Today i was at Greenfront Furniture, looking for a decent outdoor sofa (I hate mine from Beachcraft, what a piece of junk). I haven't been there in awhile, and the store has changed. The outdoor furniture collections. have expanded and there is lots to choose from. The rest of the store is mostly upholstery - very few case goods in comparison to what they used to have. Of course, I wandered over to their Hancock and Moore section, which was pretty robust last time I was there. It's pretty sad looking now, with uninspiring choices (such as four Austin Recliner all in the same leather, why would you put four out on the floor that are identical?). It's all mixed in with leather from other companies with little to no attempt to merchandise it. They used to put the specs on the sales tickets, now its all coded so you as a consumer can't cross-shop it AND the prices are higher than they used to be. Interesting.....I always thought they sold too low, guess they finally figured that out.

But the larger issue is - you come into the area of the store and are just ....well.....unimpressed. There will be a $ 900 leather chair from a company no one ever heard of next to a $ 4,000 Hancock and Moore chair. And both have a stack of pillows in the seat that need to be moved somewhere else. Since the sales staff likes to stay behind the counter, you are on your own to figure out things. If I were just a consumer, I'd look at the price tags and move on, confused by the offerings.

As I was leaving, I placed a phone call to Hancock and Moore's President and left him a Voice Mail to call me. With my store closed now, they DESPERATELY need a decent store to carry their product in a Gallery environment - or they should set up a company owned store in the Tysons Corner area. In a region as affluent as Metro Washington DC with 6.3 million people and money to spend, they need something far better than Greenfront to show their brand.

No, I'm not opening a new store.....my wife would kill me. But if I were, I'd slay it.