Final Days at The Keeping Room

[drcollie]

I didn't time my retirement correctly, its taking me longer than anticipated to sell off the floor stock. And my building sold MUCH quicker than anyone had thought it would. It was projected to take 1 year to sell, it only took 6 weeks to go to contract. The new owner took possession of the property early March and we moved upstairs then while he renovated the downstairs. Well, he's done downstairs and wants us out of the upstairs ideally by June 1st. I totally understand, he's ready to open his new store and I need to go.

This has put me in a bind. I still have at least (50) pieces of furniture to clear out and about 2 weeks to do it. I've marked things down to below cost to clear it out. I could use some help from the forum members here - just tell your friends and neighbors, the items I have are very high quality and now at ridiculous prices. I cannot store sold items as my warehouse space is terminating June 10th and the store will be closed by them as well.. So its cash n' carry (we deliver locally) - its got to all go.

What does not sell goes to either auction or to charity. I'd prefer not to do that, because this is my money invested in these pieces, not some big corporation that easily writes off losses, this is part of my retirement funding (as you probably guessed, there are no pensions from The Keeping Room). But either way, its going....

Some of the best pieces (those from Hancock and Moore). will just go to my basement at home, those I will not give away, nor accept ridiculous offers on. An example of a ridiculous offer would be one I got the other day... $ 800 for a recliner that sells for $ 3,279. Not going to happen....I'll use that recliner at home instead (it's currently marked $ 1,799 in the store)

Come by and take a look, I still have lots of expensive Wildwood lamps I am selling at huge markdowns for example, as well are art work and smalls. The last chance!

[Jeff_G]

Hi Duane, first congratulations on your retirement. You had a great run! I understand that people may want to take advantage of this final sale period. I remember that you encouraged your customers to make offers for the remaining inventory, yet not too low to be unreasonable. I just wonder in these final days, if a customer offers 20% off your stick price for your remaining items, do you think it is ok? We just know where the ball park figures will be. Thanks

[Judyg951]

Hi Duane, Congratulations on your well earned retirement. I hope that you are able to sell most if not all of your remaining floor stock. I know you can't ship them, but really wish I could buy some of your lovely lamps. Oh well, hopefully you will be able to sell them. I'n glad you have a place for your remaining H&M pieces.

[drcollie]

I'm open to all offers at this time, the key is the pieces have to be out of the store by June 1st. 20% is doable off sticker price on most items. Keep in mind credit cards cost me 3% to process, so if you pay cash/check I am more open to deeper discounts.

I am talking to two auction houses right now and will hand over all remaining stock to them at some point as well.

[shortgamewizard]

Hey Duane, I had hoped you would be around a little longer. I have a side business that is about to pay off for me, and I wanted to buy all of my furniture from you but it would probably
not be before August. Is it a possibility to order through you from Hancock & Moore or Sherrill and have these shipped from them to me? I wanted to send you off in style!! I appreciate
all of the work you put into this site and all of the time it takes to answer all of our questions, you did it well.

[drcollie]

Thank you for support!

One of my goals is to not carry my business into 2025 as that creates an entire new tax year which means a $ 5K accounting bill, $ 2K in BPOL Taxes, monthly IRS Filings and State Tax plus contribution to State Unemployment Fund as well as FICA and Medicare, (and monthly Sales Tax) plus a Business Insurance Policy. Since some orders can take up to 6 months to complete, I don't want to take orders in August that may not deliver until January. I could do it and require final payment before Dec 31st, but that's not fair to you to pay in full and an order may not yet be in production, that's why I have done the June 1 cutoff. Plus I will be disconnecting my business phone line which has close to 40 spam call every day - and that's not right for customers to not be able to call me and have to rely on email.

Hancock and Moore does not want me to disappear and ride off to the sunset (its nice to be loved!) so they may come up with a way for me to help with orders and they do billing or run through another dealer. They may be able to have it all figured out by August.

[shortgamewizard]

Thank you for support!

One of my goals is to not carry my business into 2025 as that creates an entire new tax year which means a $ 5K accounting bill, $ 2K in BPOL Taxes, monthly IRS Filings and State Tax plus contribution to State Unemployment Fund as well as FICA and Medicare, (and monthly Sales Tax) plus a Business Insurance Policy. Since some orders can take up to 6 months to complete, I don't want to take orders in August that may not deliver until January. I could do it and require final payment before Dec 31st, but that's not fair to you to pay in full and an order may not yet be in production, that's why I have done the June 1 cutoff. Plus I will be disconnecting my business phone line which has close to 40 spam call every day - and that's not right for customers to not be able to call me and have to rely on email.

Hancock and Moore does not want me to disappear and ride off to the sunset (its nice to be loved!) so they may come up with a way for me to help with orders and they do billing or run through another dealer. They may be able to have it all figured out by August.

I totally understand your position Duane, I think it's cool that H&M doesn't want to lose you, I think that speaks volumes. I would be totally fine with having payment to you before the end of the year, even if the
order comes in 2025. Also, e-mail is fine with me, I just don't want to give this order to anyone else.

[Judyg951]

I totally understand your position Duane, I think it's cool that H&M doesn't want to lose you, I think that speaks volumes. I would be totally fine with having payment to you before the end of the year, even if the
order comes in 2025. Also, e-mail is fine with me, I just don't want to give this order to anyone else.

I'm right there with you on ordering from Duane. I placed my Boho chair order earlier this week as I wanted to get it in before he closed off ordering. The sale from H&M was a nice extra as well. Now we wait for the leather to come in and the chair to be made. I'm really excited about this one. Its going to be a gorgeous chair.

[shortgamewizard]

I'm open to all offers at this time, the key is the pieces have to be out of the store by June 1st. 20% is doable off sticker price on most items. Keep in mind credit cards cost me 3% to process, so if you pay cash/check I am more open to deeper discounts.

I am talking to two auction houses right now and will hand over all remaining stock to them at some point as well.

Duane, if I have an order in by June 1 when is payment due?

[drcollie]

I do 25% as a deposit, and balance when it ships. Then you pay the delivery company directly for their fees. Most orders placed now will ship before December, but some of the Italian burnished leathers are slow-shipping and a few others such as Capri are having long lead times due to color consistency issues.

Bottom line is any order had to be fully paid off by December 30th 2024 so I am not carrying bookwork and balances into 2025.

Again, it's important to note that I will no longer have a physical store after June 15th, 2024. A few customers are freaking out about that and demanding my home address and personal phone number and to them I say "Please buy from someone you are more comfortable with". A few more (very few) have called Hancock and Moore already and saying they can't reach me and I may have taken their money and run off with it. Everyone at H&M just rolls their eyes at that one, then H&M calls me on the regular store number 703-360-6399 to which I will answer and we laugh about that.

To be sure - I don't need anyone's money bad enough to steal it. Good Lord.....