1996 Ad

Discount Store News, May 6, 1996

HIGH POINT, N.C. -- Manufacturers serving the mass market have done a noble job this year of trying to blur the line between case goods-quality furniture and ready-to-assemble product. Improved functionality, better finishes and true ease of assembly are the trends many RTA suppliers at the International Home Furnishings Market are employing to bring better-looking and more value-intensive furniture to the mass market.

And new industry acronym may be on the horizon--RTU. Although the ready-to-use phrase has been trademarked by Regency Furniture, Syracuse, N.Y., several makers have embarked on "unfoldable" merchandise or flat-box furniture that needs little or no assembly. Target jumped ahead of the pack with a Furio line of telephone tables and bakers racks that essentially unfold. But it may lose its exclusive footing on the easy-to-assemble market.

Rosalco, Jeffersonville, Ind., showed a matte black finish baker's rack with a swing arm shelf that requires no assembly and has a suggested retail price of $69.

Regency has added hunter green kitchen storage pieces of RTU furniture to its fiberboard bookcase (finished in oak or white). Its injection-molded, plastic hinge product--the key to its unfoldability--is designed to sell one price point above the standard RTA item, meaning that if one can sell an RTA cart for $39, the RTU cart could sell for $49 on promotion. The price concept is based on the time savings RTU product offers customers.

Bertram and MacLoed, Stockton, Calif., introduced a wire shelf/phone rack, also unfoldable, for a suggested street price of $29.

Improved function was also the buzz among manufacturers at High Point, especially when pushing product with extra storage or added versatility. Sauder introduced a modular gray stipple-finish office furniture system, designed more for a small office than a home unit, with a 50-in. vertical tower that not only hides PC towers and supplies, but allows counter space for coffee mugs or other necessities for an impromptu meeting. The entire system was priced at about $700.

Bush prototyped a coffee table that unfolds halfway to offer sofa users a low dining table or even a laptop computer desk. Ameriwood unveiled a new storage compartment for its solid wood roll-arm benches.

O'Sullivan debuted a new twist on kitchen hutches that reconfigure storage (for individual dishes, for example) into vertical slots. It also expanded on corner-wall TV stands, a segment that Michael O'Sullivan, vp, marketing, said has been neglected.

Two high-function items that caught the eye of Ames dmm Brent Hilton: a trundle futon from Cosco that offers under-bed storage and Royal Creation's end tables with added storage and strength to hold a mini refrigerator.

In another trend, lighter finishes are cropping up at almost all manufacturers, and an added dash of Southwestern flair has begun to emerge as a popular styling concept.

Ameriwood and O'Sullivan both introduced Southwestern-style bedroom furniture collections, Southern Meadows and Santa Fe, respectively. Both makers said that lighter finishes, traditionally strong players in the West, Southwest and Southeast, have grown in popularity nationwide.

Ameriwood offered two new, non-engineered wood finishes to a few of its collections, again as a way to increase the perceived value of the product and boost price points. Some of the door facings in its Southern Meadows collection are made of rattan and rush (plants often used in plaiting mats or bottoming chairs) finishes, and the pocket doors in the entertainment units of its Prestige Collection are made of solid wood. Consistent in most collections are raised panel doors and profile tops, again adding a case goods-quality look.