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Hanging Chairs and Garden Furniture

As Good As Grass editor:
Loungers and swinging porch chairs are becoming a best seller at local hardware stores in America. Check out why this outdoor garden furniture is becoming all the rage in modern landscape gardens.

“Outside-the-Box” outdoor living products help retailers to battle the big box giants.

During the National Hardware Show® in Las Vegas, Nev. (May 9-11, 2006), thousands of hardware store owners, managers and buyers will flock to Lawn and Garden Word®, the specific area of the show dedicated to high-margin lawn and garden and outdoor living products and accessories. They should be sure to visit Outback Chair Company, Inc. (booth #52105). Why? Outback’s complete line of hanging outdoor garden furniture has proven to be a winner. Hardware stores are intent on competing with Big-Box mass merchants by offering their customers distinctive products that enhance the casual living experience.

Established by owner Howard Adelman’s father in 1960, Turney’s Ace Hardware, Chesterland, Ohio, is located in the state’s wealthiest county in a semi-rural area near Cleveland. Expensive homes with fantastic landacape gardens regularly sprout up on four acre lots. “I take chances on unique garden furniture products that my customers cannot find elsewhere. I want to keep my customers coming in to look for what’s new and different,” said Adelman. “I saw Outback’s hanging furniture at a hardware show in 2003. I tried the chairs and like them immediately.”

Adelman’s wife, however, was skeptical and doubted that Turney’s would sell even half of the initial order they purchased. “I was so confident that I bet her a diamond ring that we would sell every Air Chair and Charleston Cushion Chair in our first order,” recalled Adelman. He won the bet but graciously gave his wife the ring as a present. Today, Turney’s also offers Outback’s Charleston Rope Chair and Hammock. “Outback’s hanging garden chairs sell. Our customers love them,” he said. “And I like doing business with Outback Chair. It’s a super company. When we need a special order when a customer wants a chair in a colour we are out of, they rush it to us right away.”

Owned by the Ingalls family since its founding, GNH Lumber, Inc. has served contractors and landscapers in Greene County, N.Y. since 1937. Its two furniture stores are located in the small, rural towns of Greenville and Windham, N.Y., about 30 minutes south of Albany. Historically, Greene County has been one of New York’s poorer counties. As Albany continues to expand southward, developers are building clustered townhouses and single-family homes in the area. Eying the growth potential, Home Depot opened a store in Catskill, N.Y., less than 20 miles from Greenville.

“We don’t want to get into competing with Big Boxes on price,” says Steve Rossback, store manager, GNH Lumber. “I go to the Big Box stores to see what they are selling. We look for unique landcape and outdoor furniture products that our customers will not find at a Big Box.”

GNH first met with Outback Chair at an Orgill, Inc. show in 2000. “We thought that hanging chairs and hammocks from Outback would complement the picnic tables and other outdoor furniture we sell,” said Rossback. Today, GNH Lumber offers a range of Outback Chair products, including Air Chairs, Charleston Cushion Chairs, Outback Loungers and Charleston Rope Hammocks. According to Rossback, the Charleston Cushion Chair is the top seller. GNH hangs the outdoor furniture on Outback’s merchandising display system at the centre of its stores. “The display provides a focal point that everyone notices. When customers try the garden chairs, they sell themselves because they are so comfortable.”

And his experience doing business with Outback Chair Company? “Outback is a great company, very responsive, and willing to help us,” said Rossback. “I feel like they are on our side.”

Stu Elliott Jr.’s father founded Elliott Ace Hardware in 1957, and they now have four stores in the suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisc. One of his employees had purchased an Air Chair and raved about it, so Elliott decided to take a close look at Outback’s hanging furniture at an Ace show in 2002. Elliott Ace sells plastic stack chairs, concrete patio sets in the $150 to $450 price range and hammocks. He concluded that hanging chairs from Outback would complement this lawn and garden merchandise and give him a unique landcape garden product. “We checked out the prices that Outback’s products sell for on the Internet and determined that we could make good margins at those prices and that we could effectively sell the furniture at even higher price points,” said Elliott. “We’re entering our fourth season selling Outback’s products, and we’ve enjoyed solid success with the Air Chair. We also added Charleston Cushion Chairs to replace a similar, more costly product from a different garden furniture manufacturer.”

According to Elliott, the Air Chair is a special outdoor furniture product. “At the end of July, we discount our other casual furniture products and move them out of our seasonal rotation area. But we keep the Air Chair on display on Outback’s C-frame all year long in our stores and don’t discount the price,” Elliott said. “The Air Chair has proven that it can be an impulse buy, and we’ve had good luck advertising it during the Christmas season to promote the Air Chair as a gift item.”

Thus, for hardware stores across the country, in suburban and rural areas, and serving upscale and more modest-income markets, hanging furniture from Outback Chair Company is a winning category. Outback offers unique, high-quality and high-margin products and supports the success of family-owned retailers. “Our dealers in the hardware industry are proving that our hanging furniture helps them compete with mass merchants,” said Jack Bass, founder and president, Outback Chair Company, Inc. “That’s why we’re looking forward to meeting with hardware store owners and managers at the National Hardware Show and Lawn and Garden World.” Visit the company website at www.outbackchair.com for more information about their outdoor furniture suitable for your landscape garden.