Back in 2007, a financially savvy young wife came to our store, her eyes bright with excitement and determination. Her husband, a rising corporate executive, was on a business trip. While he was gone, she wanted to furnish their new home. The biggest challenge: their shoestring budget.
At FCG, she found everything she needed and, best of all, it was top-of-the-line stylish furniture at an extraordinary bargain. A Queen Anne dining set! A sofa and upholstered chairs in the fashionable jewel tones that were so popular back then. The perfect rug! Lamps! She was thrilled.
Happy to help her accomplish her mission before her husband came home, we loaded our delivery truck the very next day. We installed everything and in only an hour the house was utterly transformed into a home worthy of Architectural Digest. She even found the perfect armoire to hide the television. It was back-breaking labor installing that massive cabinet but she wanted to be on-trend and this piece was a real find.
She hugged our delivery team when we left and told us she planned to unveil the big surprise that night when her husband got home.
Two days later, she called us in tears. Her husband did come home and was happily stunned at the transformation – until she let slip that she’d bought it all at a consignment store. Used furniture? He simply couldn’t handle the idea of used furniture in his home. A few days later, the couple shipped it all back to our store.
Bad mistake on the husband’s part, I’ve often thought. His wife was simply ahead of her time. She’d saved a bundle of money while furnishing their home beautifully.
Not so long ago, used was considered tacky. Even used cars were sneered at by some until marketers soothed anxieties by creating the term “pre-owned.” Now, websites and retail stores are flourishing selling used items ranging from designer purses to wedding gowns to books to furniture.
The pandemic – and the supply chains it snarled – super-charged the trend. So did the millennial attitude towards recycling and reusing. Most of us have embraced what that young wife knew more than a decade ago: buying consignment is better for the environment, better for your wallet, and better for your home.
Oh, and by the way, that husband clearly learned something after that rocky start in furnishing a home. He and his wife have been for many years loyal customers of FCG.