Merchandising: Fine Time for Furniture

In economists’ terms, furniture has traditionally been a “postponable purchase”—people often put off buying a new chair, couch or bedroom set until the old one broke down, seldom bought on impulse. Lately, there has been a shift of sorts: Americans are inclined to trade in their old furniture somewhat sooner, buy more and more new furniture than in years past. Last week, at their annual summer show in High Point, N.C., the seat of the industry, the nation’s furniture manufacturers puffed up their earlier predictions for 1964. On the basis of a notably strong first half, they now expect their sales to rise at least 10% above last year’s $5.2 billion.

In a cluttered industry of some 5,000 manufacturers scattered through the U.S., the four largest companies are the most comfortable of all. The big four—Kroehler, Bassett, Drexel and Thomasville—have made sales gains so far this year of 13% to 20%. Says Drexel Executive Vice President David J. Brunn: “You always dream of the day when your line will be hot and the economic climate will be good—both at the same time. That’s what’s happening to us this year.”

Changes In Quality. The general health of the economy has given people both the urge to buy and the money to do it with. Meanwhile, the tax cut has enabled them to pay off their old installment debts and take on new ones. The furniture business has been bolstered not only by changes in the quantity of U.S. personal income but also by changes in the quality of U.S. living. One major factor is that the U.S. is a nation of increasing mobility; this year 9,500,000 American families will move to different homes, and most of them will discard at least some of their old furniture, buy pieces better suited to their new surroundings.

Homes are becoming bigger, too—nowadays, not many new houses have fewer than three bedrooms—and more rooms naturally require more furniture. The trend toward homes with patios and apartments with terraces has expanded the demand for outdoor furniture, and overall business has been helped even by the popularity of television. Says Chicago Retailer Milton Fish: “TV is keeping people at home more, and making them much more conscious of their furniture.”

Scrubbing the Borax. In the area of style changes, the furniture manufacturers are taking a lesson from the automakers: the American family spends an average of $100 a year on furniture v. $800 on cars and accessories. Now the furniture men have begun to shift styles more rapidly than usual to appeal to a nation of rising tastes. “Today’s American furniture buyer is interested in three things,” says Hampton Powell, president of Lane Co., a major manufacturer. “He puts style above all else, with quality second and price third.”

Current styles are generally more elegant—and more expensive. The boxy, bulky, tacky styles—which salesmen dub “Borax” and jokingly claim to sell by the pound—do not sell very well any more. Also declining in popularity are the starkly modern styles, known in the trade as “sterile” or “baby-scaring.” But important market gains have been made by French-Italian Provincial and by the Spanish or Mediterranean style, which is characterized by dark woods, wrought irons, gentle carvings and some open spaces. Furniture men believe that tomorrow’s hot style will probably be vaguely oriental, “a hint of the Far East.”

While middle-aged householders are replacing their furniture with costlier pieces, there is a continuing surge in the number of younger, first-time buyers, who do not want their neighbors to see hand-me-downs and are potential customers for whole housefuls of furni ture. Manufacturers look with delight upon market researchers’ predictions that the number of marriages will increase from 1,600,000 last year to 1,900,000 next year. All those new families will benefit the industry in general, and one segment of it in particular: the manufacturers of baby furniture.