Furniture Hot Spots : The Best Furniture Stores and Websites Coast to Coast
That was a long time ago, and Jennifer Litwin has since become one of America’s premier furniture brokers. Her book is for anyone who has ever felt intimidated by the unregulated market, and wanted a down-and-dirty guide to shopping for all kinds of furniture, all over the country.
Cut to an easy-to-carry size, and sharply focused, FURNITURE HOT SPOTS will help both first time buyers, as well as the more seasoned shopper. The core of the book tells readers where to find what they’re looking for, depending on where they are in the country, and how to determine if it’s fairly priced.
Litwin divides the nation into ten regions and provides info-packed reviews of everything from upscale urban boutiques to barn-style shops. Each seller is profiled concisely, with phone numbers and Web sites, as well as comments about the quality of the stock, the kind of items the store specializes in, and the knowledge of the sales associates. Also included is invaluable tips on how to buy at auction, the best way to navigate flea markets and chain stores of all price ranges, and great hot-spots on-line, many of which are also reviewed. This is the essential guidebook no furniture search should be without.
Customer Review: Disappointed
The Washington, DC section is only 14 pages which is short considering only 1 store is on each page and she omitted suburban MD and VA. In the intro she mentions that Bethesda and Alexandria are just a short distance away, but she doesn’t list any stores. The big furniture stores are only found in MD and VA, not within DC.
Customer Review: Not Enough Relevant To Me
I sat down with this book last night expecting to start the first of several nights of reading. I threw it aside about 15 minutes later surprised that I had reviewed every part that was relevant to me.
I think the problem lies is the nature of furniture selling. Furniture is primarily sold by local retailers, rather than big chains, so this book only has a small amount of relevant information for any single individual.
I live in Boston, so I’m not interested in the best places to buy in Atlanta or Washington DC, and what was included for me was a pretty small sample. I was surprised that none of the major local stores were there, like Jordan’s Furniture and Bernie and Phyl’s. Even some of the national chains were not mentioned, like Thomasville and La-Z-Boy.
These are the places where my family and friends actually buy furniture. I assume they were eliminated because of space, which underscores the key problem here. She’s trying to cover so many regions that none get covered very deeply at all.
I don’t have a problem with the information that is included (hence the two stars rather than one). The author clearly put a lot of effort into compiling all this. I just think the main idea behind the book was flawed from the outset. I wasn’t expecting the book to be comprehensive. It’s just that there simply isn’t very much useful information in it for me, and that therefore doesn’t make this book very valuable to me.
I think this is ideal material to be covered by a local newspaper or magazine.