Art Van is out of money and is liquidating and closing all stores

[MWmetalhead]

I want to take this moment to say - I fucking hate Gardner-White furniture in Metro Detroit for hiring the same ad agency who produced Art Van's vomit-inducing TV commercials.

They are following the (failed) Art Van playbook to a tee.

Those commercials compel me to AVOID Gardner-White like the plague.

[craig11152]

We tried to order a couple sofas from GW in early November. The website said they were a "hot item" so delivery might be delayed. I figured delayed might be a week or so since they normally talk about 1 day delivery. A week later I contacted them in mid November. They said delivery would be early December. Early December came, I called again and was told late December or early January. We cancelled the order.
Clearly the items were out of stock and they didn't know when they would have more in. They should have said that instead of calling it's "hot item".
While they didn't exactly lie they were less than honest.

[SixPlusOne]

I heard the company that took over a number of Art Van stores are now closing locations.

Courtesy: Detroit Free Press

Loves Furniture To close 9 More Michigan Stores

https://www.freep.com/story/money/busin ... 027247001/

[Deleted User 15475]

Loves or the now defunct Art Van, I saw no real appeal in. The stuff seemed like over priced low quality rubbish. Sadly, it's difficult to find an honest local furniture store that sells actual quality furniture. Things such as Solid wood tables, quality brand recliners and Sofas(such as Lane Furniture). Also, having someone who has knowledge of what they are selling. Not some frat boy who still uses cinder blocks and lumber for a book shelve, who's also in a hurry to make a sale so he can go to a Kegger and get smashed on Heilman's old style.

[MotorCityRadioFreak]

My friend worked at Art Van, and they were told to push the warranty extensions and the furniture polish all the time even though both were horrible. They did have a decent clearance center, and that will be missed. A lot of the Love's stuff is junk though.

[MWmetalhead]

Now, it's obvious why Love's is failing!

Same low quality crap (if not worse) that Gardner-White sells for probably higher prices.

[fuzzpower]

I bought a dining room set from Art Van years ago. Absolute piece of junk, I never went back. My Gardner White couch is still functioning after ten years. Reading an earlier poster’s comment about their delivery questions whether I would go back

[Deleted User 15475]

Some of the things Ashly furniture sells isn't much better, same dreadful low quality.

[TC Talks]

Loves filed today...

Prior to bankruptcy, Loves announced it would close most of the 32 stores it had opened – keeping 12 in Michigan and one in Ohio, the Freep reports.

According to the bankruptcy filing, Loves has 100-199 creditors and $10 million to $50 million in liabilities. Liquidation sales at the remaining 13 stores are likely. The company may also seek a new owner for those locations, the newspaper reports.

Art Van filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March 2020.

[Robert Faygo]

Whomever ultimately decided to invest and green light a chain of furniture stores during a pandemic when people would rather shop online first needs to go back to business 101 class. I can't imagine their showroom traffic was ever more than about 10% of what Art McVan had.

Almost as dumb as what the AV holding company did adding all those stand alone mattress stores everywhere. Almost.

[Bryce]

I want to take this moment to say - I fucking hate Gardner-White furniture in Metro Detroit for hiring the same ad agency who produced Art Van's vomit-inducing TV commercials.

They are following the (failed) Art Van playbook to a tee.

Those commercials compel me to AVOID Gardner-White like the plague.

Which agency handled Highland Appliance back in their heyday? If they're still around, they would be ideal for a furniture chain.

50 watts per channel, babycakes...

[MWmetalhead]

Hated that store, but that "50 watts, babycakes!" line was awesome in its day.

[TC Talks]

Wasn't that Doner?

[fuzzpower]

Highland I didn’t mind. Fretter on the other hand was a ripoff operation.

[SolarMax]

Which agency handled Highland Appliance back in their heyday? If they're still around, they would be ideal for a furniture chain.

Doner (then known as W.B. Doner) was Highland's ad agency. Besides local clientele, Doner at that time had a large number of retail store clients in the U.S., and some in Canada.
They are definitely still around, soon moving into much larger quarters in Southfield.
Doner was also the target of spoof in the "Detroiters" series a couple of years ago.