Commentary

ABC 7 Chicago reports that a company called Urban Forest Products, who salvages naturally uprooted trees and turns them into high-quality lumber, yields many uses.  This is, by far, the most out of the box thinking regarding recent hurricane (hurricane Gustav) and tornado warnings in the South East United States.

ABC 7 Reports:

“The Skokie-based company was formed seven years ago by Bruce and his wife Erika. They specialize in recovering trees from local urban environments. They take the downed trees and process that excess wood which is then used by furniture-makers, flooring companies and craftsmen all over the country. “

Think about a recently uprooted oak tree that can be transformed into a nice buffet and hutch.  In the tree’s second incarnation, it could possibly last a few hundred more years with just a simple transformation from an inspired company.

This sparks the thought, what can we do to make a difference in our community?  Humans have an uncanny ability to bring out positives in life in the midst of all the worries of the world.  Sure, we have global warming, oil prices, a slow economy, etc. to worry about, but companies like Urban Forest Products can really turn lemons into lemonade.

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The World is Running Out of Oil, but it will never actually Run Out.

The world is running out of oil.  The end of the world is coming, because oil is scarce and we continue to use more of it.  We’ve been hearing these heralds of doomsday for years now.  And it’s not the first, nor will it be the last.  Anyone remember Y2K?  Me neither.The point I’m getting at is that short of a surprise comet obliterating the world, or a black hole opening up in our own solar system, humanity has always found a way to deal with its problems, when given enough time and warning.  And the way we deal with it comes easily.  Actually it comes naturally.
It doesn’t require the UN signing a unanimous agreement to cut fuel usage.  It doesn’t require a world-wide effort to turn off the lights at night.  All it requires is supply and demand.  As oil becomes more scarce, it becomes exponentially more expensive.  As it becomes more expensive, people naturally use it less.This year, people stay away from SUVs like the plague, and they have been buying up hybrids and highly fuel-efficient cars in troves.  Honda Civic sale are up 40% this year, a number unprecedented in automotive history.  My friend recently purchased a Civic, and it was the last one on the lot.  When new Civics become harder to buy than Range Rovers, you know something has changed. And that is why I’m saying we are running out of oil, but we will never actually run out.  Before oil runs out, and well before it has the scarcity of other rare commodities like gold, it will have become so expensive of an energy source, that many other forms of primary energy would have taken over.  As technology continues to develop, energy extracted from nuclear, and any other renewable resource such as solar, wind, ocean currents, will become more and more efficient and cheap.  Those energies will power our future’s homes, cars, and industry.  In fact, we will certainly find something that completely replaces oil and does the job much better, because that’s what humanity has done time and time again.  History is on our side. So I say with full confidence that before we run out of oil, oil will have become worthless to us.  Catch my drift?

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There are many different reasons why a customer would purchase item from a website. Often purchases are driven by some need whether it is functionality or decorative there are some definite reasons why a customers would make their choices from one vendor to another.

Furniture websites are a different breed of customer, because there is a functionality appeal as well as a decorative one. So it is doublely difficult to show a customer not only the selection you have, but also the styles and price ranges you have.

Here are the top 5 reasons why a customer would purchase from your store rather than one of your competitors.:

1. Navigation: If they cannot find the item (either by your site directory or search) they can’t buy anything from you.
2. Confusing: Customers are often turned off by websites that display too much information. If you are a research site, then display research! If you are a furniture website, display furniture!
3. Professionalism: If you constantly misspell words or you have dead links and pictures, your customer will consider you and your sites ability to get their order right.
4. Selection: Customers might take a longer time searching for something specific, but they might check back with you to find something else in the future.
5. Clarity: As with all the reason above, your customer needs to know what is going on at all times. If they feel they are losing control of the buying situation, they will abandon ship.

Good luck!

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Always a step ahead of the curve, Hillsdale Furniture is innovating the furniture industry. In 2005, Hillsdale Furniture has introduced both a high-end day bed market by offering upscale wood models and also desk-bed combination that we still see today.  Hillsdale offering upscale wooden daybeds

Hillsdale is not the first metal beds vendor to diversify with wood day beds. Largo, Fashion Bed Group and Powell Co. are some other companies that have wood or a combination of wood and metal daybeds in their line.

Later in 2005, Hillsdale continued to expand it’s furniture lineup by developing mixed use furniture that would be both office furniture as well as regular home furniture. Hillsdale adds desk-bed combination:

Folded up, the bottom of the bed sits just above the desk surface as it were part of the hutch. The desk and file cabinet are set on casters, and pull away from the hutch unit to allow the bed to fold down.

The file cabinet then doubles as a nightstand. The hutch and desk also have plenty of shelf or drawer space for storage.

However, in this ever demanding industry, as well as the demand for prompt service and even faster delivery, in 2007 Hillsdale in cooperated Greatwide Distribution to manage it’s shipping distribution.  Hillsdale Furniture Chooses Greatwide Distribution To Manage Downstream Supply Chain:

 “The home furnishings business is extremely competitive, requiring us to be ever mindful of our costs. At the same time, though, customers have high expectations for both short delivery times and the final quality of the pieces and accessories they choose,” said David A. Brill, chief operating officer of Hillsdale . “Greatwide Distribution Logistics showed us that they understand what creates real value for us and our customers, and we’re looking forward to continuing to provide our customers the excellent level of service they have become accustomed to receiving from Hillsdale. .”

It is clear that Hillsdale is innovative, resilient towards an ever changing industry and relishes change. Visiondecor is proud to offer Hillsdale furniture.

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