Is There a Bob's Furniture in Florida

The Untold Truth Of Bob's Discount Furniture

Shutterstock

If you're in the marketplace for some new furniture and desire a shopping experience where you won't have a salesperson hovering over your every move, you may want to consider a trip to Bob's. Since 1991, Bob'due south Disbelieve Article of furniture has positioned itself as the furniture retailer that skips sales pressure in favor of offering the everyman prices on a daily basis. They'll even throw in some water ice cream and cookies — no buy necessary.

The chain, which boasts over 130 stores, has become i of the most popular piece of furniture stores in the United States, with annual revenue of over half a billion dollars. The success of Bob'due south Discount Furniture is due in large function to its namesake, Bob Kaufman, who, in some class or another, has appeared in all of the visitor's commercials. Beloved them or hate them, these commercials — along with a creative business plan that allows the visitor to sell sofas and mattresses cheaper than their competitors — have helped the chain expand from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

Whether y'all've got a business firm total of their article of furniture or y'all've never heard of the place, this is the history backside one of America's most popular furniture retailers: Bob's Discount Furniture.

The store's history can be traced back to a motorcycle crash

Bob's Disbelieve Piece of furniture/Vimeo

Nosotros're gonna go out on a limb here and say that Bob's is the only national furniture store that started because of a motorcycle crash. While the furniture visitor didn't officially brainstorm selling sofas and dinner tables under the Bob's Discount Furniture flag until 1991, its earliest ancestry tin be traced back to 1976, when co-founder Bob Kaufman (pictured to a higher place) wiped out on his motorcycle (via the University of Connecticut School of Business concern).

"I really f***** my leg," Kaufman recalled in a promotional video. "The doc said I would never walk again." The injury was and so bad that doctors contemplated amputating the leg, and Kaufman withal walks with a limp because of paralysis.

Kaufman was a few years out of higher at the fourth dimension and working in a chore that he didn't particularly care for at Radio Shack. The motorcycle injury gave the future article of furniture rex a new perspective on life and eventually propelled Kaufman into his chosen career. "Whenever you're faced with your bloodshed, it changes your outlook. Heck, I was 25 years old and felt immortal," Kaufman said. "It was a turning point. I adult a new mindset that said, 'Get serious. What are you lot going to exercise with your life?'" Non long after, he quit his job at Radio Shack for a new business venture.

Bob Kaufman jumped on the 1970s waterbed craze

Like a phonebook or Blockbuster Video, a waterbed is one of those concepts that'due south completely foreign to people of a sure age. Back in the night ages of the 1970s and '80s, though, waterbeds were all the rage.

Bob Kaufman was advised to buy a waterbed to assistance with his concrete recovery and couldn't help but experience he wasn't getting the best deal while shopping for 1. "I kept thinking these stores were trying to pull a fast 1 on me," Kaufman said. "Why all the sales? Why all the shady pricing?"

Frustrated by his waterbed shopping experience, Kaufman entered into a partnership to sell the beds with his distant cousin, Cistron Rosenberg, an experienced man of affairs. The plan was to charter a space in larger stores on the agreement that the lease would only exist paid upon making a sale. This allowed Kaufman and Rosenberg to sell the waterbeds at lower rates than the contest. The business organisation strategy proved to be incredibly successful, and the pair somewhen leased 24 retail spaces in iv different states. "I became the waterbed king," Kaufman told The New York Times in 1997.

The founders developed a strategy to keep prices low

Past the late '80s and early '90s, the waterbed business had all but dried up. Bob Kaufman and Gene Rosenberg had to pivot, and the ii men worked out a deal with 1 of the building owners where they had been leasing a space in Newington, Connecticut. The owner would cover utilities and taxes while Kaufman and Rosenberg would provide him with a per centum of sales. Just like with the waterbed lease agreement before, this new agreement helped give their business model a leg up. Kaufman said that this offset Bob's Disbelieve Furniture store filled a void in the industry where people could buy depression-toll piece of furniture without having to haggle. "We were the merely low-cost furniture visitor," he explained in 2016.

Sales clerks avoided pestering potential customers, and, unlike near article of furniture stores at the time, there were no large markdown sales. "If you buy something today, it'southward the aforementioned toll tomorrow," Kaufman told The New York Times. The visitor's website also says that they're able to offering such low prices by not offering brand-name labels and buying "more from the manufacturers than anyone else."

