At Homemakers Furniture Store in Des Moines, accessories are an important part of the product mix. And it is up to buyer Lori Konzen to make sure she has the right combinations to accentuate the furniture and tempt the customer.
She must be doing something right.
“My categories are all up,” she said. “I’m not down in any accessory category.”
That accessory mix ranges from lamps and rugs in their own galleries to wall art to candlesticks to vases to holiday to accent tables. And much of the product comes from IMAX.
“The look you can get from IMAX for the price shocks customers,” she said. “We have callout price tags that allow customers to see product prices from the aisle and the prices on IMAX products just stop people in their tracks.”
Lori sings the praises of IMAX for the quality and value at the price. “It’s an amazing value.”
Holiday is going to be a major category this year, Lori said. In the Marketplace, just as you enter the store, there is a working fireplace and an area for displaying accessories. She’s converting that to holiday now and has bought a lot of holiday from IMAX.
“I bought some of the large metal things last year, the deer, the Wise Men and Nativity, and they sold through quickly. They were items not everyone had seen.”
Homemakers, the largest furniture store in Iowa, has just completed a $30 million renovation and has 220,000 square feet of showroom space. Owned by Berkshire-Hathaway, Homemakers is one of the Top 10 Furniture Stores in the nation.
