Taking store deliveries to new heights in Miami
Jerry Epperson -- Furniture Today, April 28, 2003
Every few years, The Wall Street Journal runs an article about how long it takes to get furniture. Some six or eight years ago, one of the paper's writers noted that it took nearly 10 months to get her new sofa.
The article was highly critical, so I called her and found out she'd ordered a high-end, fully customized, to-the-inch sofa. When asked, she admitted her decorator had experienced difficulty getting the imported fabric. It took more than seven months to get the cover, then it sat for "a week or two" before it was sent to North Carolina.
Every month since she placed the order, the furniture maker had sent her a confirmation that they were holding the frame for her. Once the fabric came, the sofa arrived at the writer's home in about five weeks.
Was it perfect? Yes, thankfully.
We all have heard the COM horror stories. Wrong fabric, insufficient yardage, incorrect options and other problems seem to haunt the business. These urban legends make everyone believe furniture takes eons to get.
Longtime readers of my columns — both of you — know that I love the metro Miami market. To me, it's like watching basketball's "March madness" as several of our industry's best retailers go head-to-head every day.
You know the names — Rooms To Go, City Furniture, El Dorado, Modernage, Carls, Baer's and so on. No wonder the greater Miami area has the nation's highest furnishings sales per household.
The battle of Miami has escalated and others are beginning to match El Dorado's same-day delivery offer. City now has a same-day delivery program in place and others soon may follow.
This represents a dramatic shift in most stores' back-end attitudes. Sure, next-day and less-than-a-week deliveries have been with us for years, not to mention the Levitz "take-with" warehouse showrooms (and their clones) that date back to the 1960s. But same-day delivery?
Imagine the inventories, the programming (order picking, truck routing, quick deluxing, etc.) and how stores must flow the goods. Ninety percent-plus success is claimed and we believe it. The tough part must be convincing yourself you can do it.
We will watch this market closely to see how this latest challenge plays out.
We visited both City and El Dorado warehouses recently and found them very impressive. And both retailers are well-capitalized, extremely well run and forward-thinking.
I hope someone in the national media sees this new standard being set. We would love to see some writer have their furniture get to their home before they do.
Meanwhile, most furniture stores should have a big sign outside that boldly proclaims, "If it's in stock, we have it!"
