How To Buy Home Furniture
From Furniture Stores & Avoid Scams

Furniture pricing shell games
You'll find that manufacturers set their so called "MSRP" price, and then usually in secret between them and the home furniture stores, there is another price called MAP, which stands for Minimum Advertised Price.  This MAP price is the bottom threshold selling price allowed by the manufacturer. One mattress store manager even showed me the MAP price on all his mattresses.  His sales people get 15 to 20% commission for selling at MSRP, and they only get 7-10% if they sell at MAP.  Naturally you'll find a lot of resistance from salespeople to sell at MAP.  In my opinion, the term MSRP should be illegal to associate with furniture.  Street Price is a better number to use.

Most manufacturers dictate to the stores that they cannot sell the furniture for less than MAP or they can lose their franchise.  Often times there is a penalty, sometimes up to $15,000 written into the contract.  Many stores like to cut to the chase and just sell at the MAP price.  Most of the online furniture discounters in the Carolinas tend to sell at MAP price. If you call them to talk price, always ask them to go lower, until you hear them mention that they are already at the MAP price and cannot go lower.  If you are talking to Online Retailer A and you have quotes from Online Retailer B, ask Retailer A to beat that quote.  Verify the price across other sites as well.  By selling at the MAP price, a furniture store still makes a decent profit, and you get a nice "discount" off some useless MSRP number that really means nothing anyway.  That's how the game is played.  It's kind of stupid, there's a lot of charades and smoke screens, mixed in with misinformation, but that's the game. We went into a mattress store and simply stated which model of Stearns & Foster mattress we wanted, and talked the sales person down to the MAP price.  I always ask them "what is the MAP price for this mattress?"  This startles a lot of salespeople, who are not accustomed to us "morons walking in off the street with our knowledge and internet prices". Sometimes it involves going to a few home furniture stores to learn for real what the MAP price is.  Some home furniture stores like to lie and quote you an MAP price this is higher than the actual MAP price for your furniture.  Some may lie to you and say there is no such thing as MAP. Unfortunately there is no Kelly Blue Book or NADA book for us to lookup home furniture prices or furniture store "dealer cost", so you cannot determine how much MAP is, you have to shop around and try to get a consensus, based on what salespeople are willing to tell you.  Please don't email me asking where you can look it up, it's nonexistent.  They don't have to tell you the MAP.  You also don't have to open your wallet.

We'll beat anybody's price!!!!
Beware of stores claiming to have the lowest prices in town, or that they will beat any store's price. Wait a minute, I think that's almost every store! These stores are the ones whose prices can actually be MORE than their competition. You might say "But Jeff, they say they have the lowest prices guaranteed!"  Well, not really folks. This is where their ads cause your brain to pull a Jedi mind trick and fool yourself into thinking that they have the lowest price right now. Usually their prices as you see them on the floor right now are not really the lowest price.  You have to go and find that low price at another store, on an IN STOCK item, and then you can try to get them to meet or beat that price.  On top of that, in order to get them to match the price, Steve & Edie Gorme must be in town that weekend performing under a full moon during a harmonic convergence of the planets.  If all those conditions are not met, they will not match the price.  Got it?

Typically stores that advertise the "lowest prices" like this have prices no better than the next store.  If you stop to think about it, they really could not be better if MAP is the lowest you can go, and if all his competitors are selling at MAP.  You can see, the ad claims are a huge smoke screen to get you in the door.  The furniture stores would sell a lot more furniture if they just dispensed with the advertising games, and sold at MAP in the first place, because we all know everyone shops around for the lowest price.  More and more, consumers are educating themselves, and going online to buy from the discounters who sell at MAP everyday with no games.  Many people even drive to the Carolinas and visit all the discount home furniture stores and drive it back themselves to save on shipping, or they have the discount furniture store ship it to their house.  They probably would have shopped at the local store if they got treated better.  I can tell you our online experience was awesome, and the bed came on time.

Mattress scams
The big scam in mattresses is that no two competing stores get the same mattress EVER! And I do mean ever.  We searched every major department store and alleged "discount mattress" store and could not compare apples with apples prices because the mattress companies make different model names for different retailers.  Even on many of the online sites it's hard to compare.  This is all part of the industry scam to keep you in the dark and prevent you from comparison shopping apples with apples.  Toyota does not make 20 different model names for Camry in the U.S., so why do mattress companies do this?  Even from a manufacturing standpoint, it's cheaper for them to make one model and sell it to everyone, than it is to make 50 different  models for different competitors, so who knows why they do it. So all those ads you see in the Sunday paper how they will give you money if you find the mattress cheaper are nothing more than an in your face joke.  The furniture stores know they'll never have to honor their low price guarantee because you won't find a Stearns in Foster Stillbridge model at Bloomingdales after seeing it in Burdines.  Department stores have been doing this for years with TVs. You can't find a Sony XYZ in Burdines, and then go to Circuit City to price the same Sony model.

