Popular Articles

Sweet marketing music

Tanner Montague came to town from Seattle having never owned his own music venue before. He’s a musician himself, so he has a pretty good sense of good music, but he also wandered into a crowded music scene filled with concert venues large and small.But the owner of Green Room thinks he found a void in the market. It’s lacking, he says, in places serving between 200 and 500 people, a sweet spot he thinks could be a draw for both some national acts not quite big enough yet for arena gigs and local acts looking for a launching pad.“I felt that size would do well in the city to offer more options,” he says. “My goal was to A, bring another option for national acts but then, B, have a great spot for local bands to start.”Right or wrong, something seems to be working, he says. He’s got a full calendar of concerts booked out several months. How did he, as a newcomer to the market in an industry filled with competition, get the attention of the local concertgoer?

read more
by Andrew Tellijohn
February 2005

Related Article

Resources

Read more

New tricks


New tricks

Start to Furnish concept charges up old-time furniture firm

by Andrew Tellijohn   While in high school, Larry and Russ Schneiderman would attend basketball practice at Toivola-Meadowlands High School in northern Minnesota. They would then stock shelves at their father’s furniture store, help load a delivery truck and then do homework before turning in for the night.

One night, as the older brother, Larry asked his father for mercy, saying their grades were starting to suffer. Max Schneiderman told his son he would take the situation under advisement.

The next morning, the basketball coach approached the brothers at school with a panicked look asking why their father had called and told them they would not be playing basketball anymore.

Larry Schneiderman convinced his father to let him and Russ keep playing ball, but not until his father elicited a promise from Larry: “I’m never going to hear you complain again.”

Larry Schneiderman recalls that story with a laugh now. In truth he’s never minded his role in the family business. After all, he’s been selling furniture on weekends since he was 16, “not because I had to but because I loved doing it,” he says. “You love to do what you are good at.”

Larry and Russ purchased what then was a one-store company from their father in 1982. They opened a second store in Duluth in 1984, then expanded to the Twin Cities a few years later. There are now seven Schneiderman’s-branded stores throughout the state, with a new, 100,000-square-foot big-box store in Plymouth open since mid-December.

In October 2004, the Schneidermans tried a new trick to refresh their company’s brand and to serve the type of customer who dislikes shopping in huge stores. They opened a new store called Start to Furnish, a retailer of leather and upholstered furniture and entertainment centers in Bloomington.

The 14,000-square-foot store attempts to reach customers — the majority of whom are women — who shun big-box stores for a more personal sales approach and often value the opportunity to design their own furniture, Larry Schneiderman says.

“There is a future for the more intimate, custom approach as well,” he says. “If you don’t take care of your customers, somebody else will.”

Brothers and partners
Larry, 55, is the softer-spoken of the two. He wears suits and ties to work. He describes himself as intense about the business but adds that he does not get angry easily.

Russ, 53, went to college to study criminology and thought twice about getting into the family business. He wears shirts and sweaters and admits to having a shorter fuse than his brother.

Both are married and have children. Both enjoy their work. Look no further than the company’s Web site, which features “Fun Furniture Fables” and pictures of Schneiderman’s employees playfully wrestling with vendors to achieve the best prices possible.

The brothers also share a deep respect for Dubuque, Iowa-based Flexsteel Industries Inc., the vendor that approached the Schneidermans about creating Start to Furnish.

“There couldn’t have been a company I would rather have done it with,” Russ Schneiderman says.

First dibs
A designer helped Flexsteel officials come up with floor plans for a gallery-sized store format that would emphasize the company’s products. Since Flexsteel and Schneiderman’s have worked together from the furniture retailer’s early days, it seemed logical to give Larry and Russ first dibs on opening a store, says Tom Baldwin, vice president of advertising and public relations for Flexsteel.

While it didn’t fit the décor of a Schneiderman’s store, “we were impressed with what it showed,” Larry Schneiderman says. “There’s almost a limitless set of options customers have,” with the upholstered sofas, furniture with accents and the opportunity for customers to custom-build their own furniture.

