It has been a year plus since we have moved to Texas. One of the first things we had to do after buying a house is to fill it up the space with furniture, since our apartment furniture was second hand and we wanted to purchase furniture for long term use. So buying furniture was the first biggest project we took on.
We shopped at numerous brand name stores, compared prices and asked our friends and coworkers to make sure we are getting the most for our money. After extensive search and tons of hours of shopping we decided to go with Ashley’s furniture and take advantage of their 50% off only twice a year 4h of July sale. After spending a day(literally) deciding what to purchase and negotiating with the sales person we finally purchased our furniture. One thing done from the big list of things to do.
LESSON LEARNED: Now we realize that we had a mistake by buying furniture from a big showroom furniture chain (even though it was 50% off sale).
Here is what we should done:
1. We should have purchased from a furniture warehouse. This is where chain stores like Ashley’s get their furniture from. These guys sell almost the same furniture at much affordable prices. Couple things though: Don’t expect the customer support to be friendly as there are no sales people and don’t expect to purchase some long term warranty. If you can deal with these two things you will save money.
2. Some not so well known companies sell from the catalog the exactly same furniture as the big showroom furniture chain. What you can do here is to visit the showroom chain store pick out the furniture you like, make a note of name, model, color etc and find these catalog furniture company to place an order. You will save money and of course don’t forget to negotiate for the best deal. Same as before, don’t expect good customer service and extended warranties.
Buying furniture can be long tedious process, deciding on color, theme, style and what not. Take notice of above points to see if you can learn from our experience and save yourself some dinero.
Learn, Have Perspective and Grow 