TOLEDO, Ohio — If you've been looking around your house the past five months thinking you need to upgrade your furniture, you're not alone. Local furniture stores say they've been busy.
When La-Z-Boy reopened in late April, Matt Simpson said he wasn't sure anyone would even want to come into his store. Turns out, it was just the opposite. "We have not stopped since then. Just non-stop," said Simpson, with La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries.
Simpson said those who've been lucky enough to stay employed have money to spend, and they're spending it on their house.
"Tired of sitting on their old sofa or their old chair and so it's a good time to spend some money and you're not going on vacation so why not spend it on your home."
Simpson said he's constantly turning over stock, but there's generally enough merchandise to go around. However, custom orders will take several weeks to come in and there are few reasons for that.
"The factories, they can't have the entire staff of factories there at one time so they've kind of scattered and spread out the production. That's caused a bit of delay," said Simpson.
He added the supply chain to make the furniture has been disrupted, also causing a delay. Add to that, sheer demand. He's seeing record sales.
The same is true for Appliance Center.
"We've been selling furniture like crazy, which is awesome," said the Display Manager for Appliance Center, Brittany Osborn.
She said orders there can also take a while to come in, sometimes up to ten weeks.
Osborn said many customers don't want to wait so they're buying up whatever is there on the floor, and delivery turnaround time is fairly quick.
"It's been hard to get inventory, just like everything else so we've been selling lots of things off the floor so we're constantly changing the floor, which is great for the customers to see different things but it takes a lot of manpower," said Obsorn.
She said that means they're hiring.
Both stores say they're happy to meet the demand.
"We just ask everybody, please be patient. We're really working as hard as we can. Our staff is also concerned about having a safe environment for the consumer but also for the staff as well," said Simpson.