At roughly the same time Flexsteel approached the Schneidermans with the idea, the family was ending its franchise relationship with Thomasville Furniture, and as a result they had a storeroom in Bloomington available.

Schneiderman acknowledged the risk involved in starting a new concept. Will customers accept it? Will it take away from the existing Schneiderman’s concept? But with a four-decade working relationship with Flexsteel, “A lot of the guesswork is gone in that we are familiar with the product,” he says.

Flexsteel plans to roll out the concept with additional vendors across the country. The Schneidermans plan to consider additional Start to Furnish stores around the Twin Cities, a prospect Flexsteel officials embrace.

“They know the validity or value of the word ‘partnership’ when it comes to working with your vendors,” Baldwin says. “This is extremely important in business today. You do business, you are friends with everybody and they make sure that they value our relationship and we value their relationship.”

This smaller store format bucks a national trend, but there’s nothing necessarily wrong with that, says Russell Bienenstock, editor of New Rochelle, New York-based Furniture World Magazine. While furniture stores and chains, in general, are getting larger, not everyone enjoys the big-box experience. By establishing a new format, the Schneiderman family capitalizes on its well-known name while simultaneously reaching a new set of customers, he says.

“It’s a perfectly valid business model,” Bienenstock says. “It kind of complements what they are doing and gives them a different kind of image.”

Bienenstock adds that Flexsteel has a good reputation, and while other stores offer customers an opportunity to customize their furniture, it is still a nice perk. “Doing that in a short lead time is also a big benefit,” he adds.

While it’s always important for retailers to give customers a reason to shop in their stores, Twin Cities furniture dealers these days have no choice. In addition to national furniture chains such as Wickes Furniture, Ethan Allen, Levitz Furniture, and now Ikea, locally based chains such as HOM Furniture, P.M. Bedroom Gallery, Slumberland and Becker Furniture World all compete for limited consumer resources.

Crowded field
“There isn’t a more competitive furniture market in the United States,” Larry Schneiderman says. “It takes all our creativity and hard work to continue to grow. You have to do almost everything right, and there isn’t a lot of tolerance for mistakes.”

While it’s a friendly competition in Minnesota, the crowded battlefield has made it less so in recent years, sources say. That’s why it’s important to try new things, whether that means shaking up the offerings at an existing format or busting out with something new.

“All successful businesses need to evolve and experiment,” Larry Schneiderman says.

The Schneidermans are trying to do just that in both their concepts. The new store in Plymouth, which replaced smaller stores in Maple Grove and Minnetonka, features a separate 5,000-square-foot boutique called 4Winds, which sells accents and accessories. The company also is adding new furniture lines at its stores, though Larry Schneiderman declined to specify which ones.

The company does not disclose its annual sales. However, Furniture Today has pegged it at $40 million.

At least one local competitor respects what the Schneiderman family has accomplished over the years. Increased competition has already weeded out many small furniture companies, and some larger ones are likely to follow, says Wayne Johansen, president and CEO of Coon Rapids-based HOM Furniture Inc.

But as long as Schneiderman’s doesn’t create problems for itself by trying to grow too quickly, the family-owned company isn’t likely to disappear. “I’m assuming they are OK because they are getting money to build new stores,” Johansen says. “I think they are straight-up guys. They’re trying to make a living and doing it the best they can.”

In the end, having more high-quality furniture stores will lead consumers to buy more, which will help everyone, he says. Johansen adds that he likes to see Schneiderman’s and other local retailers succeed.

“We’d rather lose a deal to them than a national company,” he says.

[contact] Tom Baldwin, Flexsteel Industries Inc.: 563.556.7730, tbaldwin@flexsteel.com; www.flexsteel.com. Russell Bienenstock, Furniture World Magazine: 914.235.3095; editor@furninfo.com; www.furninfo.com. Wayne Johansen, HOM Furniture Inc.: 763.767.3600; www.homfurniture.com. Larry Schneiderman, Schneiderman’s Furniture: 952.435.7784, www.schneidermans.com. Russell Schneiderman, Schneiderman’s Furniture: 952.435.7784, www.schneidermans.com