Retail Observer

RETAILOBSERVER.COM FEBRUARY 2018 50 L ast quarter's article, we did a deep dive into a number of innovative and unconventional promotions and sales hosted by Eric Cenatiempo, president of Appliance & Furniture Mart, in Garden City, Kansas. In that article, Eric shared a number of great ideas including a Harvest the Savings Sale, a Push, Pull or Tow Sale, and an Ugly Sofa Contest. In each case, the events attracted the curiosity and, ultimately, the disposable income of both existing and new customers. This month, Cenatiempo shares his play book for two other winning events, a twice-annual tent sale and an annual private sale. If the atmosphere during the tent sale is circus-like, that is fine with Cenatiempo, especially considering that his twice-a-year tent sale extravaganza is conducted under a 17,000 square foot circus tent. The store buys up lots of discontinued and or close-out furniture, mattresses and appliances, fills the tent with them, then works feverishly to keep up with the hordes of consumers who pack the tent to take advantage of the great deals and sharp pricing. Typically, the tent sale will move hundreds of mattresses, and upwards of two truckloads each of appliances and furniture. Based on the incredible success of the past tent sales, the current tent sale has been expanded from a nine-day event to a 16-day extravaganza. "It is really wild when we hold the tent sales. We will offer queen bedding sets at $148 or a table and four chairs at $99, and the huge selections and oddball pricing really grab the customer's attention," Cenatiempo commented. And speaking of customers, Cenatiempo acknowledges that the tent sale also helps bring in new customers that he says, "…may have been under the false impression that we were too expensive a store for them to shop." Another blockbuster for the retailer has come in the form of an annual private sale. "We capture the emails of established customers then send them an invitation letter, which they must bring with them to gain admittance to the sale, which we hold every November," Cenatiempo said. "We pull out all the stops. We award prizes every 30 minutes, we have a chef come in and cook, and the customers love it. We incorporated some great ideas that we saw at the BrandSource convention and now, we have our own version of a Stampede," Cenatiempo said. "We also obtained a cash machine like BrandSource has during the convention and we give our customers a chance to grab what we call Marty Bucks," Cenatiempo said. And while Appliance & Furniture Mart focuses on entertaining events and promotions, the store takes a no-nonsense approach to customer satisfaction and customer experience. Today's consumers do their homework online before coming to the store and the staff at Appliance & Furniture Mart is trained not only about product specifications and features, but are also trained to truly listen to the consumer in order to match them up with the best product for their needs. "It's really interesting in that the customer does his or homework online investigating whatever product or products they are considering. But more often than not, once they come into the store and see how many choices they actually have, they often leave with a different brand or model," Cenatiempo said. As one example, he pointed to a customer who came in recently convinced that he wanted a QLED TV. However, when also shown an OLED model, the customer jumped ship and bought the OLED TV. Cenatiempo said another customer came in intent on buying a LG refrigerator. The man happened to be a coffee lover. "It just so happened that as he walked up to us, we were making fresh coffee on a GE refrigerator. The man had never seen a refrigerator that could make coffee and bought it on the spot," he said. The combination of a highly skilled sales team and successful non- traditional promotions have also given Cenatiempo the confidence to take price points on certain product categories to levels he never thought possible. Thanks to great supplier training and incredible product enhancements, we now are selling $10,000 mattresses from Tempur- Pedic as well as massage chairs from Cozia that retail for $6,000. And while the company is thrilled with its success in the high end, it also promised to beat prices on identical products sold by any local competitor. Although Garden City may have only a population of some 30,000, there is no shortage of competitors for Appliance & Furniture Mart. "We have Sears, Menards, Home Depot, Sam's Club, Wal-Mart, all the rent-to-own stores as well as four independent furniture stores," Cenatiempo said. Even so, the store has been a hometown hero for some 45 years and Cenatiempo credits a highly- trained staff, outstanding customer service, customer experience, and of course, out-of-the-box promotions. Mike Allen Furniture Trends THE RETAIL EXPERIENCE PART II E. Michael Allen, VP of Furniture and Bedding, BrandSource RO

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