Yep, some of that furniture may be priced and then low considering information technology's been returned or has pocket-size imperfections, but Kaufman is confident that they "take something for anybody," he told ReadingEagle.com.

The corny commercials have always been a trademark

Bob's Discount Furniture/Vimeo

If y'all have a Bob's Discount Furniture in your surface area, then yous've nearly certainly seen their commercials. Those ads, which tin exist pretty cheesy at times, take been the store's advertising breadstuff and butter since the beginning.

The commercials nigh always characteristic Bob Kaufman — or they used to, but more on that in a minute — ofttimes uttering "Forget virtually it" or "Come on downwards" to TV viewers. In the early on days of Bob's, all production work on the commercials was done in-firm, with Kaufman and 2 writers developing each concept. "It'southward not complicated," Kaufman told The New York Times in 1997. The furniture-salesman-turned-pitchman would simply pick out some furniture to highlight and turn on the photographic camera.

As for the reception of those commercials ... well, when they stitch to 500 times a calendar week in a region, it'southward understandable that some people would grow tired of them. "Some people love them, and some people detest them," Kaufman confessed. "In one case, a guy came up to me, and I thought he was going to shell me upwards. 'I hate those ads,' he said, 'but I like you.'"

Kaufman's father brash him non to appear in the TV ads

If Bob Kaufman had listened to his male parent, so he wouldn't be the recognizable article of furniture king he is today. When Bob'south Discount Furniture was toying with the thought of launching some Idiot box commercials, Kaufman'due south dad, an advertizing executive, brash his son not to announced in the ads. Besides telling his son that he had a vocalization "that sounds like chalk on chalk," the senior Kaufman said, "You look like crap." In customary child versus parent fashion, Kaufman said that he ignored his begetter'southward advice and "did [the commercials] anyway."

Passing on his father's advice and taking on the part every bit the official face of the furniture business proved to be a smart move. At 1 point, the business was shooting upwardly to 5 TV spots a day, and Kaufman believes that, since that very offset advert, they've produced somewhere betwixt v,000 and 6,000 commercials.

Picayune Bob is now the primary commercial mascot

A person can only announced in so many mattress and sofa commercials before things first to grow stale. Bob Kaufman is only man, subsequently all. These days, the real Bob has mostly retired from appearing in the furniture store's ads, and he'south turned those duties over to his mini boob version.

As for why Kaufman stepped downwardly, he likens the reason to two other founders of famous companies. "I am probably the only person in the history of marketing who lost my job to a boob," he explained to Connecticut Magazine. "As a student of marketing, I look at Col. Sanders and Dave Thomas. Both did not programme fairly for when they were gone. I'm 69, and I don't desire that to happen for my 6,000 employees and tens of thousands of their family members supported by Bob's income."

Obviously, customers noticed that the man Bob was gone, merely they also took event with the voice of mini Bob. "[Information technology] notwithstanding looks like him, just the voice is definitely existence done by somebody else," said a curious Redditor. Nosotros did some digging and found out that the voice behind Picayune Bob is vocalism role player Al Pagano. Mystery solved!

Each store has a complimentary customer cafe

From its aversion to sales to its goofy commercials, Bob'due south Disbelieve Furniture has fabricated an effort to differentiate itself from competitors. Another way the concatenation has been successful in doing then is by highly-seasoned not simply to the customer'due south wallet but to their sweet tooth as well.

Walk into any Bob's location in the state with hunger pangs, and they'll make sure you lot have something to snack on while shopping for a recliner. (Fifty-fifty if you're not actually shopping, they'll still feed you.) Each store has a buffet stocked with processed, cookies, coffee, and ice cream. The whole thought behind the cafe, according to Bob Kaufman, is that shoppers tin grab a snack while discussing whatever prospective purchases they may be scoping out.

"The conclusion to put a café in the shop was piece of cake," he explained. "I read that buying furniture is the third most stressful experience in life, only surpassed by buying a house and a automobile. I wondered how we could brand people more than comfortable." Plus, it doesn't hurt that ice foam is always a welcome distraction for kids during the boredom of piece of furniture shopping.

