Furniture First Wraps Up Two-Day Regional Meeting in St. Louis

Furniture World News Desk on 5/27/2012

Furniture First announced that it held held its third regional member meeting of 2012 in St. Louis, Missouri last week. Attendees included Members from the group’s Midwest and Southeast regions.

During the first evening the group was treated to a presentation titled “Are They Following Because They Have to or Because They Want to?” by workplace culture consultant Libby Wagner. On the second day of the meeting Members were able to evaluate their work environments with a mini-workshop led by Ms. Wagner.

More than 5,000 square feet of products from Furniture First Supplier Partners was on display at the meeting. Showcased products included new private label products developed exclusively for Furniture First Members, new product introductions from Supplier Partners in all product categories, and “Power Buys.”

The “Power Buys” were developed by Furniture First’s Merchandising team to drive traffic for the group’s retailers during holiday-centered sales events.
The regional meeting allowed plenty of time for peer-to-peer networking. In the “Best Idea” session, Members competed for a cash prize by sharing one strategy that made a difference to their bottom line. Five table winners competed for the grand prize on the second night of the meeting by presenting their winning ideas to the entire group.

Four roundtable sessions on day two of the meeting allowed Members to share insights and strategies on topics such as pricing, compensation, customer service and internet price matching. Members also learned more about the group’s Service Partners with topics such as direct mail promotions, circular advertising, best practices for selling protection plans, tracking website ROI, Visa/MC processing program, selling mattresses to larger profile customers, mattress sales strategies.

Also in attendance at the Regional Member Meeting were representatives from several of Furniture First’s Supplier Partners that sponsored the event. Sponsors included Color Ad, Bedgear by Guard Master, Comfort Solutions, Daniel's Amish, England, Flexsteel, Glideaway, Guardsman, Health 1st, Hillsdale, Hooker, Jofran, Klaussner, Montage Furniture Service, MicroD, Restonic, Rizzy Home, Spectrum Marketing, TD Retail Card Services, The Furniture Training Company, TSYS Merchant Solutions, Universal Furniture and Wells Fargo.

About Furniture First: Furniture First is a 18-year-old national buying group serving the retail home furnishings and mattress industry. Furniture First has 193 company members representing 425 store fronts and $1.4 billion in retail sales. For more information on Furniture First, please call Bill Hartman at 800-411-3477 ext 123 or email BHartman@FurnitureFirst.com.