Monday November 9, 2009
Who looks forward more to Black Friday, retailers or consumers? If you ask around you'll probably see them going head to head.
Retailers tend to pin their hopes on Black Friday, especially when times are tough and the Friday after Thanksgiving continues to be one of the biggest shopping days of the year.
And while consumers continue to be cautious, surveys do show that many are planning to shop this Black Friday. They have postponed buying to wait for just such a time when they can shop at sales to get the best value for their money.
So is there going to be a happy meeting place for both sides? Will retailers offer good enough deals, and will consumers reward that by showing up to shop?
And since we're asking questions, is it really true that you get the best deals on Black Friday? I don't think that is necessarily true for everything. By the way, a lot of furniture stores will be clearing out old inventory from this month to the beginning of the new year. So if you are looking to re-decorate, or even to begin decorating without spending huge amounts of money, this might be a good time to look around.
Thursday November 5, 2009

Do you know what curb-mining is? Maybe you've indulged in a little curb-mining of your own. If you have rescued furniture or other objects from the street and given them a second life in your home, you have been curb-mining. And if you are in New York City, your curb-mining may have got a little impetus, courtesy Blu Dot.
Blu Dot's little experiment consisted of dropping off 25 Real Good Chairs around the city. Some of these chairs are GPS enabled and you can follow their progress at Blu Dot's site. You can also follow updates on Twitter.
But it doesn't end here. Blu Dot will follow up with the new owners, who get a chance to discuss their chair related stories in a new documentary to be released in December to celebrate the first anniversary of Blu Dot's SoHo showroom.
Wednesday November 4, 2009

It is no secret that technology is now an important part of how we live and function. American Home Furnishings Alliance or AHFA's October 2009 national telephone survey shows that within the next year, one-third of those surveyed expect to purchase a piece of furniture to enhance the function or style of a new piece of home technology.
The most avid technology shoppers belong to the 18-34 year age group, followed by 35-44 year olds who have children living at home. These two consumer age groups are the ones that are most looking to buy furnishings that complement or support their technology.
While office furniture and entertainment centers have been complementing technology for a while, manufacturers have begun making allowances for that in bedroom furniture as well, such as Hooker's Envision series. Another collection offered earlier this year is Copeland's Catalina Collection.
Tuesday November 3, 2009
You remember the crazy La-Z-Boy DWI Chair story we were following? Turns out it wasn't La-Z-Boy after all, and the La-Z-Boy people objected.
Trouble is, every recliner or lounger gets called a La-Z-Boy chair, and this one was no exception. When the La-Z-Boy people objected to Police Chief Walter Wobig, he agreed to take their name out of the listing and promised full disclosure to the bidders that this was not a La-Z-Boy chair.
The auction was supposed proceed, but without La-Z-Boy's name in it. According to Wired, Wobig had no problem with the request and immediately went on eBay to make the changes.
But then eBay wasn't satisfied and the new listing was pulled Monday night. When Wobig tried to get in touch with the decision makers at eBay he had no luck. So now a completely new listing has gone up again as DWI Chair, Motorized Chair, Racing Chair, but for that very reason, the bidding had to start anew and now stands at $6800 as opposed to the almost $45,000 earlier. The auction now ends November 5, 2009.