We sell a lot of mattresses if we focus on it, so we always recommend that one of our doorbusters is a mattress.”īut unlike some in the space, Miskelly said his stores are positioned well, primarily due to having the space to stock product. “Right now we can get mattresses, and this is an important mattress holiday, so everything we do for storewide messages include mattresses. Now most retailers are secure in what they want to use as traffic drivers but it’s hard to get those things in bulk,” Lebow said. “It’s a challenge because of product issues. That’s what I mean about the shopping patterns changing.”Īnother difference this year relates to the ongoing product availability issues that are scourging the marketplace.
“Friday’s the biggest day of the weekend, but we do big business throughout the weekend. We’ll go out to our private customers on our lists and tell them they can have Black Friday prices early, often with a bonus for shopping early before we do Black Friday for the public. “Most of our stores will start Black Friday the weekend prior, with a direct mail. Plus, he said, most home furnishings retailers are extending the holiday into the entire Thanksgiving weekend and even before. Now, Lebow noted, most stores aren’t as concerned with a pre-sunrise opening, and most welcome consumers a couple of hours earlier than usual. We would have people lining up to get into stores at opening. “Doorbusters are important, and pricing is important because people want to see those no-brainer values. “We used to see this rush of business early on Black Friday,” he said. Even though it’s a significant sales driver, it’s not as concentrated as it once was.
We always want to have a storewide savings message,” he said.Īnd while the furniture industry has many sales throughout the calendar, Lebow said it’s not that unusual for Black Friday to be the strongest. “The most important thing about Black Friday is people expect major deals and doorbusters. We’re expecting it to be this year, too.”īrad Lebow, president of Horich Hector Lebow Advertising, which does business with numerous furniture retailers including several in the Top 100, said one thing that stands out annually about Black Friday is the consumer expectation for the deepest deals of the year. “Over the past five or six years, it’s become a significant event. Honestly, seven or eight years ago, it was a nonevent for us,” said Eric Easter, president and CEO of Indianapolis-based Top 100 retailer Kittle’s Furniture. While Black Friday has traditionally been a big deal in big box stores and for items like consumer electronics, its rise in the home furnishings arena is a more recent phenomenon. “We’ve drawn that window out to offer more opportunity and accessibility to that value and that promotion.
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