Rhodes Furniture was a century plus old company from Atlanta, Georgia. With its 80 stores, Rhodes Furniture sought ways to compete in an ever-evolving marketplace by utilizing the Internet as a means to reach more customers.

The Plan

They had a simple plan. They would treat their web store like one of their many other stores instead of an e-Commerce business solution. The formula: online orders would only be accepted from customers within 50 miles of any of their other stores.

Founded in 1875 by Amos G. Rhodes who implemented the world’s first installment plan, Rhodes Furniture continued on the path of forward, albeit unusual for its time, thinking. Moreover, that’s what many thought about their formula and Internet plans.

Nevertheless, Rhodes Furniture had hoped that by making rhodesfurniture.com just another store, they would avoid any issues of competing with themselves and losing foot traffic in their retail locations. Of course, with 80 stores encompassing 13 states, Rhodes Furniture figured they were reaching about 30% of the U.S. geography, so their formula might just succeed.

But did this formula work? Early on, yes. Rhodes Furniture saw an increase of 10% in customer growth.

Demise Of Rhodes Furniture

Unfortunately, on November 4, 2004, Rhodes Furniture filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, owing approximately $16.8 million to creditors ranging from suppliers to former CEOs. They closed 26 stores with plans to keep the remaining stores open "without disruption."

In August 2005, Rooms To Go, announced the acquisition of 50 of Rhodes Furniture stores in a bankruptcy auction with plans to convert a number of the Florida, Alabama and Georgia stores to the Rooms To Go format while selling the remaining stores to other furniture retailers.

Does this mean that Rhodes Furniture’s Internet formula was a bust? Or was it simply too little too late for this century old company struggling to exist amongst so many large scale chain furniture stores offering larger delivery areas and online purchases to a greater geography?

Rooms To Go

If you live in the greater southeast and want to check out one of the locations of the company that bought many of the Rhodes Furniture locations, go to roomstogo.com and search for a store near you. You can also view some of their inventory online. The website is quite easy to navigate and the pages load quickly; something that can be a bit of a rarity with some furniture sites given the number of pictures and objects that need to load.