Alternative retailers are on a roll
Carole Sloan -- Furniture Today, August 18, 2003
Yours truly has been immersed for some time in the Top 25 retailer rankings for furniture and bedding, and there are at least two things that stand out.
The first is that 12 of the 25 top furniture retailers in this country are not what the marketplace generally considers "conventional" furniture retailers, by which we mean traditional full-line furniture stores.
That should say something to everyone involved in the furniture business. And even though many retailers are cloistered folks, not given to looking hither and yon, the conventional guys need to look around. They're being surrounded by competition.
We used to call non-furniture store merchants "alternative" retailers, but there's nothing alternative about them now. Especially when many are national in scope, have a lot more traffic than conventional furniture stores and price significantly differently — in many cases much lower — than the conventional contingent.
And yes, the landscape is sprouting with more and more outlets of the nation's No. 1 furniture retailer — also the world's largest retailer, period — Wal-Mart. Put Wal-Mart's business together with that of its sibling, Sam's Club, and you've got a $2 billion-plus gorilla. Not exactly something anyone would like to tickle under the chin.
This colossus quietly has intensified its furniture offerings, well beyond its earlier low-ball, market-upsetting leather pricing. You now can buy $1,000 leather offerings on its Web site, as well as an expanded furniture selection across the board.
In its back-to-school circular a week or so back, Wal-Mart did a full-page room setting on dorm living that would rival any furniture or department store, a fully furnished room, down to the kid enjoying it all.
Watch out, folks, the gorilla is on a roll. Sounds like its time for a lot of retailers to take a "road trip," or at least keep a close eye on what their real-world competition is up to.
