[red-beard]

Matt, that is basically what I think is the problem. People have the wrong impression of the company. If you're going to be dropping $20K on furniture, it makes sense. If you are not, you will not make up the cost of the membership. Pretty simple.

We didn't buy everything there. No oriental rugs (those are individual items). Electronics are NOT a deal. They do not have every brand.

High pressure sales hype doesn't affect me. I did the math and it made sense for us. I've talked to several people at work about it, and again made the point you need to be spending $20K or more to make it work.

If you are buying furniture from Ashley, or Star (Berkshire Hathaway!) or any other regular furniture store, understand that the retail price has a 60-75% margin built in. This is why they are always "On sale" or willing to deal down.

It's funny, we've covered our membership, and the things we buy now seem very cheap. Mall Jewelery for family and friends? I love seeing that I'm paying 10% of the retail price. Yes mall jewelery retail price has a 10x markup from cost.

So how much will you "really" save if you joined. On low end furniture, I expect the savings is 20% off, after all the fees and shipping, on what you'd really pay at a normal furniture store. On the higher end lines, it really is closer to 50% off what you would actually pay at a normal furniture store.