So how do I comparison shop furniture stores for mattresses?
By comparing all the parameters of the mattress, the layers, the stuffing, the coil count, everything.  Competing stores may have a different name sewn in the label, but to you the model name is inconsequential when comparing mattresses from different stores.  You need to look for the same quilting, damask patterns, layers, number of coils, coil gauge, etc. That's how you know that you are looking at the same mattress you saw in another store. We also heard a rumor that on Stearns & Foster, the first letter of the model name is usually the common factor among all stores.  So for example, Burdines had the "Stillbridge" model, and I ended up getting that same exact mattress in the "Swindon" model at a local discount mattress store.  Same exact mattress, coil count, with the same exact parameters, stuffing, the whole nine yards.  But with Stearns & Foster they both began with "S", so they are the same bed.  Get the picture so far?  The St. James would be the same thing, as would the St. Sucker, and the Swindle.  Stearns and Foster appears to be the only brand that has that naming convention.

Most people do not realize that home furniture has a 200% to 400% markup on it.  Some has less, but that is where the majority falls. In fact my friend was a furniture industry insider and at the Highpoint show, a furniture company told him to mark up the price of a wall unit by 400%.  One wall unit he came back home with for $1800 had a retail price of $6500.  So when these big stores advertise in the local papers with 50% off MSRP sales, they could still be doubling their money.  Not only that, many stores advertise their sale prices are 50% off MSRP, yet if you dig a little deeper, you might find that they never sold the pieces at MSRP to begin with, so they are really just dropping their price maybe 5 to 10%.  Some stores don't drop their price at all, because they were already at MAP.  This means that store really is not having a sale! How can they advertise they are having a sale when they are not having a sale?  Because our State Attorney Generals don't do enough to stop it. Like I said, the advertising world needs some federal policing.  Sometimes these ads with their fine print means that they lied to you and you are not really getting 50% off, you are getting 0% off, because you can go and get that mattress at their "sale price" all over town. In fact, some very famous department stores and furniture retailers have gotten in trouble with the Florida State attorney's Office for deceptive advertising. Read this short press release from the Florida Attorney General's Office, who fined some MAJOR stores:  RETAILERS AGREE TO ENHANCED DISCLOSURES IN FURNITURE ADS. 

50% OFF!!!!!*   Furniture store advertising, and how they skirt the law
One common trick that furniture stores here in Florida use to get around the weak attorney general's complaints on their ads is the following:  A furniture store's ad may say something like "50% OFF!!!!!*".  Then when you search all over the page to find out what the "*" (asterisk) means, you find their tiny print that says "we never sell at MSRP pricing".   So this means their normal price is usually a lot less than MSRP, which means there really is not a 50% off sale.  How the state attorney generals keep letting these stores get away with this purposeful deceit is beyond me.  Time to write your congressman.  These scams are used heavily at New Years, President's Day, and Memorial Day.  You see, most people save their furniture shopping for those days only, duped since birth by the furniture stores into thinking there are actually sales running during those times.  So many people don't notice these same 50% off bogus ads during the rest of the year.  Smart shoppers like you and I can find a good deal any time of year, without having to foolishly wait for the busiest, most crowded days of the year for furniture stores.  In fact, I bought my Drexel Heritage bed in March, no where near an alleged sales super event date, and got the best deal anywhere on it.

