Gallatin-based Cresent Enterprises, a 61-year-old family-owned furniture company, said on Monday it plans to close its two retail stores as sales have declined significantly in recent months.
The company said it would shutter locations in downtown Nashville and Cool Springs, affecting about 30 employees, though it would continue to operate its import division, which sells bedroom and dining furniture to independent furniture and department stores.
"This is a difficult decision and a painful strategic decision that we struggled over for months," said Taylor Condra, the company's director of operations and 34-year-old grandson of the store's founder. "The bottom line is, this enables us … to focus on the business that is profitable and growing and has a very favorable long-term outlook."
The Cresent Home Furnishings stores, which sell high-end furniture such as upholstered sofas starting at around $899, will hold store-closing sales beginning Nov. 21. The company will close about 100,000 square feet of combined retail space.
Furniture sales slideCresent Enterprises began in 1947 when Condra's grandfather, Charles R. Tomkins Jr., opened his first wholesale furniture store on the Gallatin public square.
Tomkins, an insurance agent, came up with the idea for the name for the business after one of his store's neighbors had a successful penny game business with "Crescent," a different variation of the spelling in its name, Condra said.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the company added retail stores, Condra said.
Condra said the economic crisis is one of the worst the 61-year-old company has ever experienced.
Despite efforts to drive more customers into the stores, sales are down significantly, though the company declined to say by how much or to disclose annual sales figures.
"This is as difficult a retail environment as anyone can remember," Condra said.
People aren't splurgingOther home furniture stores in the area have also seen sluggish sales. Family-owned Waller Furniture on Gallatin Pike South is closing after 50 years in business.
Sales are down 30 percent, and there are still many pieces of furniture to be sold despite a store-closing sale that began last month, said Jimmy Waller, the store's co-owner.
The uncertainty surrounding the economy has "got people tightening their belt and they are just not spending any money," Waller said.
Furniture and home furnishing stores have seen sales of $81.6 million in the first nine months of 2008, a6.2 percent drop in salescompared to the same period a year ago, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Fewer people purchasing homes and a tighter credit market have pushed some large home décor stores such as Linens 'n Things to close stores as customers began focusing on buying basic necessities, analysts said.
The economic decline is different from others in recent history because of how rapidly the economy is unraveling and consumer confidence is dropping, said David Penn, an economist at Middle Tennessee State University.
"We haven't seen the worst yet," Penn said. "We haven't seen the bottom."
Median sales per square foot at small to large home furniture stores fell to $146 per square foot by the end of 2007, according to High Point, N.C.-based National Home Furnishings Association. That is compared to $176 per square foot at the end of 2006, the association said.
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