Laura Goes Shopping In NC: How to do it Right! (part 2)
Wow! Thank you so much for responding! I rarely check this email address, and honestly didn’t expect such a speedy response. We really appreciate you taking the time to help us out during our furniture quest!I believe we are going to go with the Drexel furniture. Overall, we were just very happy with the quality. Below I have included my entry on my weblog. I thought you might like to know about our research and our review of the Furniture Mart.LauraWhat to bring with you?Good walking shoes. You are going to be on your feet all day long here, with an occasional rest. Be prepared. This place is basically an indoor mall of furniture stores, comprised of four levels, which makes for a lot of walking.A good mindset. If you don’t have a positive outlook and a good disposition, don’t go. Grumpiness is not going to help you when furniture shopping. Also, unless you are a veteran marathon furniture shopper, don’t go looking for furniture for an entire house. You will be overwhelmed.A laptop computer with wireless capability. For us, this was great to have. At the coffee shop, we browsed the Internet, compared prices and called other stores closer to us to find out if we were getting good deals or not. If you are really wanting to make sure that you are getting the best deal possible, you will want to do some web browsing.Supplies. Make sure to pick up a map at the entrance. Bring a pen, some paper and a tape measurer and measurements from home. Color swatches would be great to have if you are trying to match existing upholstery or curtains. I saw one man carrying around a pillow!What not to bring with you?Children. Let’s face it. Adults can be miserable furniture shopping, why torture kids too?Drinks and snacks. There’s a restaurant on premises. If you don’t want to hassle with bringing along food, just order up at the restaurant. (We packed sandwiches, so I don’t know how expensive the food was, or what was on the menu) The coffee shop on the first floor not only offers coffee drinks (and wifi), but spirits as well. If you just need a snack, several of the stores offer freshly baked cookies, Coca-Cola in little glass bottles and water - all complementary. It definitely was refreshing to find a store with snacks inside. Unfortunately, you will have to search for the snack stations because they are hidden, but if you step inside, your nose will be able to spot if you’ve reached jackpot.What we liked.The service. Let’s face it. Where can you get good customer service these days? I was thrilled with how the sales personnel approached you, with the exception of a sleazy looking salesman in the Amish furniture store. My favorite sales person was at the Thomasville store. She was informative, very helpful and not pushy at all. When we returned to the store in the afternoon she was visiting with past clients who just came by to chat with her, which in my mind speaks mounds about how she conducts business.The selection. Since we have little experience shopping for furniture we were able to compare quality and price all in one stop instead of driving all around. Although it was quite a drive for us, we could have easily spent that much time driving from store to store over several weekends.No crowds. I don’t know if the crowds can get bad here, or not, but we had absolutely no problem with too many people, which was a concern of ours. Maybe it was because we went when the weather was nice, when the weather the following day turned rainy? I don’t really know. I would imagine if it were more crowded we wouldn’t have had such a positive experience.Overall view…Is it worth it to drive to Hickory? With so many mainstream furniture stores these days, I don’t think that the prices here were astonishingly low. We went when they were having a Mark Down sale, where most things were 10% off, but for us, we weren’t seeing huge, slashing discounts. However, we were only looking at bedroom furniture and we really didn’t linger long in the stores with clearance and discontinued items. We did see a really neat coffee table for under $300 that we thought was very reasonable. The sales lady said that her store was no longer going to be carrying the item, it was going to another store with a substantial markup. Our leather couch we bought earlier this year (at 45% off) was only $50 cheaper at the Mart, so we feel like we got a good deal. The shipping prices we were quoted, however, are substantially cheaper than what you will find locally and several people I have talked to have had excellent results with their furniture being shipped from the Mart. If you do find something you like, call up the Mart to see how they price it so that you are able to compare.The first bedroom furniture candidate is made by Thomasville, a well-known North Carolina based company. Their Cinnamon Hill line really caught our eye. With tailored clean lines, a high foot board, and versatility (you can have high posts on the headboard or low posts) we immediately put this one down as a possibility.The second bedroom set we came across is made by Villageois, a Canadian-based company. Their Bannister Bed from their Cherry Classic Collection is very substantial, solid and well built. As with the first set, we liked the high foot board, and the classic design.At the same store we found something comparable to the Villageois set, but was considerably more affordable. Chatham Furniture Reproductions, Inc. had several styles we liked. The Kittery Point Collection has the same look as the Villageois, but with a little more casual feel. The Kittery Point Collection has a little more of a distressed look than the finish we were looking at, but the bedrooms sets are the same. Very similar in design as the Villageois, almost as solid, but for a much more reasonable price.The final bedroom set we liked was at a Drexel Heritage store, also a North Carolina based company. We went in this store to check out a Mission Style bed, but also ended up finding another set we liked, under their Postabello Home Collection. While this style was much different from all of the others we were considering, we were drawn to the bed. Again, versatility was a big plus. The posts on the headboard and foot board can either be high or low and the hardware on additional pieces come in both pewter and wood, allowing the set to take on different looks.At lunch we sat down, reviewed all of our choices, referred to a great book I had found called Shopping For Furniture, and went back to the showrooms to look over our final choices. We re-evaluated the sturdiness, the construction of the drawers, the colors and of course the price before coming to a final decision.
