As she made her way with steely determination across our showroom, she reminded me for a moment of a fly fisherman on the Colorado. Pinched between her fingers was a long loop of blue raffia. Dangling from it was a … lure? I shook myself out of my daydream.
No, actually, what looked like a lure was a price tag delicately speckled with information. She’d yanked it from a spectacular catch – a gorgeous dining set that had just arrived on our showroom floor – and now, judging from her quick step, she was excited to land that prize.
FCG’s tags have an almost magical power. For one, they offer a wealth of information. They give details such name brand, the item’s measurements and the price. And that’s where it gets a bit complicated.
FCG has a very precise markdown schedule for our consignment furniture based on how long a piece of furniture lingers in the showroom. Every 30 days, the price drops 10%. As an example, an item consigned in early February will be 20% off its original sales price in mid-April. Some tags have a red stripe through the pricing information indicating that it has reached its lowest sale price.
Our determined fly fisherman – er, shopper – dangled the lure in front of me. She apparently wanted a bit more flexibility in the markdown schedule. “So the price goes down on May 10?” she asked with feigned innocence. “Could we pretend today is May 10?”
That’s a ploy we’ve heard before. Customers try all sorts of tricks to get a lower price than the markdown schedule. But, at FCG, we also have a responsibility to our consignors who trust us to get them a fair price on their furniture.
In truth, most items don’t last long enough to have their prices marked down. Some 60% of newly consigned furniture sells within a month. Shoppers new to FCG often learn a hard lesson if they wait for a markdown on a piece of furniture they’ve fallen in love with. It's likely not to last a month in the showroom.
Our shopper didn’t make that mistake. She knew she’d found a piece of furniture that would be perfect for her home. She walked out of FCG triumphantly after we rang up the sale, confident that she’d landed the biggest fish in the river that day.
