Shopping by price instead of quality

[drcollie]

Recently a nice couple came into the store looking for a pair of Kitchen Island Stools. We keep a display of Hancock and Moore ones, but they were not at all interested once they saw the price tags. They asked me what else I had at a lower price point? We had both Hooker Furniture and Woodbridge as imports that still build a decent piece, they were half the price of the Hancock and Moore, coming in around $ 800 to $ 900 each. Still too expensive, they said "What do you have for around $ 350 each?" And I replied "Sorry, nothing, because at the retail they will be loose and coming apart in 12 to 18 months, and that's not an area we are interested in, durability is always a key to the lines we represent".

Then I went on to explain to them that in most modern kitchens, the two Stools are typically used every single day, sometimes multiple times and have a lot of stress on them. Not only are they an elevated chair, by simply using them they slip in and out from the counter - which combined with the movement and height, puts enormous pressure on that leg-to-frame joint. If that joint is not done properly, the glue bond breaks and the wobbling begins, with eventual failure of the piece. And of course I go on and tell them that barstools, the master bed, the daily use sofa and recliner, plus kitchen chairs are not the place to economize. If you have several rooms to furnish and a limited budget, go lesser quality on things like bedroom chairs (mostly used to toss clothes upon), formal living room, or guest bedroom furniture. Even the formal dining room can be down-market because they are used infrequently. Put your dollars into the daily use items.

Then back to the barstools, I got into the joinery with them a little and tried to keep it short so they didn't get an overload of information. The best joints are Mortise and Tenon with a through cross pin in the mortise. Those will last for decades, but few do them as they are labor intensive. Next best is a dowel joint with corner brace, they are the industry standard for most better made furniture and will hold up well. Pocket hole joints are next, involving screws driven into the frame member on a simple Butt Joint. After that we get into some questionable joinery that is bound to fail such as biscuit joints or simple lap joints with screws / staples with glue. Wood glues do a good job until you put twisting motion on the joints, then they break down. Every scoot back on a barstool is that twisting motion. To see examples of these various joinery types with images go here:

https://mtcopeland.com/blog/types-of-wood-joints/

They thanked me for my time and left, they had to stick to that lower budget price point. But that's OK, I get that. Sometimes you have a top limit on what you can spend, but they almost certainly they will be buying them twice. They will find the lesser priced stools somewhere, they will last a few years and fail - and then they will say to each other "Remember that guy at that furniture store we went to that told us that would happen? Where was that store again?"