For decades, many of the top brands of furniture, fabric, lighting, flooring and wallcoverings have been relegated to wholesale showrooms in regional design centers, where consumers often cannot visit, and can only buy with the help of a designer or architect.
Designers and showrooms defend the practice, claiming that consumers benefit when they work with a knowledgeable, experienced advocate who is familiar with the consumer’s home and needs, and can help steer him or her through the myriad options and decisions that come with ordering quality home furnishings.
Detractors say that the system limits consumers’ exposure to high design. That, in turn, hurts the design community, because the public can’t demand what it doesn’t know about. After all, why yearn for Picasso or Renoir when all you’ve been exposed to is Thomas Kincade?
Showrooms are aware of this conundrum and have taken steps to lift the shroud of secrecy that surrounds wholesale design centers. Many centers now allow consumers to visit during proscribed hours and have established purchasing services to help consumers buy the products they see.
What do you think? Share your thoughts and comments with others; just click on the "Forums" link at left.
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Designers and showrooms defend the practice, claiming that consumers benefit when they work with a knowledgeable, experienced advocate who is familiar with the consumer’s home and needs, and can help steer him or her through the myriad options and decisions that come with ordering quality home furnishings.
Detractors say that the system limits consumers’ exposure to high design. That, in turn, hurts the design community, because the public can’t demand what it doesn’t know about. After all, why yearn for Picasso or Renoir when all you’ve been exposed to is Thomas Kincade?
Showrooms are aware of this conundrum and have taken steps to lift the shroud of secrecy that surrounds wholesale design centers. Many centers now allow consumers to visit during proscribed hours and have established purchasing services to help consumers buy the products they see.
What do you think? Share your thoughts and comments with others; just click on the "Forums" link at left.
