About Furniture Outlet Stores
A furniture outlet store is a retail location where name-brand furniture manufacturers sell their pieces at a reduced rate. Companies are able to offer this cheaper rate because they do not need to mark up the price to share the profits with another third party seller, such as a department store or furniture gallery. Furniture outlets also sell mismatched, damaged, or clearance pieces at deeply discounted rates.
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Benefits
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In addition to reduced prices, furniture outlet stores offer many benefits to consumers. Furniture outlets do not carry a current season's designs, but instead sell the remaining stock from the collections of previous seasons. This is a significant benefit to consumers as it allows them the opportunity to purchase older items before they are no longer carried in stores. Similarly, based on the quantity of a specific piece available at an outlet store, a customer can gain important information on the quality and popularity of the item. Outlet stores typically also sell the showroom floor models of many furniture pieces. These items have been delicately cared for, repaired, and polished by the original store, and therefore can be in better condition than warehouse stock.
Disadvantage
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While furniture outlet stores offer customers designer styles at reduced prices, they also lack many of the amenities of a full-priced showroom. For example, outlet stores are not as prevalent as regular showrooms, and companies rarely construct more than one outlet store in an entire state. Also, most outlet stores do not offer furniture delivery services, so customers are responsible for hauling their purchases from the store on their own. Other specific services are also not available. For example, Crate and Barrel furniture outlets do not provide customers access to gift and wedding registry information.
Considerations
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Since the early 2000s, many large furniture outlet stores, such as Crate and Barrel, Thomasville, Basset and JC Penny, have created online versions of their outlet stores. While online versions offer customers the benefit of shopping from anywhere and browsing pieces at any time, they can also prove frustrating. Like brick and mortar outlet stores, online furniture outlet sales are final and cannot be returned or exchanged. However, online customers do not have the ability to touch, see and quality check the piece before purchase.
Misconceptions
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Furniture outlet stores should not be confused with furniture discount stores. Furniture outlet stores are managed by the company that produces the pieces, such as La-Z-boy or Laura Ashley, and sell their own brands exclusively. Furniture discount stores buy pieces wholesale from many designers and offer them for resale. Discount stores may also produce their own generic or knock-off versions of designer furniture, such as the northeast chain Bob's Discount Furniture.
Ikea
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The Swedish-based Ikea furniture stores are a unique type of outlet, because they only exist as outlets. Every Ikea store offers its latest brand collection to customers at outlet prices because the customer is responsible for moving and assembling all the furniture.
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