"No payments until...!!!!*"   "One Year, No Interest, No Payments!!!*"
By now, you've gotten used to seeing that ominous looking asterisk, that once you see it, you heart sinks, and you immediately begin to wonder "OK, what's the catch?"  Yes folks, there is a catch all right, nothing is free in life, and not only is it not free, but if you're not paying attention, it will actually cost you a lot of money.  So what is the catch here?  There's two really big catches actually.  First of all, you must be approved for credit to get 0%.  Only people like you and I with great credit scores will get approved for this 0% interest plan. Now keep in mind if you have bad credit, you'll NEVER EVER see 0% interest for one year, so just put that thought out of your head right now.  You must apply for credit from the store, just like getting a credit card.  If you get turned down for credit cards, you'll get turned down from the furniture stores as well, because they run the same credit report on you that the credit card companies do.  The second catch is you better read the fine print associated with that "*".  Nearly all home furniture stores with "No interest payments until..." ads have fine print that says this:  "If the furniture is not paid off in one year, interest will accrue from the date of delivery."  That interest rate is usually 21-25% APR! Let's face it if you don't have the money to pay for that sofa today and you're swimming in debt, it's highly unlikely you'll pay it off in the next 12 months.  So if you don't, you'll get slammed with 21% interest, not the free 0% interest you thought you were going to get.  So if you sign up to this, you better make damn sure you can pay this off in 11 months.  Notice I said 11 months instead of 12, so they cannot try to claim you sent in your twelfth payment late!  Don't lie about your credit either, because they do run your credit report.  Make sure you get your own credit report before you apply for credit so you can clean up any issues or errors on your credit file.

Whereto get your credit score: Online from Experian, Equifax or TrueCredit.

I get a lot of questions about furniture buying. This is one case too, where you really have to shop around. The strategy to use now is to get The Furniture Factory Outlet Guide, and look up discount furniture retailers in the Carolinas. Compare them to the local stores, to see which price and service combination is better.  Without the books reviewed below, it would have been real hard for us to find out what stores carry which brands.  Keep in mind the local stores will lie and tell you "the online furniture outlets have no customer service."  That could not be farther from the truth. What do these lying morons know, they are just trying to make the sale. The outlets we bought from had better customer service than Baer's Furniture in Fort Lauderdale.  We would have bought our bed from Baer's had they just returned my phone calls begging to order the bed!  It's funny, they hire all these salespeople, and waste thousands printing up business cards to hand out to you so that when you call them and beg them to take your money, they don't call you back after several calls. So they have only themselves to blame. But the online outlets we dealt with, they were professional experts, many with years experience working in retail furniture stores, and they call you right back! Most of these online stores ARE bricks and mortar stores as well, in huge furniture mart malls. We got tracking numbers for our orders, and they gave us regular updates.  Then they called after delivery to make sure we were ok with our order.  That is the level of service you should get from your local store as well.  We did not get that from our local store.

The nonexistent "Customer Service"
You have to put furniture buying in perspective.  Some stores don't stock the item you want, and expect to make a huge profit for essentially 30 minutes worth of work.  Basically most sales people just take your credit card number and make a phone call. Do they really deserve a 15% to 20% commission for that?  Who knows, there's not a whole lot of service there. And many furniture stores brag about their great customer service.  Well I can tell you that 2 of the largest local furniture store chains who did not have my Drexel bed in stock never called me to give me availability or price on the special order like they "promised", after touting how awesome their customer service is. So how do they expect to sell it?  Is this that great customer service they boast about in their ads?  It's more like Customer Circus.  Where is the service there?  I even called a few times and got no call back.  It seems they don't want to sell anything, then they whine when we go online to buy.  Go figure!  Most salespeople would jump at a sales lead in a second, but not these folks. After shopping around for a Drexel Heritage Nine Elms Bed in March, 2002, we finally ordered it from a discounter in the Carolinas, who spent about 15 minutes on the phone with me, and entered the order into their system, and took my credit card info. That was it. Not much "service" needed there, just one short phone call got me everything I needed.  3 weeks later, my bed arrived. That's better service than you get at a local store, yet at a better price, and the furniture usually arrives quicker. With some local stores, the minute you have a problem, suddenly no one there has a solution for you and the manager is out for the day, and you can't reach your salesperson to make them own up to that great customer service they bragged about.  You know how some stores brag how their service is so good that they inspect every piece in their showroom before they deliver to you? Then why do so many people end up with the wrong color of a piece, or the wrong shape, or the wrong glass, or something broken... Why didn't their "world class service" catch that at the warehouse? You leave messages that they never return.  Got an issue?  Here's a tissue! This is not anecdotal evidence, every single person we know has had a problem with a furniture store.  So far the discount furniture outlets we have used in the Carolinas have a 100% success record with us, with zero issues.

