By Austin Crosier / NYVT Media staff
With four showrooms across the United States, Telescope Casual Furniture is able to reinforce a positive presence in the casual-furniture industry.
Located in Chicago, Atlanta, Las Vegas and High Point, North Carolina, Telescope’s showrooms can provide an in-person look at its catalog products in the four directions of the compass.
“It’s important for us to showcase our furniture because in an image, whether it be a JPEG online or a catalog, it’s sometimes hard to tell the difference between a big-box, lower-quality-styled furniture and the durable 15-year warranty that we put on our stuff,” said Matt Pisani, Telescope’s national sales manager. “Sitting in it, letting designers try it, letting retailers feel the comfort, is critical to the final sale of the product.”
Pisani elaborated about the showroom locations and why each has a special significance.
“I’ll start with High Point, which probably seems like an odd location,” he said.
“High Point, North Carolina, is the indoor furniture capital of the United States. Twice a year, High Point . . . brings in about 100,000 to 150,000 buyers to the High Point Furniture Market, and the High Point Furniture Market has existed literally forever and ever and ever. . . . There’s a lot of crossover between retailers that have indoor and outdoor furniture, so it’s a natural fit that we’re there.”
Pisani said the “flagship showroom” is in Chicago, the outdoor furniture capital of the world. The showroom has been there nearly 40 years and is Telescope’s largest at 10,000 square feet.
Chicago’s showroom manager, Mark Moleski, noted the location is inside the Merchandise Mart, creating “a destination atmosphere.”
The building was the largest in the world when it opened in 1930.
“Since we have enough space, we’re able to show a piece of every product,” Moleski said. “This year in particular, the demand’s been pretty good.”
In Atlanta, Telescope has a 1,300-square-foot showroom. Company CEO Kathy Juckett and Pisani said Chicago’s showroom will consolidate into the showroom in Atlanta in 2023.
Pisani said showroom rental fees in Chicago, along with Atlanta’s downtown showroom location, factored into the decision to consolidate.
“Atlanta is at a Merchandise Mart downtown, The America’s Mart, and it has a showcase of furniture and accessory vendors,” Pisani said. “There are shows there every year for what they call gift and accessory furniture. So like lawn and garden, indoor furniture, clothes shopping, things like that.”
In Las Vegas, where Telescope has had a showroom for just five years, Pisani and Juckett agreed that Telescope needed a “West Coast presence” to bring in new buyers who might not be able to travel to the Midwest or East Coast.
Juckett joked that her employees love heading to the Vegas strip.
“For some reason, the guys really like to go to the Vegas show; I don’t know why,” Juckett said, laughing.
Pisani said that, over the next two years, Telescope will explore new potential showroom locations, including in Dallas.
“(We were) really interested in it, and that was like the February before COVID,” he said. “For us to get back into a showroom now with our current demand, a new showroom would be a huge undertaking for us . . . but that would be a highly sought-after location.”
