Gardner Furniture Store Takes New Tack | Flagging sales force owner to get creative
PHOTO/LIVIA GERSHON
The giant chair in Gardner.
When a company hits hard times, the first idea that may cross managers' minds is handing out pink slips.
But when Gardner's R. Smith Furniture store found itself facing a weak market, it decided to do something completely different.
The store is clearing out its entire second story, consolidating its showroom to the first floor, and inviting local crafters to set up shop upstairs each weekend starting June 21. âIt's sort of going to be an indoor flea market,â said manager Catherine Carroll.
Change To Survive
Carroll said that, with fewer and fewer people willing to travel to Gardner's well-known furniture stores, the move is an effort to keep the store viable. She said sales have been down about 30 percent below their usual level in recent months, with the gas crunch a major culprit. Since June and July are always bad months in the industry, she said, things have been rough.
The new flea market space, with 120 spaces renting for around $45 a day, is a response to tough times not just for the store, but for the city as a whole, Carroll said. Remington Arms Co. Inc. recently closed the local H&R 1817 gun manufacturing plant, and the city's iconic Nichols & Stone furniture factory plans to shut down completely in July.
With hundreds of people laid off, Carroll said, the town's local stores are suffering. She said the new market is an option for mom-and-pop businesses that can't keep a store open.
âThey can still sell their wares and do it in a great environment here for relatively little money,â she said.
R. Smith is also going in a new direction, launching web-based store. The company will train its eight full-time and two part-time employees to work on the Internet side as well.
âPart of the reason that we're doing these things is so that we can keep our workforce,â she said.
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