Our data shows that furniture store retailers have seen a decrease in traffic of -2.99% year-on-year. With consumers facing continued pressure on household budgets and furniture often representing a significant discretionary purchase, discount retailers could potentially benefit from consumers looking for greater value.
We’re taking a look at the foot traffic data to see what the current landscape looks like for furniture retailers and discount furniture chains.
All data is from PassBy’s market intelligence platform Almanac.
Are discount furniture stores attracting more high-income visitors?
Not broadly — but there are some interesting exceptions.
Across the Furniture Store category, the share of visitors earning $100K+ fell slightly from 24.57% to 24.36% year over year. However, individual retailers are showing different patterns. Bob’s Discount Furniture, for example, saw its $100K+ visitor share increase over the most recent six months, while Ashley Furniture, Mattress Firm and La-Z-Boy remained broadly stable.
At the same time, overall furniture-store traffic declined 2.99% YoY, meaning the composition of visitors may be more important than the headline traffic number.
Furniture Stores Have Stable Visit Share by Income in the Past Year But Visits Are Decreasing
The Furniture Store category has seen a shift away from higher-income visitors, but the shift is very slight.
- Visitors earning $100K+ declined from 24.57% to 24.36%, a 0.21 percentage-point decrease year over year.
- The largest individual movement was in the $100K–$124,999 bracket, which fell 0.08 pp.
- At the other end, lower-income segments is slightly edged upward — particularly Under $10K (+0.09%).
Visits to furniture stores have also declined by -3.01% in the past 6 months.
Overall: we don’t see evidence in our data of an upward trend of high income visitors to furniture stores, but we can say visits to furniture stores have decreased overall and so the high income visitors may be having a bigger impact on these retailers.
Bob’s Discount Furniture
Let’s first take a look at Bob’s Discount Furniture stores across the states, then we’ll do a regional breakdown. Has anything changed for this retailer in the past year?
- The percentage of visitors earning $100K+ fell from 26.24% to 25.97%, a decline of 0.27 percentage points.
- The biggest individual decline was among visitors earning $100K–$124,999, down 0.11 pp.
- Interestingly, almost all of the lower-income brackets edged upward slightly. This suggests a very modest shift toward lower-income visitors, rather than the influx of high-income visitors that the six-month comparison initially suggested.
Bob’s Discount Furniture: Year-over-year visitor comparison by income
Ashley Furniture
- Key Takeaway: Ashley’s visitor income profile has been very stable, with the $100K+ audience essentially unchanged year-over-year (-0.08% difference).
- Visits have decreased by -4.56% year-over-year. So, while the overall number of visitors has fallen, the mix of income groups visiting Ashley has barely changed.
In other words: fewer visits, but broadly the same type of visitor.
Ashley Furniture: Year-over-year visitor comparison by income
Mattress Firm
- Key Takeaway: -5.28% down in visits year on year
- Mattress Firm’s visitor income profile is almost completely unchanged year over year.
The share of visitors earning $100K+ increased only 0.02 percentage points, from 24.30% to 24.32%. The largest individual segment remains $75K–$99,999, at 13.06%.
So, similar to Ashley Furniture, Mattress Firm is seeing very little change in the income composition of its visitors, despite the overall foot traffic decline we found.
Mattress Firm: Year-over-year visitor comparison by income
La-Z-Boy
- The share of visitors earning $100K+ has maintained similar levels year on year. from 25.29% to 24.97%, (-0.32%).
- At the same time, most lower-income brackets increased slightly, suggesting a modest broadening toward lower-income visitors, rather than a major change in the overall customer profile.
La-Z-Boy: Year-over-year visitor comparison by income
What does this mean for discount furniture retailers?
The data suggests that discount furniture isn’t experiencing a major influx of high-income consumers, at least at the category level.
Instead, the story is more nuanced:
- Overall furniture traffic is down 2.99% YoY.
- The $100K+ visitor share is broadly stable.
- Some retailers have experienced small increases in their high-income visitor mix.
- Others have seen small declines.
- None of the retailers analyzed shows evidence of a dramatic change in its income profile.
This suggests that higher-income households may still be an important part of the discount furniture customer base, but there isn’t enough evidence to say that affluent consumers are driving a broad shift toward discount furniture.