LA-Z-BOY

The furniture store is building an addition to improve its shipping and receiving.
THE VINDICATOR, YOUNGSTOWN
By DON SHILLING
VINDICATOR BUSINESS EDITOR
BOARDMAN -- The expansion at La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries in Boardman provides more proof that a store dedicated to that brand of furniture will work.
Ron D'Alesandro is enjoying the success of the La-Z-Boy stores he owns in Boardman and Niles. The Boardman store has done so well that he moved to a larger location in 1996 and now is adding a warehouse on the back. The Niles store expanded and moved to its current location in 1983.
He recalls, however, the days when no one -- even him -- was sure if a La-Z-Boy store would work.
In 1975, he opened one of the first stores in the country dedicated to La-Z-Boy furniture. The concept was questionable because La-Z-Boy products were sold by other retailers, as they are today.
Even though he was losing money, he opened a store in Niles the next year. It was such a struggle that at one point he took out a mortgage on his house to get cash to keep the business going.
Low point
His lowest point came in 1977 when he bought out a partner.
On his first day of operating by himself, the window of his Niles store was broken. He drove from Boardman to Niles to fix the window, and when he returned, he dropped his head into his hands on top of his desk. He was discouraged because 8 inches of snow fell that day, meaning no one would be shopping.
He began thinking of what his mother had told him -- go to work for a big company because that's where the job security is.
Maybe his plan to run his own business was all wrong.
As he looked down in despair at the desk he had borrowed, he saw a phrase carved into the top -- Don't quit.
That simple phrase motivated him to keep going.
In those days, he often worked alone, helping customers in the showroom and then unloading their furniture off a truck parked in back. Once, a Boardman police officer mistook him for a burglar and pulled a gun on him as he was taking a chair off the truck.
Eventually, his determination paid off, and business picked up at the Boardman store, then located in the Boardman Plaza, and the Niles store.
His difference
Even though other area retailers carried La-Z-Boy products, D'Alesandro said his stores succeeded because of customer service, more advertising than other stores and a wider La-Z-Boy selection, which included sleeper sofas starting in 1978.
Turns out, he made the right decision in 1975 when a La-Z-Boy representative approached him about opening a store carrying only that company's products.
"I knew how valuable this name was," he said.
At the time, he was a furniture buyer in Detroit for J.L. Hudson Department Stores, which now is Target Corp.
D'Alesandro, a 1959 Wilson High School graduate, had previously worked in accounting for Ford Motor Co. and for a short time operated another Boardman furniture store with a partner.
Under his deal with Michigan-based La-Z-Boy, he owns the two local stores but has a license to use the La-Z-Boy name. He pays La-Z-Boy for the furniture but doesn't pay them a percentage of his sales.
The biggest challenge he faces now is letting people know that even though La-Z-Boy is well-known for its chairs, it has other furniture lines as well.
The current expansion project at the Boardman store will make the company stronger, said Steve Halloran, D'Alesandro's son-in-law and company general manager.
The Niles store will no longer be used to ship products to customers, he said.
Trimming costs
Consolidating warehouse operations into one location will reduce operating costs, he said. Freight charges, for example, will be cut about 30 percent because La-Z-Boy won't have to ship as many products to the Niles store.
The project will add nearly 10,000 square feet to the store, which now has 27,000 square feet.
The additional space will be a warehouse and staging area for furniture that is being prepared for delivery.
Now, workers prepare furniture in the receiving area and bump up against deliveries because there is just one dock. With the addition, there will be two docks for shipping and receiving.
The project also includes a new driveway onto Bridgewood Drive, which will take the delivery trucks out of the customer parking lot on Boardman-Poland Road.
shilling@vindy.com