Nebraska Furniture Mart
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Nebraska Furniture Mart
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Re: Nebraska Furniture Mart
#2It's an amazing place. At least when I visited, you walk through the door to see some bland looking furniture (some maybe even the cheap MDF self-assembled type that you buy in a cardboard box), but then you walk through a doorway that opens up into a gigantic space of every sort of electronic game, device, accessory, geegaw, tchotchke, peripheral, plaything, and delight you could imagine. The staff were highly trained, happy to be there, knowledgeable, helpful, and made me want to come back and buy more.
Re: Nebraska Furniture Mart
#3I love how the founder sold her company to Warren Buffet, and then opened up pretty much the same store right across the street, forcing Buffet to buy that one as well(with an added non-compete clause)
Re: Nebraska Furniture Mart
#4Buffett talking about it and Mrs B this year https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pg1XfTNKRJk
Re: Nebraska Furniture Mart
#5I love how the founder sold her company to Warren Buffet, and then opened up pretty much the same store right across the street, forcing Buffet to buy that one as well(with an added non-compete clause)
the story is more of business drive than competition (imo):
> She bitterly ''retired'' in 1989 at the age of 95, but after three months returned with characteristic combativeness, setting up a rival store called Mrs. B's Clearance and Factory Outlet across the street from the Furniture Mart.
https://www.nytimes.com/1998/08/13/business/rose-blumkin-ret...
my understanding from primary sources is she started the second to carry on her ideals when the original iced her out
Re: Nebraska Furniture Mart
#6I love how the founder sold her company to Warren Buffet, and then opened up pretty much the same store right across the street, forcing Buffet to buy that one as well(with an added non-compete clause)
I think it's important to state that one of the reasons she opened another store was because her family forced her to retire.
Re: Nebraska Furniture Mart
#7It's an amazing place. At least when I visited, you walk through the door to see some bland looking furniture (some maybe even the cheap MDF self-assembled type that you buy in a cardboard box), but then you walk through a doorway that opens up into a gigantic space of every sort of electronic game, device, accessory, geegaw, tchotchke, peripheral, plaything, and delight you could imagine. The staff were highly train…
Gates & Buffet did a lighthearted tour of the place [1]
[1] Testing Mattresses with Warren Buffett
Re: Nebraska Furniture Mart
#8It is worth checking out the relevant chapter in Alice Schroder's Buffett bio. Amazing story.
Iirc, it took her six months just to get out of the USSR, across Russia, through China, then went on a cargo ship. It also covers how she got started which is just as interesting (she got sued for selling too cheap, she can't read, she can't write, etc.).
The stores are also unbelievably large. They seem to be 25-50% bigger than Ikea stores, which is incredible. Only in America (and possibly China in 2030).
Re: Nebraska Furniture Mart
#9> In 1989, at age 95, Mrs. B's family forced her into retirement. Unhappy with this and realizing that Buffett had not made her sign a non-compete agreement, Mrs. B started "Mrs. B’s Clearance and Factory Outlet" across the street from Nebraska Furniture Mart three months later.
> Two years later, "Mrs. B’s Clearance and Factory Outlet" was profitable and the third largest carpet outlet in Omaha.
Re: Nebraska Furniture Mart
#10I love how the founder sold her company to Warren Buffet, and then opened up pretty much the same store right across the street, forcing Buffet to buy that one as well(with an added non-compete clause)
I think it's important to state that one of the reasons she opened another store was because her family forced her to retire.
She was also notoriously abusive towards staff and her family. That was the reason why her family forced her to retire initially (iirc, and I may be misremembering this, she only has one biological son...the other two married her daughters and they were, perhaps understandably, not keen to carry on after the sale because of the abuse).