Has anyone bought furniture in North Carolina?

[Sashi]

This thread is more for people that don't live in North Carolina but have gone there to purchase their furniture because of the massive amounts of warehouses/manufacturers/no sales tax/etc/etc down there????

I'm from up north, PA to be exact and since we are closing on a home in September, we were going to take a trip down to NC to go shopping for furniture. Pay shipping but no sales tax and things are much less expesive than say Ethan Allen up in my neck of the woods.

Furniture Land South (http://www.furniturelandsouth.com)

Boyle's Furniture (http://www.boylesfurniture.com)

Just two of the many..........if anyone can post their experiences that would be incredibly helpful...

Thanks again :p :D

[Atlanta_eBride]

I've bought furniture from there and would do it again if I was in need of several items. Shipping was free since I had purchased a certain total amount - but this might also be my proximity to NC. I seriously saved money from what I could get out of most department stores and the quality was better too.

[Sashi]

Thank you so much "Atlanta ebride." I really appreciate your input. Was there any one place in particular you recall being better than the rest?

[Atlanta_eBride]

I used Grindstaff. They all have the same good deals, it's just a matter of what styles you like - most lean in one direction or the other. I love furniture shopping so I liked it all. ;)

[jeanine]

We've ordered a few things from Boyles. Our dining room set, and about a year later, some leather chairs. We had a very good experience. The order was correct, and there was no damage. Unfortunately, the law just changed back in about March that they are now required to charge sales tax for out of state orders - at least to PA. It was still a lot cheaper then what the stores here quoted us. Boyles has such a wide variety of furniture, you can probably shop around up here and then call them with what you want. We did that for our dining room set. For the chairs we were down in NC for a business trip anyway. Happy furniture shopping!

[shellbell516]

ok. I was beginning to wonder how you were getting out of not paying the 7% sales tax.

[Sashi]

Thank you ladies for all of your responses. We contacted furnitureland South and they've been great so far. We are going down there next weekend and from the price quotes we've received, it is well worth it. 40% off the price up here! What a mark-up on furniture there is!

I just saw a dining room table I love from Boyles so I'm waiting to hear about pricing. It seems like Boyle's has some stuff but not everything in the collection.

I hate decisions so i'm having a hard time with all this. Plus, since I don't live in the house yet, dimensions and such have really become my starting point and that still isn't helping when i plan things over the internet. I feel like i need to see the furniture in person to tell if it fits.

Thank you all again for helping, any more advice or information you want to lend, my ears are open!
Toodles

[BeachBum]

I've bought furniture from NC several times. I think I saved about 30% or so, but more importantly I got to see so much more variety than I did at home. We chose to travel to NC and spend the night at the Holiday Inn Express that is next door to the mall.

We chose to go to Hickory both times. I did the majority of my shopping at the Hickory Furniture mall. Bolyes is one of the many stores there. From my experience the majority of the stores will not quote prices over the phone unless you've physically visited the store in the last 30 days.

I don't mean to be a downer, but Furniture Land South has a horrible reputation. It is the only store that I've heard not to shop at. You might want to read through the furniture forums at Garden Web for more info.

[Camdynlyn]

Being from NC, I guess I have bought all my items here.

I have walked Furniture Land South many times. It is huge and my Cousin's wife worked there for a period of time. It is wonderful. I got price quotes and found what I wanted and went to another dealer who quoted me TON cheaper here in NC.

[WisWis]

I live in southern VA so traveling to NC to do my furniture shopping is a given. Most of the shopping I've done so far has been at Furnitureland South and my experiences with them have been nothing but positive. DH and I are planning to make another trip down in the next month or so once we're settled in our new house.

[Sashi]

BeachBum - Thank you so much for some feedback. I'm looking into Hickory Furniture mall as I speak and I really appreciate your input!

Camdynlyn - Just out of curiousity........where else in North Carolina did you go to get cheaper prices!? Obviously, we are driving down there for the prices and if we can go any cheaper and get the same stuff, I'm all for it! LOL ;) ;) if you know what I mean.

WisWis - Thanks for your input! I'm glad to hear another satsified customer. We are going to FurnitureLand South because we have had many people tell us of their positive experience. We've had nothing but good things so far to say. They are dealing with us over the phone and through email. Thanks :)

[Sashi]

Tonight begins my trip to North Carolina for furniture. I'm so nervous that I'm not going to find things that fit or my dimensions are off and i'm going to buy too much furniture, etc. etc. etc.!

