How a Family-Owned Furniture Chain Won my Loyalty Over a Mammoth Retailer

Convincing TV commercials sent me their way, but the seamless buying experience is what made me a loyal customer to this family business.

For the past 20 years, I bought much of the furniture in my home from the local mammoth furniture store in my city. The store is vast and expansive, spanning three floors, and has furniture in every price range, along with lamps, rugs, appliances, electronics, flooring and more.

This brand markets itself as an all-in-one furniture store and lives up to those marketing promises. However, when it came to customer experience, the big-box furniture store was often disappointing. For example, during the height of the pandemic and supply chain shortages, I stopped by the big-name store in search of a new sofa.

When I inquired with a salesman about whether a sofa I liked was in stock, he didn’t even look it up. He just told me straight out that nothing I saw in the store was available in their inventory. I’d have to wait a few months for anything I ordered. Disappointed, I continued to browse, now  half-heartedly.

A few minutes later, another salesperson asked if I needed help. I told her about the same couch that I wanted to buy and asked if she could check whether they had it in stock.

“Good news,” she told me. “We have it in stock and can deliver it next week.” I bought the sofa,  but the first salesperson’s attitude chipped away at my trust in the store and any desire to continue buying most of my furniture from that brand.

Meanwhile, every night during a certain television show, I was bombarded with TV commercials during every break for a small chain of family-owned furniture stores in my city. At first — for several months, in fact — I found the commercials annoying because they ran the same ones over and over before replacing them with new, repetitive commercials.

After watching roughly 80 of these commercials, all claiming that this furniture store management cared about their customers and had a knowledgeable staff, I suddenly thought, “Hey, maybe I should give this store a try.”

So, when I sold my couch from the mammoth retailer because I found it uncomfortable about six months after purchase, I made a trip to the family-owned chain. Instead of being overwhelmed by floor after floor of furniture, bright lights, harried salespeople and crowds of shoppers, I was pleasantly surprised by the customer experience the smaller store offered.

When I walked through the door, a salesperson greeted me immediately. He explained where  the different styles and price ranges of sofas were located, and why certain less expensive brands were still quality furniture pieces.

That was an improvement over my old furniture store, which sold cheaply made furniture at modest prices, along with higher-end quality furniture, never explaining the chances of the cheaper furniture breaking down more quickly — as in the case of the uncomfortable sofa I’d bought months before.

Even though I’d purchased lower-priced items in the past, I spent about $2,500 that day at the family chain on a new sofa, oversized chair and ottoman. I needed to finance it, which wasn’t a problem, since this store also offered financing for up to four years with no interest.

I probably could have bought a similar sofa at the sprawling furniture store that I’d patronized for decades. Instead, I bought my living room furniture from the store with the helpful salesperson who assured me that they sell only quality furniture, never cheap, low-quality items. And that assurance prompted me to spend more for quality.

The buying experience was pleasant, unlike the overstimulation and irritation I usually felt at the mammoth retailer with its salespeople who often seemed overworked and stressed.

This month, I decided to take the leap and buy a mattress that was double the price of what I’d purchased in the past. But I didn’t go to the huge store with its vast selection of mattresses. Instead, I purchased a new mattress from my new favorite furniture store.

The family-owned chain had promised me for months with relentless TV commercials that they offered only quality furniture and mattresses, and their salespeople were more knowledgeable than the ones I’d encounter at other furniture stores. Then they came through with a customer experience that demonstrated that I could trust their brand — and their word.