
Nebraska Furniture Mart - jkuria
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebraska_Furniture_Mart
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lqet
> 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.

~~~
hogFeast
And when she decided to rejoin, Buffett made her sign a non-compete
agreement...at the age of 97 (I think)...which is surely a first. Iirc, it was
a five year non-compete.

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hogFeast
It 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).

~~~
AmVess
There's a door showroom in Chongqing that's so big you drive through it and
look at all the doors on offer.

Yes, you drive through it in your car and look at housing doors of all types.

~~~
hogFeast
That is really worth a Google. Must require some ventilation. Totally mad.

~~~
givehimagun
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwS3R20IoMk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwS3R20IoMk)

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MarkMc
Rose Blumkin is the classic American-immigrant-rags-to-riches-by-hard-work
story. I love this story from Warren Buffett in his 1983 letter to
shareholders:

"Omaha retailers began to recognize that Mrs. B would offer customers far
better deals than they had been giving, and they pressured furniture and
carpet manufacturers not to sell to her. But by various strategies she
obtained merchandise and cut prices sharply. Mrs. B was then hauled into court
for violation of Fair Trade laws. She not only won all the cases, but received
invaluable publicity. At the end of one case, after demonstrating to the court
that she could profitably sell carpet at a huge discount from the prevailing
price, she sold the judge $1400 worth of carpet."

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c0achmcguirk
I have no idea why this is on the front page of Hacker News but I'm not hating
it.

I moved from Omaha to the Denver/Boulder area two years ago and besides the
Henry Doorly Zoo, I miss Nebraska Furniture Mart the most.

NFM is a great place to buy pretty much anything you want to put in your
house. Mrs. B really knew how to make a business work. The only weird thing is
how antiquated their computer systems are, it's amazing they are so profitable
with 70's era technology running the business.

~~~
lqet
> It's amazing they are so profitable with 70's era technology running the
> business.

Without knowing any details, I would say that there are people who would argue
that this attitude may be one of the reasons they _are_ profitable. Why change
a perfectly working system your customer does have no direct interaction with?

~~~
jrockway
> Why change a perfectly working system your customer does have no direct
> interaction with?

Because you can't buy replacement parts when something breaks?

~~~
dev_dull
Repairability is one of the defining qualities of “old stuff”

~~~
dymk
only the "old stuff" that survived. all the other "old stuff" (which is most
of it) is in a landfill because it was irreparable.

~~~
emilfihlman
Of course, as is only natural.

Why change stuff that survived?

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GWSchulz
If you've never hiked through one, they are quintessential American excess. I
know for many of you, their locations are Flyover Country. But actually embark
from your stopover next time and spend a full weekend experiencing it. I've
lived all over Middle America and the SF Bay Area for several years, and I
live in Tulsa now. Nebraska Furniture Mart makes IKEA look like a Mission
bodega that ran out of American Spirits and artisan beer.

~~~
sswaner
I will have to give NFM another chance. The Clive IA store was a sleepy,
underwhelming selection, and staff either missing or unable to help. We kept
trying to buy blinds. After the 3rd try stopping by to talk to an expert we
just ended up ordering online from justblinds.

They have moved to a new location in Clive or Urbandale. I haven't stopped in,
but it feels like the parking lot is never too full.

~~~
solotronics
The one North of Dallas is bustling with activity whenever I go
(evening/weekend). They have had sales on stuff like dyson vacs and we got a
custom made couch and the fiance got to see all the fabrics and touch them so
there are some definite benefits vs something online. You can't sit on a couch
on Amazon!

Also, it's readily displayed what is made in the US which I always choose when
possible. The salespeople are very friendly and they get a commission so it's
good to support the community.

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auto
Fun fact, Nebraska Furniture Mart holds 0x0004 on the list of Linux
Manufacturer USB Ids [1]. At my last job we built a product with a custom
OpenWRT fork, and I needed to identify an Atmel D21 behind a usb hub on a
custom board we built, and I figured I'd never have a collision with any NFM
hardware, so I just used that since no one outside our company would never see
the device either.

[1] [http://www.linux-usb.org/usb.ids](http://www.linux-usb.org/usb.ids)

