Getting discount furniture?

[billbenson]

I want to get a nice bedroom set for my wifes birthday. I suspect you can go to stores and look at comporables and go online and have exactly what you want delivered. Anybody have any tricks for saving money on furniture purchases? I don't have a really high budget.

[nealrm]

Markup on furniture tend to be around 100%. That said, discount (cheap) furniture also tend to not last. So your goal should be to find high-end furniture that has been marked down for a specific reason. Check out stores that sell damaged goods. My wife and I bought a top of the line mattress for 70% off because someone cut the fabric taking the plastic off. Ten minutes with a needle and thread sealed the cuts and they are all hidden under a mattress cover.

[phanio]

Shop around - We recently looked in that Direct Buy company as they advertise great savings - but, you have to first join the club and that turned us off. However, i saw the other day that they were offering free memberships (not sure if they are still doing so).

[Harold Mansfield]

We have a company called Hotel Furniture Liquidators here. Apparently Hotels have to put in new stuff every so ofter to keep their ratings. I don't know the exact time period but it's something like every 6 months to keep a 5 star rating.

You should see if there is something like that in your area, or close by and also just be on the look out for going out of business, of location closings...online as well.

[bizjunkie]

I have found that discount stores don't really offer discounts - more in their name then in their prices. Plus, someone said 100% mark up more like 300%. Have you tried Rooms to Go? Just know that you get what you pay for and sometimes even less.

[billbenson]

Ya, I did some searching and there are discount furniture stores online. In the pre internet days I bought furniture online from a north carolina furniture distributor. I remember I had to pay for the catalog which was a big color catalog. In those days, the prices in the catalog gave a good reference point for furniture when you were shopping locally.

There must be some decent online furniture discounters. It would be nice to get a reference or two though.