The casual dining wave
By Heath E. Combs -- Furniture Today, February 18, 2008
High Point — If there's one trend most retailers who sell casual dining could agree on it's the upward swell of sales in casual dining versus a downward one in formal, according to Furniture/Today's exclusive Retail Dining Survey.
In the survey, retailers reported increased casual dining sales from more dressy looks in the category while others reported increasing sales from gathering- and counter-height tables over the last several years.
These are trends commonly cited by manufacturers and importers.
The dinette and casual dining category accounts for 8% of sales in furniture stores and 10% of their selling space, according to Furniture/Today's 2007 Furniture Store Performance Report.
Stores carry a median of 20 SKUs and five lines in casual dining. The median price point is $600.
In formal, stores carry a median of 12 SKUs and four lines. The category accounts for 4% of sales and 4% of selling space.
Over the last several years, formal and casual styles have been differentiating themselves and adapting to new homes and audiences.
Several retailers said the emergence of counter- and gathering-height styles was the largest recent casual dining trend. According to the retail survey, 80% of retailers carry counter-height tables, with a median of five SKUs on the floor, half the number of standard-height dining SKUs carried.
"I think people are seeing more (gathering tables) out there and in the magazines," said Sue Dallenbach, floor merchandise buyer for southern Minnesota retailer A&W Furniture. "They're looking at their needs and putting one in the family room or if they need an extra table not in the dining room. They're not so formal."
As some formal styles become more casual, casual styles often become more formal. But overall, responding retailers noted a shift downward in formal sales.
There's no clear way that retailers identify casual dining versus what is formal. Style and look was the most often cited method. Size, price point and materials were each close behind as commonly cited ways that casual is different than formal.
Casual dining sales most often include only a table and chairs, while formal purchases are most likely to lead to the sale of arm chairs, china cabinets or buffets.
A china cabinet is included in a formal dining sale 79% percent of the time.
A Pennsylvania retailer who responded to the survey said consumers' tastes have been moving away from master formal dining and more toward casual "junior" dining. Its stores were continuing to modify its assortment with newer styles that fit the trend.
Many retailers and dining sources associate the junior dining term with more formal casual looks that moved into great rooms near kitchens, places where consumers still need a good-looking table, but not a separate formal dining room.
Others refer to this less formal style as "in between" dining.
Furniture/Today's survey found that 61% of retailers offered a custom dining program; this trend has opened up the category to a broader audience.
Custom dining programs offered by retailers and manufacturers often include a plethora of fabric styles for chair upholstery or kiosks with optional leg, finishes and other options.
At California Casual Dining Specialists, with stores in San Jose and Pleasant Hill, Filippo Galioto, co-owner, said his company offers custom-ordering programs, typically a step-up in price, from sources such as Saloom, I.M. David, Bermex, Canadel, Amisco and Johnston Casuals.
Custom programs typically hit higher price points and are made with better raw materials. Galioto said he shares the quality story of custom options as a sales tool.
"When they buy imports they get educated," he said. "The consumer asks questions and says 'How is this item $699 and another table with a similar look $1,499 or $1,699?' I have to tell them this is solid cherry, this is solid maple, you can have this to customize to your liking and the other is a mass production import from overseas."
This gives consumers "the right return for the right amount of money they spent," he added. "Casual dining gets used every day. Rubberwood is not high-quality wood. The consumer gets a great price but they don't get the durability that domestics that cost more money (deliver) with better wood."
Slower formal sales were a common refrain among survey respondents. A retailer in North Carolina said its stores weren't selling near as much formal dining, but what it did sell was traditional and simple. A retailer in Kentucky said formal dining is less formal and customization has really opened up casual dining.
"Formal dining has decreased to the point that customers do not even ask about it," said a full-line retailer with stores in Pennsylvania and Maryland.
Another Pennsylvania retailer said formal's slower sales were due to homeowners with less formal dinnerware to display.
"People aren't willing to put as much money in their dining room as they used to. I just think they're saying we're not putting that much in the dining room, it's only used two or three times a year, it just seems to be a trend," said Ron Habegger, co-owner of two-store retailer Habegger Furniture in Indiana.
Over the last three to four years, Habegger said more people are buying sideboards, a category that lately has offered more style than in the past.
"We're noticing that trend; more people are buying sideboards and buffets. I don't think (people) show the dishes like they used to," Habegger said.
While formal counter-height dining has emerged more recently as an offshoot of counter-height casual's success, only about 15% of retailers carry the style, according to the Furniture/Today survey. Other recent tabletop niches such as triangle- and surf-shaped tops still don't come close to the sales of standard shapes like rectangles, round, oval and square tables.
