Here in Ohio, it’s been a rainy Memorial Day. I found myself wondering about the origin of Memorial Day and while researching, I came across a great explanation and some superb insights from Kevin DeYoung. While I find it a breeze to write regularly about church furniture, writing an article like this one from Kevin is far more difficult. I appreciate him making it available.
Every Memorial Day I think about my Uncle Bud who died in World War II (European Theater). I never knew him as I was born 15 years after he gave his life for his country. Today I honor though his service, as our country honors the service of millions like him.
Back in the 1980′s a new Christian Conference Center opened for ministry about an hour from where I pastor. A wealthy businessman had donated several million dollars to make this ministry a reality. As a condition of his gift, everything about this project was carried out in an excellent manner. He believed the Lord’s work was worthy of excellence and the furnishings for this facility were certainly consistent with his conviction.
Over the years that followed, I had the opportunity to attend several all-day conferences at this center. I would sit in the main auditorium for hours at a time in the chairs they had purchased. When I first sat down in one of these chairs, I immediately noticed how comfortable it was. But what surprised me was how comfortable it was even after sitting in it all day. I remember commenting on several occasions to staff members of the conference center how much I appreciated their choice of seating. Like each of you, I had experienced many times at other venues discomfort after being seated for less than an hour. Being comfortable on a chair after several hours of sitting certainly enhanced my experience at their events.
Several years ago we needed several hundred chairs for a similar environment at our church. I decided early on we should purchase the same chair the conference center had purchased, one that was perfectly suited to the desired application. I made the necessary inquiries and discovered the ELAN Series from Comfortek Seating. My decision was confirmed early on when I learned the nickname for the ELAN is “The Eight Hour Chair”. That was seven years ago now, and we could not be more pleased with our decision. Several other churches have now made the decision to purchase this same chair after visiting New Hope and enjoying ours.
Since our purchase I have discovered several other manufacturers produce similar chairs to the ELAN from Comfortek Seating. However, none carry the attractive pricing that Comfortek offers to the church community. So from years of personal experience as a consumer, and now for the past few years as the Church Furniture Guy, the ELAN has been and continues to be my favorite church chair! You can read about its attributes here. And as always, feel free to contact me with questions and comments.
One more quick suggestion: Be sure and connect with Save Your Church Money if you have interest in the ELAN or any other type of church seating. Their expertise and pricing strategy is of great value to churches across our country.
Since the stock market tumble in the fall of 2008, most church furnishings manufacturers have essentially frozen their pricing structures. The rocky U.S. economy of the past 18 month have led to some manufacturers even lowering their list prices overall. So as the mid-year point of 2010 approaches, the Church Furniture Guy carried out an informal survey of many of the leading church furniture manufacturers to determine if prices increases are in our immediate future.
The results? Only a couple of manufacturers reported their prices would increase mid-year, and then only on select items. The rest indicated they were prepared to carry their 2010 cost structure through the remainder of the calendar year. Some shared they do believe there’s a genuine need for increases, but recognize that doing so during these tough economic times would be difficult and even self-defeating. So the Church Furniture Guy believes pricing for the remainder of 2010 will be static for church furniture. That’s good news for churches!
Our church furnishings manufacturer from Parts One and Two of this series of articles begins producing church furnishings. As before they have developed an innovative line of church furniture that will serve churches across the country well. How will they take their new church furnishing line to market? In Part One, our manufacturer chose a “Manufacturer Direct” approach for their new church furniture line. In Part Two, they utilized a “Dealer Network”. Now in Part Three, we’ll see our manufacturer employ a “Hybrid Approach”.
What do I mean by a “Hybrid Approach”? As you might suspect, this is a strategy where the manufacturer both sells direct and markets their products through a dealer network. But how are they able to motivate dealers to distribute their products when they’re in a sense competing with these dealers by selling direct? It would seem that no dealer would advance the products of a manufacturer doing so.
Well, the reason dealers are willing to do so is summed up in one phrase, “two-tiered pricing”. Suppose our manufacturer makes church seating that they sell for $75 a chair to churches direct. The church believes they’re getting the best price possible on their worship seating because they’re purchasing direct from the manufacturer. But what the church does not realize is dealers for our manufacturer can purchase the same chair for $65 a chair which leaves room for the dealer to mark the chairs up a few dollars and still save churches some money. The idea that a third party (our dealer) could be added to the sale of the chairs from the manufacturer to the church and still produce savings defies logic, yet it happens every day.
I encourage you to always check with low overhead dealers such as Save Your Church Money before purchasing. You may be surprised at the savings your church may realize!
