Ethan Allen Interiors to close stores

Better off without them wrote:

TO current employee from Chicago -
I understand your loyalty to E.A.- you must be a new employee. I left the company last year in the first go rounds of layoffs. I had no problems with my numbers just with the way our managers treated us. Things do change over time. They went from treating you as a professional to micro managing every move you made. You had to fill out a form with a star drawn on it. You had to fill in a piece of information about your client for every point of the star. Their budget etc. Very kindergarten like. Then you had to give it to your manager before you got permission to go on the housecall. Change is true of many companies, in and out of the furniture business. But I agree with the other writers who said respect for the employee was a big change. In my five plus years with the company I had never met a designer who didn't want to sell. They were on commission for god's sake. Yet every morning we had to have a meeting saying who we were seeing and how much we were going to sell to them. Every morning! If you know anything about management styles, you know that one is to try to demoralize the worker and the other is to motivate through positive reinforcement. I started working with EA when respect and motivation through the positive was the key and our store was extremely profitable. We were told how much we needed to make budget and we would pull together as a team and get it done. That changed. It was a very good company to work for when I started. I loved it.
Things have also changed with the quality. Thomasville definitely has better upholstery. And for the writer who said 100% of the upholstery is made in the U.S. That's not true. The new quick ship leather pieces are made in China. The 18th century collection was a great quality product six years ago. They replaced it with a so called informal 18th century made with distressed pieces of mahogany so that you wouldn't be afraid to use it everyday. It's all spin. They just wanted to use the scraps of mahogany rather than the best pieces for their product. And I could go on and on. There are very few designers who actually believe in the product. They do the design and hope that we wouldn't have phone calls about something not being made right at time of the delivery. I'm sure this happens at many places. But then there's isn't quality either. If you truly want quality to handdown to your children try Hickory Chair or Henkel otherwise you just have to except the flaws. And say what you may about my comments I am not disgruntled. I have no ill will towards the company infact some of my friends still work there. I actually have a great perspective of the business now that I am out. And I am greatful for whatever experience I gained ... All in all,it's just retail and you really can't stay in retail too long.

Made in America wrote:

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Maybe the fact he's been selling this Chinese junk furniture for the last several years while still trying to pawn it off at the same outrageously high prices is beginning to catch up with him.
The consumer isn't THAT stupid.

Former EA employee wrote:

Anonymous' comments are absolutely correct. EA treats their employees very badly. They treat their customers even worse. The furniture they sell from China is awful. While I was an employee, we constantly received items that were damaged & marred. One piece actually had a footrint embedded in the laquer! I'm not surprised by this at all.

MAR wrote:

The quality of EA has truly deteriorated. I have been a loyal customer for about 20 years. Every piece I purchased has been perfect--until last year. I bought the New Country computer armoire & it had several defects. Apparently they did not check it before delivering it. They replaced it, and one of the doors had to be replaced because it was warped. It's OK no, but you can tell the door isn't a perfect match. Also, the matching file cabinet has some defects. Has anyone had good luck with Amish furniture?