The company spreads into new markets like wildfire

Shutterstock

It'south a pretty common belief in business that, if you're not growing, you're dying. Gene Rosenberg and Bob Kaufman took this to heart. Not long after opening the very kickoff store, the businessmen began opening additional outlets in Connecticut. In but a few curt years, Bob'southward Disbelieve Furniture was dominating the discount furniture market. "We joke that if information technology was up to Gene, we'd take had 100 stores the first yr," Kaufman told the University of Connecticut School of Business. "And if it was upwardly to me, we'd yet accept two."

When the company expands into a new area, it often runs commercials months in advance and opens multiple locations in one fell dive. Given this approach, it's not surprising that the article of furniture store'southward arrival is met with headlines like "Bob's Discount Article of furniture invades Chicago market." The company opened five stores in the Chicago area — all on the same twenty-four hours.

The concatenation isn't in every state, but it does stretch from Maine to California and equally far south as Virginia. "Today, we have 139 stores. We opened 4 stores [in one week in January]," Kaufman said. "We have a total of 16 on the book for this year."

Then, if in that location isn't a Bob's Disbelieve Furniture near you withal, just be patient — one is likely in the works.

The founders no longer own Bob'due south Discount Furniture

Shutterstock

Bob's Discount Article of furniture may want to think about adjusting the name to read "Formerly Bob'south Discount Furniture" because Bob Kaufman is no longer a bulk owner of the visitor. Kaufman, of class, still has a major pale in the company — he'southward a board member and president emeritus — but, like many successful bondage, Bob'southward was bought out past a larger entity.

According to Furniture Today, Bob's had nineteen stores in 2005 when 70% of the company was sold to a private disinterestedness firm. How much the firm paid for the disbelieve furniture empire wasn't fabricated public, but, considering that Bob'due south Disbelieve Furniture did $250 million in sales the year before, it'southward safety to presume they paid a pretty penny.

Since and so, Bob's Disbelieve Furniture has changed hands over again and is now owned by an investment business firm, Bain Majuscule. (The article of furniture outlet is merely a drop in the saucepan of Bain'due south $130 billion in assets.) Kaufman told Connecticut Magazine in 2021 that, while he's no longer doing any "day-to-day conclusion making" with the company, he's still "very much involved" with keeping Bob's name and image out at that place.

Bob Kaufman meets every new employee

Bob'southward Discount Furniture/Vimeo

How many jobs come with a celebrity meet and greet? Well, if yous take a job at Bob'southward Discount Furniture, you're guaranteed a welcome from the homo himself. Each location employs between 25 and 30 people, and Bob Kaufman makes information technology a point to meet each new fellow member of the team in person, even if he doesn't call up all of their names. "I don't want anyone to say, 'I work at Bob's Discount Furniture, but I've never met Bob,'" Kaufman said, per the Academy of Connecticut School of Business. "We run it like a small, family business."

That'south a lot of employees to meet, too. According to the company's Linkedin profile, it employs some 5,000 people. Information technology too has a pretty respectable employee rating on both Glassdoor and Indeed. And, even if Kaufman is no longer calling the mean solar day-to-day shots at the company, he said in 2016 that providing a livelihood for then many people has been one of the most rewarding aspects of his career.

The company donates millions to clemency

When Bob Kaufman and Gene Rosenberg sold a majority stake of Bob's Disbelieve Furniture in 2005, one of the stipulations was that the equity firm would go along to donate a million dollars a year to clemency. "It was a very important part of the deal," Kaufman said at the fourth dimension, according to Piece of furniture Today.

The company has been praised for its charitable efforts. It's something that Kaufman is incredibly proud of, and he credits his business organisation partner for fostering that spirit. "Cistron Rosenberg was certainly the 'guiding calorie-free' in directing our charitable dollars to areas that have the greatest touch on, and I certainly learned at his side," Kaufman said in 2012.

The pair set up the Bob's Charitable Foundation in the early days of the business concern and hold various fundraising events throughout the year, such as golf game tournaments that have been known to raise over $400,000. As for how that money is distributed, there's no shortage of requests for information technology. Kaufman explained that "the only downside is that you lot realize the tremendous demand that's out at that place." The business receives up to 150 requests a calendar week from various causes, and, in addition to donating to several children'south charities and scholarship programs, the furniture visitor has been hosting a blood drive for over 15 years.

Share this post