Furniture stores see range of impacts from pandemic

Facing store closures, reopenings and supply chain issues, furniture stores are working to make sure customers feel comfortable shopping, whether in stores or online.

By Grier Ferguson
| 4:00 p.m. May 20, 2020
| 0 Free Articles Remaining!

Courtesy. Online sales for Rooms To Go increased while its brick-and-mortar stores, like this store in Naples, were closed.

Strategies

The pandemic hit right as OFDC Commercial Interiors was delivering an order to Gulf Coast Medical Center, a Fort Myers hospital. “We were in there installing as they were doing COVID tests out front,” says OFDC Commercial Interiors President and Owner Joe Gammons.

That was one of the first signs things were going to be different for the Fort Myers-based firm, with nearly 50 employees, $30 million in annual sales and showrooms in Fort Myers and Sarasota. Another sign of the pandemic times? The company added a new product: a home office setup shipped to the customer in five days.