Not sure that its a *lot* cheaper anymore. What you might save is the Sales Tax - which may be offset by freight charges to have pieces shipped from the Carolinas.

Be aware that states like Virginia (not sure about Maryland) routinely audit truck lines and demand invoices from them - so its not unusual to get a sales tax bill from the state 12 to 18 months after you received your furniture. In most states, it is not 'tax-free' if you buy out-of-state, its that the store selling to you does not collect that out-of-state sales tax. You are still liable for it. Some get caught, some don't! PA is another state aggressive on sales tax collection.

Most the 'deals' in the large discounters come from not buying discontinued product (no manufacturer has quantity in its inventory), but these stores buy the High Point showrooms after each market (April and October) at about a 30% discount. They will also work deals at market to buy a specific quantity of a specific item in bulk to get lower prices.

Many of these large discounters have gone out of business or are floundering. The run on razor-thin margins and its very hard to make any profit - debt load collapses them often.

One other thing to note. Customer service for warranties can be very difficult to obtain. Its not like buying a car, where you can take it into any dealer. Only the selling dealer will go to bat for you on a warranty issue, and the sales reps (who handle questionable warranty issues) will only respond to ones in their territory. For example, if you have a questionable warranty issue such as the way something is tailored, your dealer normally looks at it, then calls in the sales rep for a final determination. When you go out-of-area, none of that is going to happen (and this is 90% of all warranty issues - ones in the gray zone).

Whats the total savings if you drive seven hours south? Tough to say! Sometimes there is none, other times it can be significant as you're looking at marked-down furniture. Even your local store will have good mark-downs on certain items, the trick if finding the piece you want at your price point.

One place you can try that buys a lot of showroom merchandise deals in Greenfront in Farmdale, VA, about four hours south of DC

-Duane

This has been asked before and you will get different answers from different people but here's my $.02.

For me, NC was about $1800 cheaper than my local store. I live in a suburb of NYC and although I asked my local retailer if they could come down a little in price, it wasn't enough to justify spending $1800 more (local store was in Scarsdale, NY and tends to cater to the very wealthy)

After doing a lot of research I decided to take my chances but the furniture line I was interested in was not carried in the bigger NC dealers (Boyles and at the time, Rose Furniture) so I went with a small place called Alan Ferguson's. The service was excellent, the delivery was perfect and they made a minor mistake (ordered wrong fabric for pillows) which they corrected immedietly (and let me keep both sets of pillows). I was very happy with the quality of service, the furniture I received (sofa, loveseat, 2 chairs) and the price.

That being said, I took the gamble and it paid off for me. It could have gone either way and I may have been unlucky (as many people have been) and I may even have ended up losing $ but that's a risk you have to be willing to take. Recently I ordered a bedroom set from a local retailer (they were having a 40% off sale). While NC still came out cheaper, I didn't want to take the gamble twice. I was happy with my salesperson and I know that if anything is wrong with the furniture, they will stand by me and make sure that I'm happy with my purchase. I have read enough on these forums to know that if you order from NC and something is wrong with the furniture, you could be out of luck. Someone here pointed out that the Boyles and the Lexfurniture's of the world can sell cheaper b/c they have no overhead, they basically take orders from people who have used their local store to peruse furniture, take up a salesperson time and pick out fabric all in the retailers dime. But the local retailer will work harder to earn your business.

In answer to your first question, yes you will save more than a $100 (how much depends on how much your local retailer marks up the price of furniture but it is usually quite significant). Can't answer 2 & 3 but the most reputable store to order furniture from in NC is Boyles and there is another place in Kentucky called lexfurniture. Be aware that Boyles does charge tax for deliveries to certain states so you might want to factor that in when comparing prices. Good Luck.

Why don't you go down to Farmville and check out their prices? I know several people form the Leesburg area that go down there regularly.