Knock on wood: retailers find solid footing in RTA - ready-to-assemble furniture

Discount Store News, April 15, 1996 by Teresa Andreoli

Khoury sales manager Rene Erickson said some specialty furniture stores also cross-merchandise with stenciling sets and wallpaper. Some of these stores even offer to finish the furniture for consumers for a fee.

Khoury provides Caldor with the ready-to-finish Willow Creek pine collection, ranging from a night stand and storage chest in the $69 bracket to an armoire that sells for $169.

Caldor's lifestyle furniture department features a $139.99 roll-arm bench from Ameriwood, Dowagaic, Mich., (which debuted last fall at High Point), four seven-piece dinette sets with promotional price points of $299.96 and two Bertram & MacLeod units, a solid $139.99 letter desk and a $69.95 phone stand. These products are merchandised along with a wide range of fiberboard RTA hutches, carts, entertainment centers and desks. The chain also carries one $149.99 solid wood A-frame futon and one $299.99 metal futon from Cosco by Dorel. Other bigger ticket metal goods: the discounter sells a black wrought-iron bakers rack for $129.99

Another discounter following a storewide upgrade is Venture, which actually upgraded and expanded the size of its lifestyle furniture selections a few years ago.

"We continue to move price points up as the quality level continues to rise," said Cal Eller, executive vp, gmm for the O'Fallon, Mo-based chain. Futons, the faster-growing lifestyle segment for Venture according to Eller, performed well for the retailer last month.

Two futon sets, a black metal tubular frame and mattress and a solid wood, oak-finished A-frame and mattress both from Rosalco, moved in excess of 2,000 units in a week after the company ran a half-page feature on the back page of its March 9 circular, said Robert "Buddy" Resnick, Rosalco's executive vD. sales and marketing. The set's were promoted at $199.97, $50 off the regular price.

Venture Presents the futons on gondolas - a method not conducive to people sitting down or lying down on them - but Eller said the display has not impeded sales.

Said Eller: "Customers can see and feel the quality; the value is apparent."