Buying ON SALE can be a Furniture FAIL!
Want an A+ in shopping smart? Read on and find out how.
After almost 30 years in the furniture and mattress business, I hate to say it, but I’m ashamed of my chosen profession. The rip-offs and misinformation abound, and in today’s tough retail market, there are a lot of sharks out there waiting to part you from your hard-earned money. Here’s how they’ll try to do it.
Let’s start with those hard to resist words, TODAY ONLY! Whether it’s mattresses, bedroom furniture or what have you, some places are always promoting an amazing time-limited offer. That kind of high-pressure sales tactic is the oldest trick in the book. Do you really have to “buy today to save”, or will you get the same deal next week? Or worse, did you buy last week and now you’re regretting it? These sales people don’t want you to feel good about your purchase, they want you to feel scared that you’ll lose out.
Or maybe they’ll throw in a FREE TV!!! with that bedroom set you’re looking at. Is that because the mattress is so lumpy you’ll be up all night watching info-tainment, or is it because the TV is so lousy that they are literally giving it away?
How about when they make you buy all 6 pieces when you only want just 4? “Buy in bulk and save”? That may work with cat food, but not with furniture for your home. The reason they want to sell you all that extra stuff is simple - they bought a container from some offshore supplier, and they know they can’t sell odd pieces. And if you ever do want to buy another piece that matches, chances are you won’t be able to.
What you really need to know when you’re out shopping for furniture is the bottom line - what it’s going to cost to get something you want – not how much you’re going to “save” by falling for these gimmicks.
I get it from the sales guys too. Every January Lynn and I head to Las Vegas to the furniture show - 4 million square feet of furniture and 2 million square feet of miracle mattresses. They have mattresses that give off oxygen, mattresses that are green and mattresses that will last 20 years. I ask them, “Is your furniture solid wood,” they say, “Yes! Particle board is made from wood!” Really? Do I look like I just fell off the turnip truck?
I’ve sold foam products since I was 11 years old, working at the Ladysmith Trading Co which my grandparents started in 1919. Believe me, one way or another, over the past 90-odd years, our family has seen it all. We know that when someone offers you something that seems too good to be true, it probably is. We don’t do it that way. If you just want the straight goods, a fair price, no gimmicks, no particle board, no commission sales people and no hogwash come and see me.
