Shoppingses
Nov. 13th, 2005 07:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jducoeurIn the interest of preparing for the imminent move, we decided to punt Cooks Guild today in favor of spending essentially the entire day window-shopping at Jordan's Furniture.
Jordan's in Reading, like all of their stores, is very focused on "shoppertainment" -- the store is designed as a destination. This was wholly successful -- when we started to get fatigued after a couple of hours, we stopped at Richardson's Ice Cream for a couple of sundaes, and watched the musical water fountain (every bit as good as the one in Epcot, if rather smaller in scale) and the people trying out the trapeze lessons. I find myself really wanting to try that sometime. I need to get my upper body strength up a bit first, and I absolutely need to work on my abs (which look like the most important muscle set), but it looks oddly fun. The height might freak me a bit, but between the person on the ground providing most of the weight support, and the bouncy net at the bottom, I might be able to get past my acrophobia long enough to give it a good try.
Other than that, it was a grand sweep through most of the store, from one end to the other. I do get the impression that we're fairly unusual -- the highly-solicitous salespeople seemed consistently a little taken aback by our abundance of clear opinions about what we did and didn't want.
The first stop was mattresses. We got about halfway around the room, comprehensively lying down on every mattress, before one of the "sleep technicians" scolded us that we should be talking to someone who could narrow things down from the 80-some options they had. We almost blew past that, but she proved to actually know what she was talking about, so we let her guide us to some good choices. Amusingly, when all was said and done, the leading contender remains the first one we encountered as we came in the door.
In bedroom sets, I was surprised to discover not just how closely price correlates to quality, but how easy it was for me to tell the quality of a set. Really, just pulling out one of the drawers was usually enough -- just by feel I could tell how tight the tolerances were, whether the sliders worked well, and whether it was nailed or dovetail construction. Woodworkers' seems to be rubbing off on me. In the end, we came up with one set that is clearly leading the pack: a little expensive, but conspicuously good quality, nice but not ostentatious looks, and reasonable dimensions. (The one drawback of the new house is that the master bedroom isn't very large, so those huge sleigh beds that are all the vogue are much too large.)
We didn't precisely strike out in sofas, but there were no home runs either. We may have to look around elsewhere. But we did find a chaise longe that, while completely not what we were planning, grabbed us well enough that we might yet buy it instead of the originally-planned loveseat. (It's super-comfy, not bad looking, and 2-4 people can probably perch on it if we have a crowded party.
So overall, a pretty productive afternoon. No actual purchases yet (we're not going to jinx things by buying furniture before the closing), but we have a pretty good idea of what we might do for a number of the pieces we need to get...
Jordan's in Reading, like all of their stores, is very focused on "shoppertainment" -- the store is designed as a destination. This was wholly successful -- when we started to get fatigued after a couple of hours, we stopped at Richardson's Ice Cream for a couple of sundaes, and watched the musical water fountain (every bit as good as the one in Epcot, if rather smaller in scale) and the people trying out the trapeze lessons. I find myself really wanting to try that sometime. I need to get my upper body strength up a bit first, and I absolutely need to work on my abs (which look like the most important muscle set), but it looks oddly fun. The height might freak me a bit, but between the person on the ground providing most of the weight support, and the bouncy net at the bottom, I might be able to get past my acrophobia long enough to give it a good try.
Other than that, it was a grand sweep through most of the store, from one end to the other. I do get the impression that we're fairly unusual -- the highly-solicitous salespeople seemed consistently a little taken aback by our abundance of clear opinions about what we did and didn't want.
The first stop was mattresses. We got about halfway around the room, comprehensively lying down on every mattress, before one of the "sleep technicians" scolded us that we should be talking to someone who could narrow things down from the 80-some options they had. We almost blew past that, but she proved to actually know what she was talking about, so we let her guide us to some good choices. Amusingly, when all was said and done, the leading contender remains the first one we encountered as we came in the door.
In bedroom sets, I was surprised to discover not just how closely price correlates to quality, but how easy it was for me to tell the quality of a set. Really, just pulling out one of the drawers was usually enough -- just by feel I could tell how tight the tolerances were, whether the sliders worked well, and whether it was nailed or dovetail construction. Woodworkers' seems to be rubbing off on me. In the end, we came up with one set that is clearly leading the pack: a little expensive, but conspicuously good quality, nice but not ostentatious looks, and reasonable dimensions. (The one drawback of the new house is that the master bedroom isn't very large, so those huge sleigh beds that are all the vogue are much too large.)
We didn't precisely strike out in sofas, but there were no home runs either. We may have to look around elsewhere. But we did find a chaise longe that, while completely not what we were planning, grabbed us well enough that we might yet buy it instead of the originally-planned loveseat. (It's super-comfy, not bad looking, and 2-4 people can probably perch on it if we have a crowded party.
So overall, a pretty productive afternoon. No actual purchases yet (we're not going to jinx things by buying furniture before the closing), but we have a pretty good idea of what we might do for a number of the pieces we need to get...
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(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-14 12:58 am (UTC)In fact, it's worth hitting Jordan's, making a surreptitious note on brand names, then hitting Gardner. :-)
Last time I bought furniture, it went the other way. I fell in love with Canadel brand dining room sets, but the particular model I liked was only sold to Jordan's. :-)
(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-14 02:10 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-14 04:14 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-14 01:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-14 01:20 pm (UTC)But what they did for me, and which I saw them do for others, at both the Natick and Burlington stores - was to talk to you about what you like, and then pull out a couple for you to try.
The fellows in Burlington were especially helpful - and the guys in Natick were trying pretty hard to be helpful as well.
One of the nice things they told me (way back then) was that they were getting lots of Tempurpedic or equivalents. It seems those mattresses are so heavy that staff in the regular store's warehouse would slide them. And if the plastic covering tore, the regular covering would get wear marks. Those perfectly servicable mattresses were selling for one quarter the normal price at Building 19. :-)
If you are penny-pinching, it's worth pointing out that you can purchase almost ANY box spring, or keep your current, and just replace the mattress. Provided you don't go for a memory foam mattress - which will require extra support for the weight.
Building 19 is also the only place I could find a split-box spring (Queen or King) for anything approaching a reasonable price. At Building 19 that was a $50 dollar premium. At most other places it was more like 200-300 extra.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-14 02:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-14 02:21 pm (UTC)I'm the exact opposite. I can sleep anywhere, on anything. Unless it is horribly soft, in which case I can move to the floor. When visiting folks I have just thrown a sleeping bag down, and slept on that - with a folded towel for a pillow.
Nevertheless, the guys at B19 did know their stock, and if you know what you want, were very good at finding it. I told them "Firm or firmest, no pillow-top" and that's what they gave me. I'd shopped at Mattress Discounters, Mattress Giant, Jordan's, and a few others before I went to B19. B19 was no worse than the others - and a lot cheaper.
On the other hand, peaceful state of mind is worth a few bucks too. If you lay down expecting comfort, instead of looking for flaws, you'll find a better nights sleep.
furniture thoughts
Date: 2005-11-14 10:51 am (UTC)The wood stuff in the living room is from Restoration Hardware -- I liked it best of all the companies selling Mission style. More authentic lines, sturdier.
Re: furniture thoughts
Date: 2005-11-14 02:13 pm (UTC)As for Restoration: good stuff, but Mission just isn't our style. And we really aren't looking for much: when it's all put back into a single room, the Ethan Allen set will be at least halfway unified-looking...