Raymour & Flanigan Furniture stores are pretty prolific in the northeast.
There are four locations in our coverage area: Phillipsburg, NJ, Bridgewater, NJ, North Plainfield, NJ, and Watchung, NJ.
In the past 10 years, it feels as if Raymour & Flanigan has expanded considerably.
Overview
Raymour’s Furniture Company, the predecessor of Raymour & Flanigan Furniture, was established by brothers, Bernard Goldberg and Arnold Goldberg in 1946. Raymour & Flanigan Furniture is one of the largest furniture retailers in the United States, as of 2010. The company has 110 stores and showrooms in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island as of August 2016. They also employ over 5,000 people.
History
Bernard Goldberg and his younger brother, Arnold Goldberg, co-founded the first Raymour Furniture store, the predecessor of Raymour & Flanigan, in late 1946 in downtown Syracuse, New York. The Goldberg brothers did not name their new store “Goldberg” because another store in the city owned by their relatives already used their given name. Instead, the brothers named their furniture store after an antique shop on Long Island which was owned by another brother.
Decades later, Bernard and Arnold Goldberg opened a second Raymour Furniture store in Clay, New York, in 1972. The same year, Bernard Goldberg’s son, Neil, joined the family-owned company.
By 1990, the Raymour Furniture store had expanded to seven locations. The Raymour company acquired its competitor, Flanigan’s Furniture, which operated fourteen stores in the Buffalo and Rochester areas, in 1990. The acquisition gave Raymour & Flanigan its present name and expanded its presence in western New York.
Raymour & Flanigan expanded rapidly in the 1990s and 2000s (decade), becoming one of the largest furniture retailers in the United States. The company reported sales of over $1 billion in 2011 from 95 stores. By 2010, Raymour & Flanigan had 95 locations throughout the Northeast United States, including locations in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware, New York and Massachusetts.
Raymour & Flanigan Furniture purchased Alpert’s Furniture in 2007, thus expanding its market to Rhode Island. In December 2007, Raymour & Flanigan Furniture acquired 18 Levitz Furniture store locations in the New York Metro market.
Founder Bernard Goldberg remained the chairman of Raymour & Flanigan until his death in 2010, though deteriorating health caused his withdrawal from the day-to-day business of the company during his later years. Raymour & Flanigan is currently headed by two of Goldberg’s sons – President and CEO Neil Goldberg and Executive Vice President Steve Goldberg – as well as his nephew, Executive Vice President Michael Goldberg, as of 2010.
How much profit margin is built into furniture exactly?
The entire furniture industry is a mystery to us.
From a big picture perspective, it appears to us that the cost of furniture has been rising a lot faster than the growth of the rest of the economy. To almost exorbitant levels for what you’re getting.
We understand that pieces of furniture like sofas and recliners can be quite complex and time-consuming to make. They’re also difficult to transport, and take up a lot of room in storage as well. All fair contributors to the cost. Maybe furniture is simply an easy victim to all the related costs (fuel, insurance, etc.) with selling such types of products.
And how long will they last?
Is there such a thing as generational furniture anymore?
Back in the day – furniture used to last a very long time. Often even being passed on to one generation to the next (barring any horrific designs). Most things we see these days end up on the curb at some point in the near future.
One thing to consider is Amish Furniture – known to last a very long time. But those too, are costly. But in that case – you really get what you pay for.
Anyway – every time we’ve browsed a Raymour & Flanigan location, we were either unimpressed – or dismayed by the cost of the few things we took an interest in.
If push comes to shove, we’d rather deal with a local place such as Flemington Department Store. The salaried salespeople seem to be less pushy as well.
Where are these Raymour & Flanigan locations?
Below are some handy maps that show where these Raymour & Flanigan locations are exactly.
