Slowdown on Buyers

[drcollie]

Usually our industry sees a busy period in the stores starting around January 15th and lasting until the end of March. Of course, nothing has been normal since the pandemic and this is no exception. Traffic and calls, and even forum posts are noticeably down. Our store is super-full of inventory, we are packed tighter now with stock than we have ever been.

We have one of the big juggernaut stores thirty miles south of us, and a sales rep that covers our store and theirs said they are on Order Hold and not buying any new inventory, because they - like us, ordered heavily last summer and fall. Where are we going to put it all? Rent more warehouse space?

So Sarah and I made the decision to cancel about half our incoming floor inventory and did so. It was painful to do, because we bought it all two prices increases ago, but we felt it was wise to do so.

My guess is with Covid easing, folks are planning vacations and the like rather than going after furniture for staying home, but it’s just a guess.