Before the internet...
We shopped locally and did not like the pricing games and each store had different scams like "we normally don't sell to the public" but are making an exception this month.  Oh really?  Then why is your ad in the back of the TV guide in the Sunday paper instead of an industry publication? Another good scam we saw was "I think I can get you a slightly lower price by using a local interior decorator's account number".  Their "lower price" was still more than any other store we visited.  You'll hear all sorts of garbage. So we knew the model numbers for an Ashley bedroom set we wanted and phoned 4-5 stores in the Carolinas. The prices were all lower than the local stores but delivery can be a few hundred depending on what you get, but even then it's still way cheaper than the stores, we saved about $1200 on a dresser and nightstand set back in 1995, and gee, the furniture stores we dealt with in the Carolinas did not play any pricing games with us. Also, you don’t pay taxes, unless the state pulls over the truck coming across the border and checks the manifest, which is about a 50% chance.  That can save you some bucks too.  Of course September 11, 2001 changed all that.  Now they check most trucks and every single weigh station is open.  Remember how they lost that tanker truck with the hazardous chemicals?  It's funny where the government's sense of priorities is.  They can't find a hazardous truck stolen by terrorists, but damn it, they know where your $1200 bed is!

Make sure your definition of "delivered" matches that of the furniture store
Is it delivered AND setup in the house, or just dropped off out front? Make sure you have it detailed in writing or you'll be horribly surprised. There are usually two kinds of delivery:

1) To your driveway, literally.  They just drop it off and leave, you deal with it now.
2) I like method 2 better. They bring it inside and set it up.

When we ordered our new dresser we had them bring it inside, which costs more. Get everything in writing on what they will do, whether they setup or not. Don't just compare prices of Furniture Store A to Furniture Store B. Compare the entire deal including the shipping charges and any fees.  Furniture Store A could charge $100 less for your dresser than Furniture Store B, but then charge $200 more on shipping, so be careful.

What happens to your old mattress?
When you buy a new mattress, will they remove the old one for you?  How much will it cost? You better get that in writing before you sign any purchase papers.  Don't take their word for it.

How do you pay for furniture that you order online, or from discount stores in the Carolinas?
Pay your deposit with a credit card, most stores require usually 30% down, NON REFUNDABLE. This is because they have to go buy it from the factory and don't want to be left holding the empty bag when you change your mind and try to weasel out of the order. When your furniture arrives, you can pay the delivery driver the rest by check. The drivers do not take credit cards, because they cannot process them.  So make sure you have a final payoff amount and have the check ready to give to the driver.  I'm not a fan of paying 100% up front, because once they have your money, now you are at their mercy, and they have no incentive now to work expeditiously on your behalf.  Keep that final payment carrot dangling out in front of them.

The Furniture industry's dirty secret: Why does it take so long to get my furniture?
Everyone I know has had problems with furniture taking so long to arrive.  We've all heard the same BS excuse "the truck broke down".  I can tell you, in my entire life, I have never see a furniture truck broken down by the side of the road.  For all the customers who are told this lie everyday, you'd expect to see a vast landscape of broken down furniture trucks littering the road ways.  But this of course is not true. So why does furniture take so long? This is always a major issue when you buy furniture. It's the furniture industry's dirty little logistics secret. It always seems to take longer than they promise.  Most people are not told the entire truth.  Lets say you buy a nice maple wood bedroom set from a store in Florida.  They place the order with the factory, now they have to wait until the next time the factory produces a run of your particular model.  Often your completed order can sit for weeks in a warehouse until there are enough orders to fill a truck coming back down to Florida to your store. They are not going to send down your little old order just because you want it now. Your store then receives your order. Some furniture stores then do an inspection in their warehouse before delivering it to you. This can add up to some really long waits. The furniture discounters in the Carolinas buy so much furniture from the manufacturers, and are located close to most of them, and they get trucks almost daily from the them.  This means your order will not sit in a warehouse.  Now the better discounters wrap your furniture in cloths and send it via a professional furniture shipping company, and they usually wear white gloves and booties over their shoes as they install the furniture in your house.  I have never seen local furniture stores do that.

We also ordered our carpet from a discounter in Georgia. We looked at all the best carpet down here, many different stores, and the department stores seemed to be priced through the roof for the same carpet that was much cheaper at competitors. Burdines was priced pretty high too. We found a nice firm thick carpet that was $32/sq yd at Burdines. We ended up paying $14 sq yard from Blue Circle, less than half of Burdine's price for the exact same carpet. They dropped it off in the driveway and I dragged it into the garage. Then we paid a local installer to install the carpet upstairs and the stairs for $350. All told, we saved $1500 on the carpet!

Well that's it for now on furniture, I hope this gets you going.  Now, back to car buying!

Quick Start: How To Buy A New Car & Avoid Scams.

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