Super-size attraction Kansas City furniture store opens doors

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, Aug 6, 2003 by Amy Bauer Capital-Journal

By Amy Bauer

THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL

KANSAS CITY, Kan. --- The several hundred shoppers who swarmed into Nebraska Furniture Mart at 10 a.m. Tuesday for its opening barely made a dent in the 3,200-space parking lot.

The store, the company's first full furniture, appliance and electronics megastore outside of the company's Omaha, Neb., home base, is two stories and 450,000 square feet of retail space.

"All you need's a bicycle," said Sam Mendoza, as he and his wife, Bev, took a break Tuesday in the clearance section to consult a store map.

"Or some skates," Bev Mendoza added.

An Omaha native, Bev Mendoza said she came in "just to scope it out" and compare the Kansas City, Kan., store to the original. The pair are in the process of redoing a guest bathroom and came to get ideas, she said.

Store director Jeff Lind said the Kansas City, Kan., location has the same retail space as the flagship Omaha store, but the two have been arranged slightly differently.

"We grew into the retail space in Omaha," Lind said, referring to the store's landlocked location in a busy retail district.

A huge glass-front entryway bathes the Kansas City store's upper and lower levels in light. The second story provides a clear view of the nearby Kansas Speedway grandstands and part of the track --- plus much of the store's parking. A number of skylights add to the airy feeling, with visitors in some areas being able to look over clear glass railings from the second floor into the first.

Shoppers entering Nebraska Furniture Mart's main doors first come upon hundreds of lamps and other accessories in the center of the main floor. "Dream rooms" --- kitchens, living rooms and bedrooms arranged as they would be at home --- show off the latest styles and trends in their respective areas.

Lind said the company used focus groups and employee input in designing the store, resulting in the "dream room" arrangements and conveniences like having home office furniture next to the personal computers. The upper level features furniture and the store's design gallery. Electronics, flooring, and appliances are downstairs. The first-floor Courtyard Cafe ensures wandering customers don't get parched.

Special areas let customers design a car stereo system or a home theater, take advantage of Nebraska Mart Furniture's decorators' expertise or learn how to burn a CD.

Lind said more than 800 employees have been hired --- most from the Kansas City area.

Last-minute touches still are being put on the store. Employees on Tuesday worked on several of the "Dream Kitchen" arrangements, where chefs will offer cooking demonstrations during the grand opening next weekend. An island in electronics is awaiting the final pieces that will allow customers to test out a bay of digital cameras by snapping photos of their children and then e-mailing them to friends and family.

Lind said while the company doesn't release store-specific figures, he knows a number of Topeka and Shawnee County residents have shopped at the Omaha store.

"We think we'll get a lot more Topeka business, being closer," he said.

Forty percent of the company's business is delivery, Lind said. The store does offer drive-through pickup, and Lind said most items are on-hand in the adjacent 262,000-square-foot warehouse.

Lind said the store was opened Friday through Monday to special groups, including employee families.

An official ribbon-cutting will take place at 9:30 a.m. Aug. 15, featuring majority owner Warren Buffett, owner of Berkshire Hathaway. A gala the preceding evening will raise money for The University of Kansas Medical Center's breast cancer services.

Nebraska Furniture Mart was founded in 1937 by Omaha entrepreneur and Russian immigrant Rose Blumkin, who opened a furniture store in the basement of her husband's second-hand clothing shop. She grew the company with hard work and her motto of "selling cheap and telling the truth."

Amy Bauer can be reached at

(785) 295-1231 or amy.bauer@cjonline.com.

NEBRASKA FURNITURE MART

Hours: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday

Location: 1601 Village West Parkway

RELATED

Topeka furniture retailers welcome Nebraska Furniture Mart into the market.

Page 12A

Please see FURNITURE, Page 12A

Continued from Page 10A

Furniture: Kansas City store employs more than 800

BY THE NUMBERS

- Ways to travel between the store's two levels: 11

- Number of football fields to equal the store's retail space: 12

- Cashier/checkout stations: 50

- Docks to support inbound and outbound product distribution: 54

- Total acreage of the store complex: 80

- Miles of data cable: 124 (enough to stretch from downtown Kansas City, Mo. to Manhattan, Kan.)

- Parking spaces: 3,200

- Track lights: 4,233

- Number of people the store will hold: 11,000

- Watts of lighting: 1.5 million (equivalent to field lighting at Arrowhead Stadium)

--- Source: Nebraska Furniture Mart

PHOTOGRAPHS BY ANN WILLIAMSON/THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL