Giant's footsteps rumble

The giant's footsteps can be heard on the horizon.

R.C.Willey is coming to town.

Expect a November arrival.

The mega-store's entry into the home furnishings market will have an effect, says Dick Bell, owner of the Reno Gallery of Furniture.

The strong will get stronger.

The weak - well, they'll fall away.

"We intend to be among the strong ones," says Bell.

R.C.Willey, a furniture, electronics, appliances and flooring retailer based in Salt Lake City,Utah, is a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

- the firm headed by the second- richest man in the world,Warren Buffet.

The store enters a market that has seen smaller furniture outfits come and go."Even the customers are aware of the turnover in stores.

They ask us about it," says Jeanne S.

Baxter, president of Ethan Allen Interiors, Reno.

"There've been so many over the past decade," she says, closing outlets across the nation, as well as in Reno.

She can count them out on her fingers - Levitz, Krause's Furniture, RB Furniture, The Bedroom Store, Breuners Furniture, and most recently,Winan's Furniture.

During that broad time period, and about five years ago or so, says Larry Wolfe, general manager and co-owner of Room Decor and More in Sparks, the furniture trade magazines were telling the world that Reno was the place to open shop.And so they did.

Stores came, stores went.

And the news of R.C.Willey coming to town? Well, the store's impressive, says Wolfe.

One reason why: It offers the convenience of several home furnishings categories under one roof - appliances, electronics, furniture, bedding, patio suites.

Most furniture store showrooms are filled to the rafters with just that - furniture.

Living Room.

Dining room.

Bedroom.

But appliances? That's another store.

Another trip for the customer, another parking spot to find.

Same goes for electronics.

And convenience is not all that the furniture stores are looking at as they face off against the giant.

There's delivery of product.

"That's a biggie," says Wolfe.

People today, he figures, want immediate delivery.

"I blame it on Wal-Mart," he says."It's conditioned us to expect instant gratification."

Customers today come into a furniture store, buy a $6,000 table, and then want immediate delivery.When the table's in stock, not a problem.

But if it's ordered from the manufacturer? Those orders, which often come in off container ships, can take four to six weeks.

Easily.

That timeline was acceptable expected a generation ago.

Not now.

R.C.Willey's 130,000-square-foot showroom on a 12-acre site in the Damonte Ranch development will be backed by 40,000- square-feet of warehouse and support facilities.

And supplied by a distribution center at least as close as its Salt Lake City center.

The middle of the market is most affected says Bob Farmer, floor sales manager for McMahan's Furniture Stores, Reno.

"Middleof- the-road merchandise," he adds,"the meat and potato stuff."

What's going to set the furniture stores apart is customer service, says Baxter.

The interior decorating support Ethan Allen offers is difficult to duplicate on a super-store level.

Baxter believes the northern Nevada market, buoyed by new home construction and new home buyers coming into town, is strong enough for everyone to find a place in it.

In fact, she's put money on it, having recently invested in six acres on South Virginia, and relocated Ethan Allen into a new, 42,000- square-foot building there.

She's also building a Basset Furniture Direct dealership - 19,200 square feet - in the same plaza, the Sierra Home Center, set for a July opening.

A La-Z-Boy store opened across the parking lot this year, too.

Meanwhile,Wolfe is in the midst of repositioning Room Decor and More in the market.

Bringing in a sales generation firm - going for a big burst of sales in July, then renaming the store.And the name: something with the word "furniture" in it, he says.

"Room Decor and More" has not been pulling them in.And with new competition in town in the form of R.C.Willey, he's gearing up.

But there's an upside to the giant's arrival, too, says Farmer.

R.C.Willey will be advertising furniture big-time.

And that will motivate furniture buyers to shop.And that may just prompt them to drop in on Reno's other furniture retailers.

Adds Baxter - "The more they advertise furniture, the more opportunities for us all.

It builds furniture awareness.

And when people shop, they'll usually shop more than one store."

Bell, sitting comfortably in an office behind the Reno Gallery of Furniture, has the last word: "Where else can a little guy from Reno get a chance to compete on a kind of even playing field with the second richest man in the world?"