what demand will be in the next 6 to 9 months, my guess is a slowdown and so we will be very conservative in stock purchases.

[Inconceivable]

I said haha because tilton lager is the ONLY unprotected leather my wife and I have experienced in person...and that was after a 3 hour drive. We have been to 3-4 stores and they may only have 2-3 H&M pieces at most and always in the JIT Married cover protected leathers or maybe in the grade 1 T&C handle.

The Keeping Room is going to have all kinds of new leathers for us to experience and we are excited to learn about them in person from Fearless Leader.

We very much liked the tilton lager...I was surprised to learn it was a pull-up. It seems there are mild ones (mostly South American I think) and more pronounced ones (seemingly Italy like Tiburon and Tuscany). The feel of the tilton was so different from all the other protected leathers we have sat on...very very excited to feel other unprotected ones!!!

We very well could end up with tilton lager!!! Unforunatey it's no longer in the group 1 handle but that's ok...it's the last unprotected left in any T&C handle from what I can tell.

Cheers SueCT!!