by CONROE, Texas — Due to what management described as unsustainable increases in domestic transportation rates and other challenges running the day-to-day business, upper end furniture retailer Homestead House is closing its doors after a decade in business here.
The company’s 16,000-square-foot location is having a going-out-of-business sale that Chris Pfeiffer, who co-owns the business with his wife Linda, is running himself over the next several months.
“We are giving ourselves a six month exit,” he said, noting that this will allow time to sell remaining inventory and for customers to receive special orders that are still in process.
The store has asked factories that are producing special orders outside that window to speed up their deliveries if possible. Pfeiffer said those he has reached out to have said they will do their best to ship that product in a shorter window.
“We are asking all the factories to push the orders up so we can get them out before we close,” he said.
The list of the brands the company sells is extensive, from the middle and upper middle to high-end price points in both case goods and upholstery. They include Lexington, Hickory White, Theodore Alexander, A.R.T., Hancock & Moore, Sherrill, Sligh, Aspenhome, Riverside, Stickley, Jonathan Charles, CTH-Sherrill Occasional, Taylor King, Durham, Craftmaster, Flexsteel, Century, Bermex, Jessica Charles and Maitland-Smith to name several.
On the bedding side, it also carries well-known lines such as Kingsdown and Restonic.
Pfeiffer told Home News now that the company has done very well overall during the pandemic due to high consumer demand for home furnishings. The business even has been profitable, he said.
However, as a small operation, Pfeiffer and his wife Linda have had to deal with challenges directly, ranging from long lead times and delayed customer shipments on both domestic and imported goods to unsustainable domestic freight rates, which he said have risen 250% over the past two years.
This has affected the cost of finished goods, he added, noting that a recliner that used to come in at $150 now arrives at $400 just due to the excessive freight costs.
Pfeiffer added that freight costs also have eaten into the discounts that the store has been able to give customers on certain products. For example, the store used to discount upholstery 30%, but that is now 20%. It used to discount case goods 35%, but this has fallen to 25%.
“All the retailers have changed their discounting,” he said, again attributing this to high transportation rates.
The GOB sale currently is offering discounts from 40%-60%, he said, adding, “This is not a fire sale.”
Still, he said. business has softened in recent weeks.
“Everybody I talk to has said that customers have just dropped off to just nothing,” he said. “It has just gone south. We started canceling stock orders a month ago.”
At 66, Pfeiffer also indicated he is about ready to exit the business he has been in for many years.
“We are looking for a clean exit,” he said, adding that he believes the store closing will leave a vacuum in the area for high-end furniture.
