HIGH POINT — To date, 2024 hasn’t been the best year for furniture retail. But with that in the background, many retailers were hopeful that a strong could salvage the year’s first half while setting the stage for hopefully better days ahead.
So how did it go? Most retailers had reasons to smile.
Houston-based , part of Top 100 Berkshire Hathaway’s furniture division, got good traction from its financing offers, which helped build bigger tickets. “Financing offers are always a hit,” said Michael Galloway, vice president of marketing.
Other incentives included free mattress deliveries as well as some same-day delivery options on Memorial Day itself.
Galloway said mattresses sold well during the weekend, led by Aireloom, with strong showings from Tempur-Pedic and Beautyrest.
Motion upholstery, particularly leather pieces, were also strong performers.
“Motion sectionals was the big category winner, motion leather. That’s a big category for us overall, and upholstery is always a winner for us,” he said. “We have a pretty good reputation for leather sales. Sectionals and seating did well overall.”
With a strong weekend of holiday sales, Star officials decided to keep things going, stretching it out through the coming weekend.
“All things considered, the traffic we had was commensurate with the sales we had. We like to see those sync up,” Galloway said. “If traffic is up and sales are down, something’s off, and if sales are up but traffic is down, that’s not ideal. Overall, we were pleased with the results, certainly enough to keep it going another week.”
‘Great, great traffic’
In Michigan, had itself a solid Memorial Day Weekend said CEO John Moray.
“We had great, great traffic. We had what we would consider a good weekend,” Moray said. “Not what we hoped for, but we’re not sure where else we could have put ourselves to put sales in a better position. Sales were good.”
Moray said upholstery was a winner for Gorman’s, which sometimes leads to add-on sales. Moray said he’s hopeful that shoppers who bought might be open to additional opportunities in the weeks to come.
“It seemed like upholstery was still a big seller this weekend. If somebody comes in looking for upholstery to redo a room, you might also wind up with an end table console or cocktail table, too,” Moray said. “They’re looking for the sofa, and we’re pointing out the rest of the room to them. We’re pushing a lot of sketching and encouraging relationships with customers. It’s the best way to get to know what they’re looking for.”
He said those potential add-on sales, plus more events like Gorman’s upcoming Friends & Family sale, will help build a strong summer.
“We’re looking forward to a productive June; a very productive June. Hopefully it will go that way,” he said.
Surprising results
For Boston-based , holiday promotions are a relatively new endeavor, but owner Bob Richard noted that it’s up year-over-year. “It went fine. We’re up a little from last year,” he said.”
While Circle leaned into vendor promotions during the event, Richard said the best-selling line wasn’t among them.
“Of all the brands we put on sale, the No. 1 brand we sold by a large margin was CR Laine, who we did not have any promotion on,” he said. “That was surprising to me. They were almost double the second highest vendor we sold.”
Now, Richard said, Circle is segueing from the tentpole event into the summer season by keeping a few sales going.
“We try to bundle everything together going into Memorial Day but there are still vendors we’re keeping on sale,” he said. “What was a huge Memorial Day sale is now turning into a dining sale because Copeland is continuing its sale. We’ve gone from a bundle approach to a non-bundle approach the week following.”
New stores, too
In addition to sales, the holiday weekend was notable for new store openings for some. Top 100 retailer Raymour & Flanigan officially introduced itself to the Boston market with the opening of its newest store in Somerville, Mass.
Top 100 also had a new store opening to celebrate during the weekend, as its Marana, Ariz. store, in the greater Tucson market, was soft-opened on May 24.
Also on May 24, Top 100 retailer added six new showrooms in three states and relocated another.
And the holiday isn’t over yet for some. A made by Top 100 retailer Gallery Furniture after Memorial Day indicated that the Houston-based retailer’s sales would continue beyond the holiday, many with a “Here Today, Gone Tomorrow” theme because of limited quantities.