Redesigning our Showroom

We have been discussing our expansion for several months now, and while we fully intend to expand our current location, we've had a great opportunity arise at a High Point furniture venue, Gates on Ward, in the very heart of furnitureland.   It going to be exciting, as we are looking at expanding into 7,000 s.f. of space, more than doubling our total square footage!   This is in response to both our customers, and our manufacturers, who continually request that we place more product on the floor.  With 80+ manufacturers, we can only do so much, so this is a great opportunity to satisfy those demands.   So many of our customers want to touch and feel the product, which is completely understandable, but quite a challenge with almost 50,000 products online.

Yesterday, Gary Pigg, one of the owners of Gates on Ward, and Debby C., who helps him manage the place, came by our showroom to start moving inventory over to the new location.  We filled up a truck and still barely made a dent on our own floor!   Here are some shots of how the floor looks now.

We intend to have complete showrooms at Gates on Ward for Lexington Home Brands, Century Furniture, Bernhardt Furniture, and Hickory White.   There will be other pieces there, of course, but we are trying to keep our manufacturers grouped together for customer convenience.

In our Concord, NC location, we will (of course) also have representative samples from those groups, but we will also be focusing on Hooker Furniture, Bradington-Young, Universal (which includes Paula Deen, Better Homes and Gardens, and Pennsylvania House), Schnadig, AICO, and whew!  The list goes on.

It is a delicate balancing act when the business is growing.   On the one hand, you want to take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves.   On the other hand, we just went through a gut-wrenching recession and its going to be a bumpy ride for the next few years.  The reason we are still here is because we are very very careful about our overhead (I never used to admit to being cheap, but these days, its okay to come out of the closet).

We will post pictures of our new High Point showroom as soon as it is filled.  Meantime, take a look at our somewhat-chaotic Concord showroom as it looks this morning.  I did not take pictures of any staff members because they all run away when I am stalking them with my camera.   Just because I post them on our blog, Facebook, and anywhere else for the entire world to see!