Consumerist: Restoration Hardware

"Funny" Economic-Meltdown-Themed Marketing Fails To Impress Consumers

Meg Marco — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 15:28:09 EDT

The Wall Street Journal says that big discounts and hilarious bailout-themed marketing has failed impress consumers, and retailers are expecting sales to worsen before they get better. Restoration Hardware launched a "bailout" themed promotion offering $100 off purchases of $400 or more at the home furnishings chain, while Steve Madden posted signs depicting "a declining stock chart and implored shoppers to "Sell Stocks, Buy Shoes."

The deep discounts backfired, says the WSJ:

When they report September sales this week, many retail chains are expected to show big drops in sales at stores open at least year, a key measure of retail performance, according to analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.

Shoppers, it seems, have become jaded:

Some consumers are becoming hardened to retail claims of "last chance" and "final sale." Katie Ertel, 30, a La Jolla, Calif., counselor, said she's begun to tune out. "Every week it's the same 'last minute sale.' Eventually it's like 'Ha, ha. You are not getting me this time,'" said Ms. Ertel.

Big Discounts Fail to Lure Shoppers [WSJ]

Restoration Hardware Shifting Nearly All Of Its Furniture Production To China?

Chris Walters — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 17:11:43 EDT

If what this alleged Restoration Hardware employee says is true, the home furnishings chain may have just sacrificed its last remaining claim to distinction—high quality, American-made furniture—in an effort to increase profits. Supposedly, shoppers will see the effect of outsourced furniture through lower prices. RH furniture was always known to be fairly good stuff, if not cheap—can we now expect cheap but not good?

The employee writes:

I’ve worked part-time for Restoration Hardware for 3 years and during that time I have been amazed by some of illogical crap we’re supposed to feed our customers. However, they’ve really reached a fascinating new level. The store is now outsourcing all of its furniture to China. This has been gradually happening over the past two years, one product line at a time and they’ve finally decided to take the full on plunge and outsource all upholstered furniture and all but two or three collections of the wood furniture.

This was announced last night at our annual fall meeting. An entire section of the meeting was devoted to why outsourcing to China would not lower the quality of our furniture one bit. Not one iota. It would be exactly the same. 100%. Identical. It would just save the company $10 million. And allow all of us grateful urchins to keep our lucrative $8 an hour careers flourishing (insert threatening glare from management in case any of the political types want to get noisy) And the company isn’t greedy! It will pass these Chinese savings on to the customers—our super fine furnishings will be sold at a lower price point. But the exact same quality!!

All of these years we sales associates were told that the higher prices at Restoration Hardware were justified because our furniture was superior, handcrafted in America at companies with extremely high quality assurance standards that could be openly evaluated and monitored. We passed this information on to the customers and showed them how to evaluate the quality of the pieces, etc. And it turns out, we were big fat liars. All of you previous Restoration Hardware furniture buyers who paid extra money for your “quality” pieces were duped! Because it turns out, it can all just be made on an assembly line in China and you can get the identical quality for a lot less money. Hahahahaha! Dumbasses.

Or wait, maybe the company is lying now. Actually, you can’t get the identical quality furniture made more cheaply in China. It will be a product of lesser quality but the company is hoping really hard that charging a couple of hundred dollars less will mean that people will be blinded by the good deal.

As a sales associate it will be hard to pick which line to go with—the company I work for used to lie a lot but is now honest or the company I work for is lying now but for savings savings savings!

At any rate, I’m interviewing for a new part-time position today. My standards may not be high but they at least exist.

Restoration Hardware has rejected a takeover ...

Meg Marco — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 15:27:30 EST

Restoration Hardware has rejected a takeover bid by Sears and will be bought out by a private equity firm, Catterton Partners.

The NYT DealBook Blog says:

Restoration spurned Sears' $4.55 a share offer on Friday, saying it is not superior to the private equity firm's offer of $4.50 a share. Restoration cited "significant uncertainties" in Sears' bid as the reason it had decided to go with with the Catterton offer.

Sears submitted its offer on Thursday, the last day of a 35-day period for Restoration to solicit competing offers.

Sears made a $6.75-per-share offer in November, but withdrew the offer after Restoration's shares tumbled and Catterton cut its competing bid to $4.50 a share.

(Photo:mvhargan)

Yes, My Skull Candle Melted

Ben Popken — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 11:58:33 EDT

Amy, who had a dangerous soot spread through her house after a candleholder melted, has a few responses to reader comments.

"First of all, I didn't knowingly leave the house with the candle lit. I forgot. My son's school is less than a 1/4 mile from my house, and Shaw's is about 1 mile. It was a quick trip.

Secondly, the fire department, Fire Marshal, and Insurance company (and Adjuster) all know I left my house. It is still deemed an accident and Insurance is still going to compensate.

Luckily, our house has 2 levels and the second (lower) level was closed off and is practically soot-free, enabling us to continue to safely stay here while the repairs are being performed.