Laura,
What a super review of your furniture expedition. I loved it. Wonderfully written but more importantly full of good, solid information that all of us can us. I hope you wont mind if I paste it into my site. Will that be OK? Do you do a lot of writing on furniture/home-furnishing matters? If so it could be fun and helpful to others if we linked to each other. Think about it. The only thing you missed, and when all is said and done perhaps the most important thing in NC, is the Bar-BQ! How could miss that! Carolina BarBQ pork is a national treasure!
Thank you for sharing your trip with me. Keep me posted on your furniture adventures.
Len
Leonard,Feel free to include the review of the Furniture Mart on your site. I think the more information we share with each other, the more informed we are, and in turn, we make better decisions as consumers.To answer your question, I don’t do a lot of reviews on furniture shopping. This is only my second time furniture shopping - most of what I have have been antiques given to me, or stuff I’ve picked up here and there. I plan on writing another entry talking about how we came to a final decision. I’ll be more than happy to email that to you as well after I am finished.Oh, and don’t you worry. I wouldn’t have missed North Carolina BBQ for the world. Vinegar based BBQ is one of my absolute most favorite things!!! See my review below of the place where we ate! I can recommend a few good joints in Virginia and North Carolina, but I’m guessing you are located on the West Coast… I’d be happy to send you a recipe, too, if you are interested.Laura2609 Springs RoadHickory, NC 286011.828.256.2275If you go to the Hickory, North Carolina to do some furniture shopping, be sure to go get some good North Carolina barbeque at Shell’s Diner. The food was good and the service was phenomenal. When we placed our beverage orders, I inquired about their slushes, but decided to stick with sweet tea. However, the server brought us a sample of their slush mix to taste, since it is their most popular drink (the people beside us ordered four tall glasses of the slush!). Before she placed our barbeque order she brought us some to sample. She wanted to make sure we would like the tangy, vinegar based barbeque before ordering a plate. For $7.00 we got a plateful of barbeque with slaw, fries and huspuppies. The sweet tea was as thick as syrup and wonderfully refreshing. Our waitress even asked us if we wanted some sweet tea to go! When’s the last time you had that kind of service?
Laura,
Thank you so much and I couldn’t agree more with you. I have had my web site (newfurnitureideas.com) converted into my new webblog www.lenlewin.com to accomplish just what you describe with your comment about sharing information and becoming better informed.
I love your restaurant review. You know I like sweet ice tea in NC but I can’t drink it in any other state! With your thoroughness I should have known you would check out the BarBQ. I don’t know Shell’s in Hickory. When I would go west in NC I would continue on into the mountains and hang-out around the Grandfather Mountain area. We had factories in Drexel but we were always in a hurry to get to Boone. I know all the restaurants in the High Point area because we would spend every April Market and October Market roaming about that area. Send me the recipe when you have a moment and please send me anything you write that you think is interesting and would like to share.
Len