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Furniture industry facing post-pandemic hiccup

Furniture stores like Kurlancheek are filled up on supplies after facing delays in the pandemic.

FORTY FORT, Pa. — It's standing room only inside Kurlancheek's showroom in, unless you take one of the many seats filling up the space.

"My store is 6500 square feet. Most stores are 20 to 60,000 square feet," said Ronnie Kurlancheek, president.

Right now, it's 15 percent more full than usual because furniture stores like Kurlancheek filled up on supplies after facing delays in the pandemic.

"It was a hiccup then; it's a hiccup now," she said.

"Then" being the re-opening after shutting down in the pandemic.

"So there we are, we're a design store, 80% of our business is special order, and it's taking seven to nine months to get a special order," Kurlancheek explained.

Normally an order takes eight to 10 weeks.

"So all through the pandemic, I had to say, seven to nine months and so my customers would buy whatever I had on the floor so they could sit on it immediately," Kurlancheek said.

Now Kurlancheek says the supply chain has caught up, and many furniture stores and manufacturers are dealing with an influx of inventory because things have returned to a normal schedule, and people are going back to buying custom orders.

So now might be a good time to update your living room.

"And I did not see a discount from the manufacturers on furniture for two years. Now every week, I get a special," Kurlancheek added.

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