HIGH POINT — Ask any number of retailers about their 2022, and you might not get the same response twice.

But retailers asked about their Labor Day weekend sales repeated the same refrain time and time again: The holiday weekend was a smashing success.

“It was very good. We had strong sales and strong traffic all weekend,” said Steve Wagner, owner of LJ Wagner Home Interiors of Nappanee, Ind.

He noted that, last year, the single-store retailer had difficulty getting merchandise, meaning the holiday was a little soft. This year, there were no such difficulties and LJ Wagner was up 37% year-over-year. “This makes it our best Labor Day sale ever,” he said.

As part of its Labor Day, LJ Wagner puts on a tent sale, with product running the gamut. So what sold well among promoted items?

“It was mainly sofas: both motion and stationary. Overwhelmingly, sofa after sofa,” Wagner said. “It’s hard to overstate the importance of sofas.”

In Tacoma, Wash., Harkness Furniture also cleared a high bar set a year ago. “We were up a bit from a record Labor Day in 2021, so that was a good sign,” said owner Dave Harkness.

Harkness said while traffic could have been a bit better, consumers made up for it with an appetite to buy.

“Traffic was down a bit, but the average sale and close ratio were both up, so it was a good strong weekend. I’m very pleased with it,” he said.

Upholstery was right on the money for Top 100 retailer Steinhafels, said President Andrew Steinhafel. And much as he predicted, bedding — particularly higher end sleep sets — proved to be sales drivers as well for the Waukesha, Wis.-based retailer.

“Overall, upholstery for us led the way, being plus 18%. In that, motion was the biggest. It seemed to do extremely well over the weekend,” Steinhafel said.

“We had some strong mattress business, especially the premium,” he added. “Mattress was up 9%, with premium up well over that. It was encouraging to see the high-end mattress business come back a little bit.”

Adding Downers Grove, Ill., and Green Bay, Wis., into the mix pushed Steinhafels’ year-over-year sales to a 10% increase over 2021’s Labor Day sales. Comparing same-store sales, Steinhafel said things were relatively neck-and-neck with a year ago, and up over 2020.

“It’s interesting. We had last year that was phenomenal and 2020 being a strong year, (and) same store sales were up over 2020,” he said.

Traffic throughout the extended weekend was spotty, but Chad Dern, Steinhafels’ vice president of marketing, noted that Labor Day itself was one of the highest sales day in the company’s history on a “spectacular weather day.”

Speaking of weather, in the San Francisco Bay area, higher than normal temperatures created concerns that shoppers might stay home. While thermometers in Redwood City, Calif., might have hit 106 degrees at some point over the weekend, it didn’t deter shoppers, much to the delight of Hoot Judkins owner Bobby Watson.

“It was shockingly good,” he said. “I really didn’t think we were going to have a good weekend, based on the weather. It was unbearable to be outside. Typically, people bottle themselves up; they don’t go out shopping.

“Without much doubt, our foot traffic was down, but the people who did venture out all bought something. There was very little tire kicking.”

Lead times have come down for import products and domestic goods, which helped Hoot Judkins’ stock position, but Watson said custom orders continued to be sales leaders.

“What continues to be very strong for us is our higher-end and highly customizable furniture items, whether they be custom-sized wall units or dining room sets in a color people want rather than taking them out of inventory,” he said. “Most people are willing to wait to get that perfect piece.”

Custom orders were also big for Top 100 retailer Furnitureland South during the Labor Day weekend.

“We had a number of people in trying to get the best prices of the year for product they don’t need right away,” said Blair Ingle, executive director of sales and marketing.

The Jamestown, N.C.-based retailer continued its Awesome August sale into September’s first weekend and did well in traffic and in orders. Ingle said both were pretty strong throughout the event’s conclusion.

“The Awesome August promotion we have ended with Labor Day. With our in-stock product in the Outlet and the outdoor product we had in the tent, we saw a lot of people interested in those items they could get right away,” Ingle said.

“We also had a good bit of designer business — designers who were purchasing on behalf of their clients. We saw a nice surge in that over the weekend.”

So can any conclusions be drawn from Labor Day as we head into the fall?

“I don’t think we’re going to do a lot more record breaking, but this good, strong start to fall sales should give us a decent fall. I’m looking forward to having good sales,” said Wagner.

Added Ingle, “I’d like to think it’s an indication that consumers are a little more confident than we hear on the news.”

Thomas Lester is Retail Editor for Furniture Today and Digital/Managing Editor for Home Accents Today. A graduate of Emory & Henry College's Mass Communications program, Lester spent a dozen years working for newspapers in Virginia and North Carolina covering an array of subjects, ranging from community news, government, education, ACC sports, professional baseball and more before joining Furniture Today in 2013. Reach out to me with your story ideas, tips and more at tlester@furnituretoday.com.

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