Furniture Outlet Stores
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Furniture outlet stores are typically places where consumers can find extra low prices on furnishings for the entire home. There may be a place near to the reader's home where the word outlet is used. Sometimes the word is used to describe a business which can be described as perhaps just a step or two above a pawn shop. In that situation, the furnishings may be of questionable quality. Other times, the term outlet is used to describe a store owned by the factories where oftentimes seconds and scratch and dents and returns are offered at discount prices. From jewelry to pottery to clothing to furnishings, there are many malls, usually located along interstates and near tourist attractions that have gathered factory store vendors together for mutual profit interest. These malls have plenty of competitors next to one another and they gather savvy consumers looking for special bargains not found anywhere else.
The typical furniture outlet stores that are run by a factory will include in their inventory customer ordered furniture that is either refused by the customer or rejected by of some minor defect. Additionally, product lines that have been discontinued are also in many factory stores are included and there may be nothing wrong at all with these products, merely that they did not sell well and were phased out. When handling these types of inventory products, the shopper will have to remember that while the style may be possible to get this week, it may be gone forever the next week. There are many reasons why a piece may be rejected by a customer or deemed a second by the production inspector at the factory. Poor stain finish, poor joint fittings and perhaps the wrong model might all be valid reason for being rejected. Looking down the telescope of time, the prophet Isaiah saw Jesus being rejected also by his own people: "He is a man despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised and we esteemed him not." (Isaiah 53:3)
Of course, furniture outlet stores don't have to be the purveyors of new furnishings. Many of the stores that use the term outlet in their name actually dispense used furnishings. Where they gather this used merchandise can be a mystery, and sometimes the supplier is quite prominently displayed in the store. For example, furniture outlet stores often sell furnishings that were in fine hotels across the country. Most hotels must update their decor about every ten or fifteen years and these outlets buy these used furnishings and sell them at rock bottom prices. Now it is at the kinds of outlets that a person can find some very fine furnishings at reasonable prices. When one stops to think about it, an upscale hotel is going to have very nice furnishings, often solid wood in construction, perhaps even solid hardwood construction. And while it may show its age, this furniture may be able to be sanded and stained and suddenly the new owner has top quality furnishings at a fraction of the cost of when they were new.
When new furniture is sold, there are terms that get thrown around in furniture outlet stores that can confuse the buyer quiet easily. Take the term solid wood construction for instance. This means that any visible wood is solid wood, and that includes veneers that are glued onto the surface. It can mean that the wood not seen can either be softwood such as pine or fir, or the material can be manufactured wood composite. There is certainly nothing unsturdy about engineered wood, because it does not warp or crack like natural wood does, and is built to withstand certain load limits. Solid hardwood furniture means that all of the wood throughout the furniture is one of the hardwoods such as oak, birch, hickory or cherry. Solid hardwood furnishings is considered top of the line and is the most expensive, so when going to furniture outlet stores that are selling new furniture, ask about the furniture's construction and then listen carefully to the phrases tossed around by the sales team.
The companies that sell furnishings in a box may also have furniture outlet stores and this furniture is typically engineered wood. Sawdust and wood chips are glued together to form straight and flawless boards and onto these boards are glued photographs of real wood grain. Engineered wood is strong and has the same weight that solid hardwood furnishings might have. Just try picking up an unassembled desk in a box and see how heavy the materials are! The sign that a person is looking at engineered wood is the glass smooth surface without any knots or imperfections.
The best location to go for bargain furnishings that are new is in and around Hickory, North Carolina. In this general area the majority of American home furnishings are manufactured. Dozens of manufacturing companies are cloistered together and furniture outlet stores abound. Many enterprising shoppers rent trucks and drive to this furnishings mecca for bargains that cannot be matched anywhere else in the country. Taking one's own truck or trailer saves hundreds of dollars on shipping fees, and the cost of gas is far outpaced by the savings. Make sure and visit retail stores in the weeks leading up to the trip to North Carolina so that one can know what a true bargain is at the outlet. Some prices at outlets have been known to be even higher than retail!
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