Enfield-area residents looking for mid-priced furniture aren’t parting with their cash so quickly in this economy. Just ask Thomas Schuhwerk, general manager at Nassau’s Furniture on Route 5 in Enfield.
“When the housing market is down, we’re down,” Schuhwerk said. “Furniture is not something you have to have, unless you’re moving into something where you have nothing. You’re dealing with people who can delay it until the economy gets better.”
Schuhwerk said Nassau’s has seen a little upturn recently, but the business is not recovering yet. Nassau’s carries higher end brands including Drexel Heritage and Lexington, which haven’t been selling briskly in this economy.
“What we find selling are lower ends of furniture, like Lane and La-Z-Boy recliners,” he said. “We bring in closeouts so we can pass on the savings to the customers — that has helped us stay afloat too.”
Customers still come in to buy the Drexel Heritage brand, but Schuhwerk said they’re few and far between.
“When they buy a product like Drexel, it’s going to last so it’s an investment,” he said. “They’re not willing to sacrifice quality. A lot of people grew up with quality furniture, and some of the furniture today is considered ‘throw away’ furniture that isn’t going to last.”
Just down Route 5 sits another furniture retailer, Stickley, Audi & Co. The store reopened at the site in June of 2008, after having been gone for about 18 months. Stickley Regional Manager Bob Boyle said business has seen an uptick in recent months.
“It took some time for our clients to realize we had moved back,” he said. “In probably the last eight months, our consumers have come back with confidence. We recognized it not only through anecdotal evidence but our traffic has trended up.”
Boyle said the store beat its sales goals for May, and improved on its actual sales numbers over May of last year.
Boyle believes Stickley’s secret to success has been its “good, better, best” options, which offer customers a choice in quality.
“We have outfitted the store to carry more promotional lines,” he said. “They might like to compliment their Stickley occasional table with a $599 chair. It allows them to have a single shopping experience and add less expensive pieces yet create a good look.”
Boyle admitted the location of the Enfield store is not ideal for the type of customer the store attracts, often hailing from suburbs such as Somers, West Hartford, Glastonbury and Avon. But customers looking for quality and the Stickley brand are willing to travel.
“It’s a destination — you can only buy Stickley in Enfield in the entire state of Connecticut,” he said.
Raymond L. Warren, director of development services for the Town of Enfield, said with 4,000 people unemployed in the state Department of Labor’s Enfield labor market area, times remain tough for local businesses.
“Buying power is obviously hurt, particularly discretionary furnishings,” he said.
Warren said while there are several vacant properties, some of which are blighted, along Route 5, there is positive news, with ongoing discussions about redevelopment of some of those properties. If the economy is measured by the value of building permits for renovations and expansions, Warren said, the outlook is decent.
“During this recession, we have dropped, but the floor hasn’t dropped out,” he said. “Enfield itself averages issuing $39 million in construction permits (per year) and at the height of this recession, it dropped down to $26 million.”
While they wait out this economic storm, Nassau’s Schuhwerk said the company is on strong financial ground, which has helped it to weather this recession.
“When we go through times like this, we become very austere — we keep our payroll down, we watch our overhead,” he said. “We have to watch every penny.”