Finally, it was not dim-witted of me to mistake the candleholder for glass. The candleholder is glass-like enough that we all considered it a glass product until the fire occurred."

Her second comment is the reason why we posted the letter. The ferocity of the comments is why we love ya, but we think there could be a little less eating of our own. It's easier to pee in someone's shoes than walk in 'em.

Amy now has a login and is posting under bartamy in the comments. Say hi.

$17,000 In Damages After Restoration Hardware Candleholder Melts

Ben Popken — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 12:50:02 EDT

Everyone knows not to leave the house with a candle burning. Most people also assume that a candleholder will not melt and release a noxious cloud and cause $17,000+ in damage, especially one sold by such a fancy pants place like Restoration Hardware.

Such is the tale of Amy, presented inside.

An insurance investigation found that a skull-shaped candleholder, that Amy thought was made completely of glass, "contained a form of plastic that created noxious, toxic soot," that quickly spread throughout her house.

Again, never leave the house with an open flame. But Restoration Hardware should be reprimanded for selling 1) A candle-holding product that is itself a fire hazard 2) a plastic candle-holder designed to deceive the customer by appearing to be made of glass.

Amy says the product name is "Skull candle holder." It should be recalled. We can't find it on Restoration Hardware's website, perhaps it killed off too many customers last year.

Amy writes:

"Dear Restoration Hardware,

Approximately 2 years ago we purchased a set of decorative Halloween skull candle holders. We were unaware that they were plastic, as they had the feel, heft and look of glass. We used them each Halloween as part of our seasonal d cor, and on Wednesday, October 18th, I took them out of a closet and lit votive candles in two of them.

The candles burned for about 30 minutes before I ran out to pick my son up from school and make a quick trip to the grocery store to pick up a couple of items. I was gone approximately 30 minutes. When I returned home, my house was on fire. The smoke was so thick I was unable to gain entrance to the house, and immediately called 911. The dispatcher advised me not to return inside, but my boyfriend arrived before the firefighters and was able to put the fire out."

"I have attached several pictures to illustrate the damage incurred. As you can see, the actual fire was minimal. The burn marks you see on the carpet is actually the candleholder melted into it. The other pictures are to show the issue of soot that has pervaded our home.

The biggest problem is the soot damage. This plastic candleholder created an extremely fine, ashy, greasy soot that has penetrated just about every part of our home (and our pets). Our insurance company has condemned various items such as our microwave, living room sofa set, notebook computer, clothing hung in closets, food, light fixtures, wallpaper, cooking utensils, etc. because of the soot."

"Because of the damage, we have been confined to living in 3 rooms while a team of professional cleaners work through our home. Sometime next week the contractors will arrive and begin to repair and replace the damage to our home. I think it will take about 4-6 weeks before our home is fully livable again. We still don't know the extent of the damage to our home. Each day brings more news on whether our items are still viable or are condemned. As of today, we have approximately $17,000 worth of damage, and the number will continue to climb.

I read on your website the following guarantee:

"General and Furniture Guarantee: Restoration Hardware strives to achieve the highest level of service in our industry. Our goal is to provide our customers with the best possible customer experience. To this point, if we make a mistake, we'll fix it. You can expect nothing but the best in quality and service."

I don't know what Restoration Hardware can or would or should do in response to this. I feel deceived that there wasn't any tag or label that stated this was a PLASTIC candleholder. I would never have purchased it if I had known it was NOT glass. Certainly, not making this information available to consumers was a mistake."

"I was once a loyal and enthusiastic shopper at Restoration Hardware. I believed in the quality of your products. I was excited when you opened a store at Providence Place Mall, and even more excited when you opened your Outlet location in Wrentham, MA. However, my admiration and appreciation of Restoration Hardware is gone now. I don't think I will ever purchase from Restoration Hardware again.

Sincerely,

Amy C."

How Do You Like Your Sales Greetings?

consumerist.com — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 16:56:55 EDT

We have a question: how exactly do you feel about the obsequious Frank Nelson type who advances like a praying mantis upon you when you walk into a store, rubbing his fingers together, rolling his eyes to heaven and bellowing "Yeeeeeeeeesssssssssss?"

We ask because Eric B. just wrote us, enthusing about Restoration Hardware for our Best Customer Service contest. One of their saving graces, he writes:

Time how long till someone greets you. Not a pushy sales greeting like, "Ooh you look good on that sofa how many do you want to take home?" But an actual human greeting like, "Hello." RH: 60-90 seconds, per employee training. PB: Infinity. (RH trainers sometimes take new recruits into PB to show how it's NOT done.)

That's a far cry from the sales push, but we were curious how many customers were annoyed even by that. I would personally like to have no contact whatsoever with people working in a store until I actually require them. That makes me seem callous and unfriendly, but what seems to be a friendly "Hello" issued by a salesman often times becomes a sales pitch when you respond in kind.

Am I the minority here? Is a greeting when you walk in the door something that makes you feel all gooey, or an imposition that puts you on guard? Let us know in the comments.