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Wayfair (and their various demographically-targeted brands, which include Joss and Main, All Modern, Birch Lane and Dwell Studio) is such a horrible mix of crap
by lobster_johnson 9y ago
Wayfair (and their various demographically-targeted brands, which include Joss and Main, All Modern, Birch Lane and Dwell Studio) is such a horrible mix of crap and quality. I believe they really have to overcome this to become successful.
One confusing and annoying problem with retailers like Wayfair, and the many other outlets (Overstock, Barcelona Designs and many others), is that most of their inventory is white-labeled; they buy no-brand products from Asia (China being the main one) which they sell under fictional brand names such as "Ivy Bronx", "Langley Street", "Wade Logan" and so on. You'll find the exact same products elsewhere under other fictional brand names. Often I've been able to find a product, such as a lamp, that's maybe $100 on Wayfair, being sold for $200 in a different online store; exact same product, made in the same Chinese factory, but differently branded.
The shadiness undermines the integrity of the brand, but it means it's also impossible to predict the quality of what you order. "Langley Street" is just a style, and isn't necessarily all from the same manufacturer. This confusion is compounded by the fact that Wayfair also mixes "authentic" products such as Flos and Artemide into their inventory.
But also, a lot of these products are just complete junk. So much is laminate, cardboard and fiberboard. There's surprisingly good, solid-wood furniture made in places like India and Thailand, but usually the online descriptions doesn't give you the full materials list. A lot of times you can get quality hardwood, but the joinery is terrible (lots of patching, glue, etc.).
- Matthias247 9y agoIsn’t that model the same in normal furniture shops? When I visited the bigger ones (XXXL Lutz chain in Germany) they always had lots of furniture under their in-house brands, which I guess is relabeled other stuff. More funky then the names is the pricing, because it’s always reduced. You will never see anything for full price, it will always be labeled with something like 30-50% off. Which however just reflects real market value. that’s actually the thing I like most about Ikea. Pricing and product range are stable.
- lobster_johnson 9y agoI'm not familiar with XXXL Lutz, but it sounds like it's a bit like Wayfair, Overstock, Target, etc.? Home24.de is another white-labeling brand in Germany. Much of Home24's stuff can also be found on Wayfair and elsewhere. Most retail furniture stores in the US (Blu Dot, Room and Board, West Elm, Herman Miller, Vitra, Knoll, Steelcase, etc.) either design their own furniture in-house or have name-brand designers (e.g. Eames, Jasper Morrison, etc.) they collaborate with. (Sometimes the manufacturer also produces their own "generic" white-labeled versions; for example, the factory that makes Knoll sofas apparently also makes identical/near-identical no-name sofas that are sold under different brand names at much, much lower prices, and if you have some inside information you can find out where to get these.) Then there are high-end retailers like DWR, YLiving, Lumens, etc. that are more like Amazon in that they mostly don't rely on white-labeling.
- wlesieutre 9y agoBut with the physical store you can walk into the showroom and get a feel for whether a couch is a cheap because it’s a piece of garbage or if it’s a good deal on a piece of solid furniture. Not with 100 percent certainly, but a lot better than some staged photos on a website.
- Jdam 9y agoMy experience with Hoeffner, XXXL, Moebel Kraft et al tells me that either you go for a premium price point or you will inevitably buy crap. But then, I think Ikea has more experience in producing cheap crap so that you get a better deal with Ikea furniture instead of the cheap stuff from XXXL.
- gxs 9y agoAgreed - surprisingly it's more frustrating as a consumer to get variable quality vs always high quality or always crap. If I always get crap I can plan around it - sometimes I do need just crap as a stop gap. If it's unreliable and can't predict based on price and descriptions, I just won't bother.
- shas3 9y agoTrue about Slumberland, Ashley, and other brick and mortar furniture stores too.
- adventurer 9y agoWayfair is just a drop-shipper as far as I can tell. They're just middlemen posting pictures and reviews up like everyone else trying to sell cheap crap at a 'discount'.
- SmellTheGlove 9y agoIt's the Harbor Freight of home goods. However, I've had good results from at least some of my Pittsburgh and Chicago Electric tools!