~~~
braindeath
Those aren't Linux IDs, those are USB-IF issued vendor IDs. That list is
merely maintained by a Linux dev. That number is so low I wonder why NFM
registered it. They have retailed electronics and accessories. Possibly some
USB peripheral in the 90s?

~~~
CamperBob2
Well, sort of. They're Linux's interpretation of a superset of VID/PID
combinations recognized by the USB-IF. The USB-IF doesn't allow product IDs to
be resold, as was (and still is) done by MCS in the $16D0 VID range, or to
party on abandoned/unused IDs like C&T's at $420, as something called the
"Celly SIM Card Reader" seems to be doing.

Linux is under no obligation to follow the (absurd) policies of USB-IF, so
they basically have to maintain their own parallel list.

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tim333
Buffett talking about it and Mrs B this year
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pg1XfTNKRJk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pg1XfTNKRJk)

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oh_sigh
I 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)

~~~
YourGrace
I think it's important to state that one of the reasons she opened another
store was because her family forced her to retire.

~~~
hogFeast
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).

~~~
609venezia
Do you have a source for her abuse? A quick search didn’t turn up
anything—your comment is the top google result :)

~~~
tim333
Here's something from [http://www.quoteswise.com/rose-blumkin-
quotes.html](http://www.quoteswise.com/rose-blumkin-quotes.html) :

>[To Warren Buffett when she had lined up a group of her grandsons and sons-
in-law and nephews against a wall and was lecturing them.] See all these guys
next to me? If I sell it to you, you can fire them. These people are a bunch
of bums, and they are all related to me and I can’t fire them. But you can
fire them. They’re bums, bums, bums. [‘She went on like this for an hour,
literally. The word ‘bums’ recurred many, many times. Then she dismissed me. I
had served my purpose.’ – ###Warren Buffett

The other quotes are quite an interesting read also.

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gbacon
It'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.

~~~
wozniacki
Gates & Buffet did a lighthearted tour of the place [1]

[1] Testing Mattresses with Warren Buffett

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XFwlNVRD5M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XFwlNVRD5M)

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sabujp
Just to clarify "largest home furnishing store" the article literally means by
sq ft within a single structure. Obviously the Ikeas of the world have much
more total sq ft.

~~~
kodablah
Interestingly, built in the same lot where the world's largest sporting goods
store is currently being built (opening early next year).

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exabrial
The traffic at the Kansas City location ironically lead to the opening of the
Ikea here. Ikea used NFM's gaffs as a playbook to ensure their opening went
smooth; everything from choosing location to paying for traffic signal
upgrades (and hiring local law enforcement to trigger them manually) was
thought out.

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nhebb
Another interesting one is Hickory (NC) Furniture Mart. It started as a drive-
in restaurant and pivoted over time into a mall with over 100 furniture
stores.

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victor106
Does anyone here know what exactly is NFM’s moat? Price, Selection, Customer
Service? All the above?

~~~
kodablah
Personally, all of the above. Most of my furnishings and appliances have been
purchased there, the sheer volume of choice coupled with reasonable pricing
and ease of purchase/delivery sets them apart from niche stores and/or
difficult purchasing processes. It's much easier spending an afternoon walking
around dozens of couches than traveling store to store (knowing evaluation
must be in person for such an item).

~~~
koyote
Can they compete against Ikea?

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madengr
Yes, if you are looking for something that is not particle board.

~~~
icebraining
Are you sure? IKEA has quite cheap solid wood furniture.

~~~
whenchamenia
And it still seems to last a single move. I hate this disposable culture.

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puranjay
I want to read more about Mrs. B. She sounds like an absolutely remarkable
woman!

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mike00632
It's why there is no IKEA in Nebraska!

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WalterBright
An awesome American business story! I also love how she never retired.

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IntricateJake
Omaha represent!

