Pricing in the Drapery Industry

[Jerry Levinson]

All Right let's have a discussion of what is being charged in the WWD Wild World of Drapery.
I believe we charge about $30 per foot for valances. Honestly Gail does our drapery sales so I'm not sure what we charge exactly but I do know we charge full retail on fabric and we double the price on labor charges including installation. We have never lost a job to price. If we are to expensive then customers will usually not do draperies at all. It's not a product they shop price for generally.
One problem is when the customer has their own fabric. Most of the profit is in the fabric and it usually is not worth it when they have their own material.
How about Roman shades? We use a company called Romanzia.
Our main business is Blinds and Shutters. We do start at $24.50 per sq ft. on Shutters. Some of our competiton is as low as $15.95. These people make me sick. They are either building cheap shutters or buying from China. They are trying to earn business by being cheap instead of being great at what they do.
Please share your views on what you charge or if you know what other people in the industry charge such as JCPenny's or 3 day Blinds.

[Jerry Levinson]

It's really hard to penetrate this market with advertising, especially when your focus is on quality products and service and not just a cheap price.
It is not just our industry but listen to TV, Radio, check out ads from Savvy Shopper, Money Mailer, the Newspaper, every ad about every product offers the lowest prices or we'll meet or beat any prices.
How about this one we will replace your windshield, not charge you, and we will give you 2 free dinners per month for a year. It's Reeedicourous.
Magazines are a good place to advertise but right now it's hard to get a return on your investment. My gut feeling is that anyone looking for a product or service is probably going to go to the web these days. All you have to do is figure out how to get on the first page in front of about 84,000 people. (sorry that's not an exaggeration I just checked)
OK now I got that out of the way YOU owe me a good story!!

Michelle Ortiz said:

Hi Karen,
I was at the blinds and shutter superstore just yesterday, as my tile installer has recently teamed up with the owner to show his retail tile. I have to say, I was impressed with the drapery hung on display. It was beautiful. I have yet to be able to do any complicated creations with my soft treatments. If I did, I would take more time to perhaps find someone like you who I could converse with in person to bring my vision to life. Yes, I agree with you both that a quality product is worth good money. And the pricing examples are for things that I consider to be pretty straight forward, and therefore competitive in the industry. However, when working on a unique project where personal touch is needed and a huge margin can be made, there is nothing to replace a local, hands on workroom. I just have not been able to use one yet here, thanks to all of the shutters.

Back east, custom window treatments accounted for 8 out of 10 jobs I did. Here, they account for 1 or 2. Most oftern I come into an already shuttered home. I might get a few windows, but they are only interested in stationary panels. I really do hope, as Jerry does, to increase those soft sales. As convincing of a designer as I am, these days it is harder than ever to make people come out of their pockets.

When a client is looking to just focus on their windows, its a lot easier to get them to pay more than when I'm doing an entire room. It just didn't use to be that way.
Michelle

[Michelle Ortiz]

HI Jerry,
Yes I will be coming to the event at Feathers. I will look forward to meeting you there.
As for the superstore, because I work with the tiler, of course Bo the shutter guy was really trying to push me to buy his shutters. He tells me he got a good deal on the space there, $3400 per month and says he gets a lot of traffic from Poppy's Home Decor rip off store that's just a few doors down. I don't know for sure. I will try to have him bid a few windows to compare his price and let you know what I find out. I would never go to anyone before checking you out first! Hope to meet Karen there, as well.
Michelle
Jerry Levinson said:

That Blind And Shutter Superstore is a direct competitor of mine and to be quite frank I'm not sure how they are doing. Their showroom is quite expensive to keep. I would like to display more products in the soft treatment category. The few customers we do get don't seem to be as interested in draperies as they are shutters and blinds. A couple of places I've advertised I refer to us as Drapery Devotion instead of Blind Devotion. As I mentioned we do get a few jobs but I sure we got more.
On another note I hired a lady named Candace Berman who is familiar with you and your workroom and she has said great things about your work. Maybe when she gets going she will start using you instead of our other workroom. I am suprised at how many people coment on how expensive drapery treatments are in Arizona versus back east. Every time I look at a price sheet it seems so inexpensive to me but as I've mentioned I'm not directly involved with the drapery side of business.
Are you coming to Paula's get together at Feathers on Oct. 15th. That's at my brothers place, Feathers.
This question is for Karen and Michelle.
Karen Barnes said:

Jerry,
I haven't logged onto this site in a couple of weeks, but in answer to your question, we are a workroom to the trade only. We are located in Gilbert, near Guadelupe and Recker Rd. My business started out several years ago doing retail drapery sales and I would also make the window treatments that I sold. Very soon, I realized I didn't have time to design and sell the drapery job as well as fabricate it. Something had to go and I knew my true talent was in the sewing. I switched to doing only the fabrication and let the designers design and sell the treatments. Since then, my business has grown by word of mouth. I have a couple of very talented seamstresses working with me. We pride ourselves in producing window treatments, bedding and pillows of very high quality. I love working closely with designers to accomplish their vision. I get a thrill out of taking a bolt of fabric and turning it into a thing of beauty. (Can you tell I love what I do?)

Pricing can be an interesting thing in this industry of window treatments. I noticed you and Michelle both mentioned different, but basic, products sold in the window covering industry for $15.95. You mentioned shutters priced at $15.95 per square foot, retail, and how everyone is battling to be the cheapest, yet your prices are higher for shutters so that you can make a decent profit.

Michelle mentioned the price of a drapery panel from her workroom in New Jersey priced at $15.95 as well. Quite frankly, I couldn't stay in business if my panels were at that price. I know how long it takes us to make a drapery panel and what my expenses and overhead is and ours are priced so that we can make a decent living as well. Some of the larger workrooms price their panels as a "loss leader". Our workroom is small - we don't have someone at the serger