OUTSIDE LOOKS `IN' ; SALES KEEP GROWING AT MASS MERCHANTS AND CLUB STORES.(furniture sales)

HFN: The Weekly Newspaper for the Home Furnishing Network, March, 2005 by Fleischer, Jo

Byline: Jo Fleischer

Mass merchants and club stores continued to gain ground in casual furniture sales. The channel accounted for 48 percent of the category's sales in 2004, an increase of 4 percentage points, according to HFN research.

Specialty retailers saw their share of the market decline 2 points to 27 percent. Yet many specialty retailers said their sales remained strong even as many big-box retailers began featuring table sets costing up to $2,000.

Craig Chapello, president of the Casual Furniture Retailers association, said some of the big-box competitors are cutting into the sales of casual furniture specialists, which generally target the upper end of the market. "In general, the numbers of the [mass merchants] are moving up,...