What an honor!  I just got back from a trip to Umbra’s world headquarters in Toronto.  That’s right, this multi million dollar global company picked us, Su Casa, to receive the honor of Retail Partner of the Year for the ENTIRE UNITED STATES!  Not only did we get to have a great time enjoying the fabulous city of Toronto, but we also got to spend a day touring their design and warehouse facilities.  We watched as new products were being designed and tweaked for production and got to see firsthand what makes this company, known for cutting edge design and innovation, so successful.  The energy and enthusiasm of the entire workforce at this company is truly motivating.  Everyone involved from the warehouse to the design teams lives and breathes quality and a profound dedication to the customers who buy their products.  We were so impressed, we’ve  decided to expand our offerings to include their Semi-Custom Draperies!  So, next time you need a great picture frame, bath or kitchen accessory, you can see that both the Su Casa in Fells Point and Ellicott City can be your source for an unbelievable selection of drapes and drapery hardware. 

If you’re on our email list, you know this already, but if you’re not, read on.  We bought out the remaining inventory from our most popular leather supplier.  This is the stuff you’ve loved for several years now, he’s just making room in his warehouse for new designs.  So if you need a leather sofa, loveseat, chair or ottoman, you can’t beat these prices.  We have a limited supply of Macy, Ethan and Freddie pieces, all at blowout pricing!  This will only last until it’s all sold out, so be sure to stop by soon, because when it’s gone, it’s gone.

The last day of the winter warehouse sale will be Saturday 1/24/09.  We will be open again from 10a to 4p.  Don’t worry, there are still a lot of great pieces left.  Most stuff we haven’t sold so far will be reduced in price and we’re trying to wring a few other things out of regular inventory to add to the sale.  In any case, you won’t be disappointed.  We’ve added a bunch of stuff to the free section, so if you missed that last weekend, you still have a chance at it this Saturday.

Last weekend’s sale was awesome!  We have been working hard all week to put more merchandise out for this weekend.  Saturday 1/17 and Sunday 1/18 from 10-4 both days.  Don’t worry if you missed last weekend, we are going to have some equally amazing deals this weekend!  We even had so much of the same stuff last weekend that we only sold about half of the NEW items, so we will still have great deals on brand new furniture.  Brand new leather sofas for example, $800.  We have 3 of those.  Brand new beds $500.  We have 2 of those.  We even have a brand new wrought iron queen size bed for $150!  See you there!

It’s finally here!  THIS IS THE BIG ONE!  Starting Saturday Jan 10 at 10a and continuing every Saturday and Sunday throughout January we’re having our warehouse sale.  This will be bigger and more mind blowing than ever before, I promise!  We have more new/discontinued furniture than we’ve ever had.  We have marked down furniture lower than ever before!  We will lose a LOT of money on this sale, which means you can save a LOT of money shopping this sale.  Don’t worry if you’re a regular customer in the store, everything in the sale is either discontinued, damaged or a former floor model, so if you just bought something, you got a great deal on that too.    Bring your room dimensions, you will want to buy something, seriously!  The address is 1400 Aliceanna, across the street from Pazo.  We will be open at 10 and close at 4, afterall, the Ravens play on Saturday!  See you then.

How can we show our appreciation enough?  We thank both you, our customer and the editors of the City Paper for selecting us Best of Baltimore for the third year in a row!  We truly believe that this is a real honor and know that it is our dedication to you, our customer, that makes this possible.  Thanks again for the vote of confidence and we hope to see you soon.

Nicholas Johnson

We couldn’t believe it when we were asked to participate in ABC’s Extreme Makeover Home Edition!  What an honor!  We absolutely wanted to help a family in need, so we were able to get one of our suppliers to rush production to make the show deadline.  If you watch the show on September 28, 2008, look for our furniture in the daughters’ stage room.  The Tori velvet chaise, Elroy swivel chairs and BDI bubble mirrors really set the stage (pun intended).   We think the project was very worthwhile and hope that the Jackson family enjoys their new home.

Our semi annual warehouse sale will be this weekend!  July 12-13.  Both days will be 10-6.  We need lots of room, so the discounts will be deeper than you’ve seen before.  Oh yeah, this is the big one!  Most of the stores in Fells Point will be there!  Fells Point Surf Co, The Corduroy Button, Urban Adventure, The Big Iguana, Dudley and Max, PAD, Calligaris and even 5K Running is coming back.  Don’t worry if you miss it, we can make appointments to open for you for the following week.  See you there!

Su Casa’s not the only store to get accolades in the press.  Check out this story in the Washington Post about furniture shopping in Charm City.  http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/dc/southeast/best-home-furnishing-stores-in-baltimore-2008-the-washington-post-71008-055834  Not a whoe lot of detail, but it’s true, Calligaris and all of the furniture we sell here is great for small spaces!  It’s not just about style here either.  We know it’s just as important how a piece of furniture feels as it is how it looks.  For great modern and contemporary furniture in Baltimore, this is the place.

If you want the good news first, skip over this and come back to it after you read the bad news!

The Bad News: 

Some of our vendors have raised their prices to a point we can no longer absorb.  So, unfortunately we have had to raise a few prices in the store recently.  We’ve done our best to keep them to a minimum, but we can only do so much.  It’s been explained to us that we’re experiencing a perfect storm.  First, it’s no secret that gas/diesel are at all time highs now, and higher fuel prices increase freight rates to us.  Also, a weaker US dollar contributes to higher raw materials prices and more expensive imports. 

We are also dealing with increased lead times due to a couple of factors.  Some of our vendors have had to cut back operations due to the weak economy, leading to longer production times for custom orders.  Also, whereas before, small orders would ship quickly, our vendors are accumulating orders in hopes of shipping less frequently, but more completely so that trucks are leaving more full.   This merchandise slowdown has caused many of our vendors to stop discounting goods, which was our main way of combating routine price increases.  We had been averaging full price and sale goods to keep our prices flat, but that’s no longer the case in some instances.

Now for the Good News:

This economic slowdown has actually improved efficiency at more than just  a couple of our vendors, so they’ve in turn lowered prices, which we’ve passed through to you. 

We have also managed to keep our operating costs relatively stable, following several Green Practices. 

Who knew that 3 years ago buying the most fuel efficient delivery truck on the road would pay off so huge?  Our primary delivery truck averages over 20 mpg.  Not great for a car, but for a truck carrying heavy loads for an average of 40,000 miles a year, that’s fantastic! 

We’ve managed to switch a lot of our lighting to compact flourescents, maintaining our energy bills at a relatively even level.

SO WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN?

It means that we’ve managed to raise fewer prices than we’ve lowered or left alone.  We haven’t had to eliminate any of our services;  Free delivery, 100% returns, awesome customer service etc. 

So as bad as it is if the item you were hoping for happens to be one of the few the price went up on, bring us the old price and we’ll honor it.  Just a hint, we won’t change our web pricing until 30 days after the store pricing.