Just wondering something... As I was driving back up to Dallas tonight, I noticed how huge Gallery Furniture has become. It caused me to wonder... How many BBSers have shopped for / bought furniture from Mattress Mac? There seems to be be some for, some against the "nearly rabid" mattress guru here. My wife and I shopped there several times, mostly to look and compare prices, which are not always lower by any means. We did purchase an office desk (in my office to this day) in 1997, and it's held up nicely... probably wouldn't get anything else there though, unless we came into some real dough. $$$ BTW - I'm not employed by GF nor am I affilliated in any way.
I have purchased furniture from Gallery before. Three years ago, when I bought my house, I bought a mahogany stereo rack from Gallery. As I bought more furniture for my house, I went back to Gallery several times, but I noticed that when you shop there you have to be very careful as to the quality of what you are looking at. It seems to me that Gallery, more than any other major furniture store, has a wide range of quality in their furniture, from top-shelf to trailer park. As I have continued to furnish my house, I have had the most success furniture-wise at Fingers Showroom off 45 south. They seem to have the most consistent quality of furniture and the best prices.
We bought a chair their once.... once. The salesman are so eager to sell that it's annoying. The salespeople are like flies and the customer is the poop.... to the point of harrassment. I don't plan on going back. Ever.
Gotta agree with RMT on the quality issue. It swings from really nice Natuzzi leather to particle board shiznit. If you are lookign for good quality furniture check out Storehouse, especially their clearance center on Fondrin just off of Westheimer. Most of the couches and such are custom made so if the color is off a bit people send it back and sell it for dirt cheap.
I purchased a living room set when I first moved into my first house (away from parents), 12 years ago.....I have gotten rid of it since then...the Mrs. feels she has to buy something new every friggin 5 years .....its all Fingers Furniture now
I finally caved in about 4 years ago and went to see what the place was like and to be perfectly honest, the prices were not that great. On the lower end items, the price was ok, but that was for cheap furniture that you could tell was not well put together. Some one just last weekend told me about the Foleys furniture outlet that is just across from UH (@ 45 & Lockwood I believe). It is not listed in the phone book, and many of the regular staores do not know about it, but I was told they have a HUGE selection and there are hundreds of leather recliners, sofas ect at prices of 50-70% off.
Well, of course Gallery Furniture is going to be high. Look at all that overhead that place has. I think they could shave a few bucks off their furniture if the damn place didn't have a bowling alley
I hate to admit it, but I bought from them twice. The pricing is so so, they just try to wow you with all types of free BS. I wouldn't buy from them again, just not that good of a deal. Not that anywhere else has much better... Here is some advice that holds true for just about anything on the North Side of town... Don't buy anything South of Beltway 8.
I agree with RMT, and TheHorns. I buy from Fingers, almost all good quality furniture and you can find some real bargins in the bargin basement. TheHorns is right about the Foley's Outlet, its right across from UofH and they have unbelievable bargins. My mom shops there all the time and I think since Allison, she has bought almost all the furniture in the house from there. I can't believe most people don't know about it, its one big ass store.
I currently have a loveseat from Gallery in the front room of my house. (It's just about the only thing we own that isn't IKEA). We bought it three years ago -- it's taken a beating from our cats, but is still in pretty good shape. My funniest Gallery story involves my dad: In 1987 (I was 17 at the time), we had just moved into a new house we had built in Clear Lake and I needed a bedroom set. I fell in love with this laquered wood art deco set by Lane that we found at Outragous Contemporary on Richmond St. It was pretty expensive and they had to special order it. They said it would take six weeks. Needless to say, six weeks came and went, and no bedroom set. After hearing yet another of Mattress Mac's seemingly omnipresent commercials, my dad finally decides to take a chance and we head to Gallery furniture at 8 p.m. on a weeknight. He was pretty dubious when we pulled up and saw what the place looked like (this is when they were still in all those tents). Long story short -- they had the exact bedroom set, it was cheaper AND they delivered it in an unmarked van (trust me, this was a HUGE plus in my dad's book) at 11:30 p.m. that night. And the kicker -- Mattress Mac called my dad personally the next day to thank him and make sure he was happy with the set. Mac doesn't always seem like the nicest guy, but he sure as hell knows how to run a business. Plus, he's bringing the Tennis Masters to Houston in November, so I gotta love him for that!
I'd never buy there. My wife used to work at the place where Mac gets his furniture for wholesale prices. You wouldn't believe how high the markup is for the furniture once Mac puts HIS price on it.
I've been in there a dozen times and only bought there once. Their leather is way over priced. I did buy a nice couch, love seat, chaise lounge from there for my wife and she has been very happy with it. You have to be very careful to check the quality of the stuff you are buying. The have a LOT of over priced JUNK in that store.
I'm not saying that Gallery is the "end-all-be-all" of furniture stores but I do like there stuff. As stated above there furniture does range from crappy to very nice. And there prices aren't ALWAYS the best but they aren't far off either. Plus they have such a large selection, call me a guy I guess but I don't want to spend all day going from store to store when I've found something I like just to save an extra $30 bucks.
I bought a bedroom set there 4 years ago and I "think" I got a pretty good deal. Nice quality and still looks great. The sales people are a bit on the hyper side although if you ignore them they eventually go away and leave you alone
Oh, going places and pretending you want to buy their stuff is a roit. My boyfriend's parents bought some leather recliners from gallery furniture after the big flood a few years back took out all of their stuff. They were nice and we got a free basketball! Score.
Do you guys really like Fingers that much? I always thought they had some pretty low quality stuff at WAY to expensive prices. I always try to hit Star furniture during a sale. There are some deals to be had out on the big I-10 location. Louis Shanks is neat to go into, but there stuff is way out of my budget. Even during their big sales, its usually too much for me to even think about buying.
