Y ou've

Got An Uncle

... in the furniture business, and it's no longer Joshua Doore.

Above: Jeff Oldstein has a prototypical family business.
Below: Bob and Sherry Eisen are filling niches.

ALAN ABRAMS SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

T

here are three levels of stores in the
furniture business.
In the first, a customer buys a
sofa, gets it home, and finds there's
a staple in the cushion, so he fixes it him-
self.
At the second level, the customer calls
the store and says, "There's a problem
here," and has the store send somebody
out to take care of it.
On the third level, the customer is
spending big dollars; when the sofa gets
into his house, the customer says, "I don't
want it. Take it back."
This article deals with all three levels.
About the only common ground shared by
the five retailers we've profiled is that they
are family businesses that sell furniture.
Perhaps another common thread is the
presence, mostly unseen in this article, of
Art Van furniture stores, which dominate
the business in the Detroit area. With 2,000
employees in 25 stores statewide, Archie
VanElslander's furniture empire racked
up a staggering $395 million in revenue in
1996. So here's how some others compete:

eff Oldstein of White Furniture in
downriver Wyandotte is still doing
business the old way — with a sin-
gle, family-run, independent store in
a small downtown traditional location, sell-
ing to a non-Jewish clientele.
"We just had a major facelift, because
you have to keep updating your business,"
said Oldstein. "We don't try to compete
with the big guys at the game that they've
created. We try to make our own identity,"
and, that includes having a nautical de-
partment to reflect the store's location, vir-
tually on the Detroit River.
Although it occupies three-and-a-half
stories,
the store on Biddle Avenue totals
(..)
only 15,000 square feet. Oldstein ac-
z lmowledges that it is small by today's stan-
u--1
= dards, where the average furniture store
cn fills 60,000 square feet.
But,White Furniture has been in down-
''
, town Wyandotte for more than 50 years.
I-- This is their third building, and they have
D been in it since 1967.
Oldstein's parents, Samuel and Alice,
c t started the business. Jeff began working
Li, in the store when he was 11. He took over
=
when his father, now 86, retired about 15
F-
years ago.
"From a small mom-and-pop store, we
are still family owned, with 13 employ-

j

)i

ees and four computers helping us get the
work done and change the way we mar-
ket. We use direct mail, especially toward
our customer base, which is now in excess
of 15,000.
"Because we put such an emphasis upon
customer appreciation, it is far less ex-
pensive to keep our customers happy than
to continue to have to advertise to replace
them," said Oldstein, who cites market re-
search to back up his philosophy.
"Our customer loyalty is extremely high.
There isn't a day that goes by that we don't
have one or two previous customers, or two
or three referrals from people who have
bought here and are happy with what we
did.
"In our store, you are not attacked at the
front door and bombarded by a second or
a third salesman within 10 minutes be-
cause you haven't made a purchase yet.
We'll fix you a cup of coffee and let you
browse around. And we do custom order-
ing at no extra charge."
But Oldstein's way of business has some
disadvantages, such as not being able to
warehouse as much as the large chains.
That's one of the reasons Oldstein puts a
premium upon custom ordering furniture
at competitive prices.
"You walk into a lot of stores and, if the
couch is blue and that's the only color they
have it in, it is blue or nothing. But you can
come in here and have your choice of what
you would like, as long as you're willing to
wait the eight weeks that it takes (for de-
livery from the manufacturer)," said Old-
stein.
The economic rebirth of downtown
Wyandotte has been a blessing for Old-
stein. Novi-based builder Bernie Glieber-
man's Crosswinds Communities is
constructing River Walk, 60 downtown
condominiums just two blocks from the
store, and the nearby Henry Ford Hospi-
tal is undergoing a $40 million expansion.
Oldstein, who is the business manager
of the Wyandotte Business Association and
serves on the Downtown Development Au-
thority, calls the city a hot spot. And that
economic upswing helped put White Fur-
niture solidly in the black last year.
"We have a strong customer clientele that
comes back here to shop — even though
they may have been transferred out to
Sterling Heights — as long as we're will-
ing, to bring the furniture out to where they
are. We're their furniture store, kind of like

the old days," said
Oldstein.

I

resin Kahn
may be presi-
dent of the
five-store
Gardner-White
Furniture chain,
but he believes
"the customer
runs our compa-
ny. There's no-
body as
important here
as the cus-
tomer. We only
stay in business because of the customer.
And 99 times out of 100, the customer is
right."
Kahn runs the company in tandem with
his wife, Ruth, who is in charge of com-
puter systems and programming; their
daughter, Barbara Tronstein, directs the
financing division; and her husband,
Steven, is in merchandising. Both Tron-
steins are attorneys.
"We also have two sons who are not in
the furniture business. Renegades. Doc-
tors. They belong in the furniture busi-
ness," said Kahn.
"We're not looking as much for the first
sale as for the second sale," said Kahn.
"Who is the last one they see before we get
that customer back? Our driver. So our dri-
ver has to look good, smell good, be clean-
shaven, and be nice. No one can walk in
my customer's house who can't walk in my
house.
"Today, a store that's well run, a store
that doesn't want to beat up customers,
and wants repeat business, can thrive in
this market. We're not out to hurt anybody.
We're a family-owned business, sometimes
too much family, but it is our family, and
everybody's got their own jobs," said Kahn.
"Ten years ago, we bought [furniture]
in North Carolina. Today we buy all over
the world. We buy in Italy, Malaysia, Chi-
na, Mexico and the United States. If the
public realized how much furniture comes
out of the Far East today under fancy
names, they'd flip," said Kahn.
Gardner-White is considered a fast-de-
livery house, because they stock 98 per-
cent of their goods in their warehouse.
"It's a fun business because, usually,
everybody who buys furniture is happy.

How many times do you buy furniture?
Usually three times in a lifetime," he said.
Gardner-White has five stores: Water-
ford/Drayton Plains, Southfield and Tay-
lor, and two in Warren. The company
employs 300.
Kahn has been with the company for 47
years, starting when he was 20, working
in his father's first store on Michigan Av-
enue and 31st Street. Three years later,
Irwin Kahn was rurming the then-flagship
Gardner-White Fort Street store. Over the
years, Kahn has seen both the business
and the customer change.
"Today, there are VISA cards. There's
no loyalty that you have to buy from one
store; your VISA card takes you anywhere
in the world. Today, you've really got to
earn your customer to try to keep him."
Is store loyalty old history? Kahn said
36 percent of their business is repeat busi-
ness, and that figure is growing. "If you
treat customers 100 percent according to
the way they want, during their lifetime
they'll send you a quarter of a million dol-
lars worth of business. That's between
them, their family and friends. And that's
big ticket. But, if you screw up, you'll lose
$250,000 worth of badmouth," said Kahn.

M

ark Morganroth of Sherwood Stu-
dios, on Orchard Lake Road in
West Bloomfield, is on the high-
er end of the furniture spectrum.
"We are in the fine furniture and inte-
rior design line, which is a quality line
above what others carry," said Morgan-
roth, a certified member of the American
Society of Interior Designers (ASID). The