Local Furniture Stores Still Struggling in Lackluster Housing Market

Furniture stores in Sherman Oaks have been feeling the impact of the soft housing market.

In 2008, consumers said goodbye to many well-known retailers they had been shopping at for decades.

Wickes and Levitz closed their doors in Sherman Oaks for good.  Elsewhere, the Bombay Co. closed all of its U.S. stores, and Ethan Allen shuttered 12 retail design centers and two service centers. Los Angeles-based Z Gallerie emerged from bankruptcy in 2009 after closing 21 stores, but retained 54 stores, including its Sherman Oaks location.

Robert Wylie, who has worked in the home furnishings business during the past 20 years, reworked his business plan in 2006. At that time, he closed his three-story wholesale store in downtown Los Angeles and instead opened retailer Urban Colony at 13680 Ventura Blvd. in Sherman Oaks.

“I saw this coming,” Wylie said. “It was obvious that what was occurring in the housing market was unsustainable. I just didn’t know how bad it was going to be.”

Wylie’s original idea was to use the floor space in his store to create a model condo that included a living room, dining room and bedroom. The model would promote his interior design business and sell sets of furniture, using the concepts he created, as opposed to individual pieces.

He found that his walk-in clients were more focused on price than design. Often, he would have a customer try to talk him down on the price of a couch by comparing it to the price they had seen at one of the discount big-box furniture retailers, he said.

After changing his business plan over the last two years and contacting suppliers so that he could offer somewhat down-market furniture at his Sherman Oaks location, he finally decided to relocate his business downtown once his lease expires. He will be closing his Sherman Oaks store at the end of this month.

“I don’t think the Sherman Oaks market is for me,” Wylie said. “It seems like most of the upper-middle-class customers in Sherman Oaks are families. If they are taking a hit to their 401(k) and struggling to pay the tuition at their child’s private school, they are making a decision that replacing the dining set isn’t a priority, even if it has a chip in it.”

The clientele Wylie said he hopes to capture in downtown Los Angeles consists of unmarried professionals who are still able to make design a priority in their living spaces.

“Generally, across the country, things have been getting better,” said Sharon Bradley, executive director of Sacramento-based Western Home Furnishings Association. “The states experiencing the most problems with housing and jobs are the ones lagging behind.”

Nest Furnishings, a store that occupies the corner across the street from Urban Colony, has been doing well enough to undergo a remodeling plan, according to the store’s manager. Nest plans to close while remodeling, but reopen with the same product line it is currently selling.