Common Alternatives Bob Flynn knows something about virtual showrooms. The way he sees it, a showroom serves two primary functions. “On the front end, it’s selling yourself to a prospective client; later, it’s about product selection.” Flynn, of Flynn Construction in Chanhassen, Minn., a suburb of Minneapolis, has opted to handle these functions in cyberspace.
“It’s a matter of economics,” he says, summarizing his reasons for not having a physical showroom. “It’s hard to put in everything that’s available. You have to constantly update. You can have a big space; people don’t see what they want, and just walk out.”
Instead, Flynn has invested approximately $40,000 in meticulously documenting his remodeling projects. The money represents professionally propping, styling, lighting, and photographing his work over the past six years. The photos are on the firm’s Web site and in extensive portfolios Flynn shows to prospective clients.
“I can show them a maple kitchen, a cherry kitchen, a painted kitchen. It’s all there,” he says. Homeowners who like what they see and engage Flynn are given a list of preferred vendors to visit. His clients, whom he describes as “high-end and particular,” often choose to go beyond his suggested sources to track down product. Many find their way to International Market Square, a sort of “super showroom.” The converted industrial complex near downtown Minneapolis houses more than 80 showrooms representing 1,400 manufacturers of everything from fabrics and wall coverings to lighting, floor coverings, and kitchen and bath products.
Jill Liptow, president of RCI/Remodeling Center, based in Milwaukee’s western suburbs, can direct clients to a similarly rich home-design resource: the Kohler Design Center in Kohler, Wis., a three-level showcase for Kohler products featuring a dozen full kitchens and baths created by big-name designers. “People like looking at the rooms at Kohler,” Liptow says, “but in general, we use suppliers’ showrooms, wholesale showrooms that don’t sell to the general public.”
At Liptow’s 10-year-old firm, clients begin the design process at the firm’s offices. They see preliminary designs for their project and view representative product samples that indicate the type of materials appropriate to their project’s budget.
“Then clients meet at a wholesale showroom with our staff interior designer to see the full range of product,” Liptow says. “For instance, we go to the local tile supplier, then contract with our own tile installer. We buy product at a cost saving to the homeowner because there’s no middleman.”
Liptow’s reasons for choosing to work without her own showroom include concerns from finding a location with good traffic flow, to hiring skilled staff, to space restrictions that limit product selection.
Another type of limitation is imposed by the exclusive ties to specific manufacturers that showrooms establish. Liptow, who has worked in showrooms, says those arrangements have both advantages and drawbacks. Consider cabinet lines, she says. A showroom may carry high-end, mid-range, and low-end cabinetry from three different manufacturers, or perhaps deal with a single manufacturer that produces high, moderate, and economy lines. The upside is that if the cabinetry carries a brand name that is aggressively advertised, consumers may seek out a particular showroom because they carry that brand. The downside is that within this limited selection, clients may not find what they want.
“A new home builder builds the same kitchen 50 times. As a remodeler, every job is custom,” Liptow says. “By using multiple wholesale showrooms, we can meet many different price points and find product that can work within any budget. Because the requirements of our jobs vary so widely, having more options available enables us to match the client to the product.”
Stephanie Witt has taken a somewhat different approach. She’s the “Stephanie” in Kitchens by Stephanie, a Michigan designer with 35 years experience who ran her own showroom for 20 years. In fact, at one time she operated two showrooms, a large one in Grand Rapids, in the southwestern part of the state, and a smaller one 180 miles north, in the popular vacation community of Petoskey.
Witt has now closed both showrooms. Instead, she’s operating her design business from a home studio. The home’s kitchen is a showpiece, a walk-through example of Witt’s design work where clients can see the best in . cabinetry, appliances, plumbing fixtures, lighting, and flooring. Her studio has a product selection area with samples of cabinetry, flooring, light fixtures, and more.
Because she’s in a residential neighborhood, Witt is careful to keep her business low-key. She sees clients by appointment only and takes deliveries off-site at a mini-warehouse.
She’s delighted at the flexibility the home studio gives her. With no storefront location, there are no set hours, no need for additional staff, and no worries about outdated vignettes needing constant updating.
Showrooms are commodity driven, she points out. Witt, a certified kitchen designer and certified bath designer, says giving up the showroom has enabled her to focus instead on her “expertise in design,” maintaining public awareness of her business with a Web site and with full-color ads in regional home-related magazines.
“I wouldn’t recommend it to a person starting out,” Witt says. “We’ve eliminated walk-in traffic, and that can be valuable to a new business. You have to decide for yourself if a showroom is the way to go.” —Judith Knuth writes about design and travel from her home in Milwaukee.