I'm excited but over 1 million sq ft of furniture is just possibly too much to soak in and make decisions after 8 hours!

[ce_Kathleen]

Sashi
This may be too late but I thought I would let you know for the future. I too live in PA and was looking to buy furniture from NC. I knew exactly what set I wanted from Broyhill so I just called the stores down in NC and they all emailed me with the prices. Turns out I was able to use the emailed price quotes at a local store that matched the prices and I didn't have to pay shipping then!

Just wanted to let you know so if you see something but maybe aren't 100% certain on buying just yet they can/will give price quotes over the phone or through email and you can choose to buy from them or see if a local store will price match.

[Tanya]

ce_Kathleen, that is good advice. However, I found that no store I called would put their quotes in writing because they didn't want you to go to a local store and match the price. Plus they could get in trouble w/ the manufacturer. I wanted to by our bedroom furniture from a local TX store since it was in stock, and they would only match the price if it was in writing with the store's info on it. This wouldn't fly, because the TX store could get upset with the manufacturer since their "wholesale" price could very well be more than what I was quoted. The longer a store has a relationship with a manufacturer, the lower their wholesale prices are.

I ended up buying our Stanley furniture from Lenoir Furniture (http://www.lenoirempirefurniture.com/) which is actually in TN, but right on the border of NC. I highly recommend them for Stanley; I could only find 3-4 stores that carried this brand and they were the cheapest and have been in business 28 years.

[ce_Kathleen]

Tanya Huh, I had no idea that the prices are lower based on the relationship with the manufacturer. I wonder why I was able to get 5 quotes in writing? When I called to talk to all the stores they were all very nice and had no problems sending me a quote and honestly I was going to go through one of the stores in NC but when I went to the local store to actually see the Broyhill set in person they convinced me that they would match the prices from NC if I brought in the quotes. Now my local store did NOT match the lowest price of all the quotes but they matched the middle price which was still a savings since I didn't have to pay shipping/delivery charges. My local store even called 2 of the stores in NC to verify that the quotes I had were true before we struck our deal. My local store did say that the reason they could not match the lowest price was b/c it was below their wholesale price and I didn't understand what that meant at the time but now you clarified that with the fact that their relationship determines their pricing.

[Sashi]

ce_Kathleen - Thank you for the suggestion. i unfortunately had everything booked and actually didn't get your response until after our trip down there. We made out really really really well! Our salesman was less than desirable but we go everything done. And since we got such a huge savings, we bought more than we anticipated. I actually still have to go searching for 1 or 2 more pieces to purchase over the phone with him to add to my order.

Tanya - They had your bedroom set from Stanley there. I didn't price it but it certainly was beautiful! We were going to get a dining room set by Stanley but we ended up just loving the one we originally picked out. Stanley makes a great piece of furniture.

[jenji]

so how much cheaper is furniture in NC? I live in East Tennessee, just over an hour from the NC border. is it enough to make it worth the drive?

[Tanya]

Thanks, Sashi. Glad to know it worked out for you.

jenji, it can be a significant savings. I think we got our bedroom set for about 40% off what it was sold for here. We paid $600 in shipping costs (but no taxes which really helps since we're at 8.25%), and it was still a significant savings.

The place we got ours from was in TN (see my post above). Make sure to price out the pieces with shipping, because some build their shipping into the price. Ours did not, we paid the actual shipping cost directly to the shipper. Also, some have minimum shipping costs such that if you are ordering a small amount it's not worth it. I was looking into a chair that was $600 locally, and I did find it cheaper in NC, but with shipping at $150, it wasn't worth it.

[Sashi]

jenji - the savings are definitely significant. We saved over $7k on all the stuff we bought (after our expenses for the trip like the drive, hotel, food, etc). Some pieces are not that much of a bargain, I suggest getting price quotes either over e-mail or phone first just to see. Furnitureland South was a great savings. But just so you know, their biggest sale months are August and February. Also, take your time and do as much as you can do at home because 8 hours was not enough to furnish 4+ rooms of furniture. Lots of decisions, especially if you are customizing stuff which we didn't even do.