The other Washington DC area dealer - Greenfront

[drcollie]

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.

[choubeck]

I agree with you that Greenfront is not the ideal showcase for Hancock & Moore for that area. It is too far away from D.C. itself and most of the Maryland suburbs and they have never done a great job marketing their lines. I have not been in 5+ years, so I can't speak to the changes. All that said, I used to like the store second only to yours. You turned me on the fact that they bought the H&M and others showrooms from the Market and they had blazing deals on some of the items. I only bought a few items from them, but they had truly amazing deals on Wildwood lamps and H&M from the showroom, among others. Their sales staff wasn't great, but I found one guy (who has long since moved on) that was pretty good. Hopefully H&M can find somewhere else - the Tysons Corner idea is a great one!

[drcollie]

The have changed, definitely. No longer the massive bargains they used to be and their delivery fees are ludicrous. To my home from their store is $ 250 (16 miles), and they charge a whopping $ 900 to deliver to downtown Washington DC. By comparison, I was $ 110 to my house (16 miles) and $ 140 to downtown DC. They have bold charges!