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HOUSTON — The long Presidents Day weekend was one for the books for Top 100 retailer Bel Furniture, as all its stores outperformed 2024.
General Manager Troy Simmons told Furniture Today that every one of its 16 showrooms beat last year’s sales during the first tentpole event of 2025.
“All the stores ended up. There weren’t any outliers,” Simmons said. “That’s different, because we’re in so many markets. We’re all the way out to Beaumont and then to Del Rio. We’ve got every kind of customer imaginable in between.
“Even the Houston demographics are so different between Sugarland and Katy and North Houston. There’s usually one or two higher or lower, but this is the first time it’s been consistent.”
Simmons said the Houston-based retailer saw its best traffic and business on Saturday and Sunday, which reversed last year’s showing, when it performed strongest on the actual holiday itself. It also provided a nice pop in overall business.
“We’re up, so we’re pleased by that. Business has been tough so to be up, we’re pretty excited,” Simmons said.
One of Bel’s strongest categories, no matter the day, is motion furniture, and Simmons said Presidents Day was no exception.
“Our business is motion. We’re a direct importer. 90% of our goods we import ourselves; we don’t buy from vendors or agents. Motion is a category we own,” he said. “No matter what day, we sell a lot. People like better goods, too; those are the people that are spending money. That’s where we’ve dominated in the past 20 years.”
Mattresses were also selling well. “Bedding was really strong this weekend,” Simmons said. “That’s another thing we noticed, people buying better beds over the past eight or nine months. It’s gone up from $1,000 mattresses to $1,800 or $1,900. People buying bigger tickets helps keep volume up when traffic is soft.”
And with another good holiday tentpole event in the books, Simmons said it feels like shoppers are back to pre-COVID norms of waiting for traditional sales weekends.
“It’s gotten back to holiday sales,” he said. “People have gotten back to conditioned shopping Presidents Day, July 4, Labor Day. Black Friday is huge. Business is more concentrated around these sales.”
For a complete report on Presidents Day weekend sales, please see the Feb. 24 issue of Furniture Today.
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