# Furniture Salesman = Pointless **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 23, 2010, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/furniture-salesman-pointless/533543 "2010-03-23T22:05:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Roland\_Orzabal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@Roland\_Orzabal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roland_Orzabal)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/furniture-salesman-pointless/533543/21 "2010-03-24T21:18:59Z")
Well I jacked THAT up. I’m reporting it to request an edit, but for now, please ignore the second sentence of “Issue #1” paragraph. Sorry. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/furniture-salesman-pointless/533543/22 "2010-03-24T21:29:18Z")
> [@Roland\_Orzabal](#): > > What I’m after is basically a fast-food restaurant that serves real food and perhaps has a more pleasant sitting atmosphere than your local Mickey D’s. Boston Market? ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/furniture-salesman-pointless/533543/23 "2010-03-24T21:30:43Z")
> [@Roland\_Orzabal](#): > > Ok, I don’t want this to turn into a hijack, but since your confusion seems genuine rather than sarcastic: food eaten at home after sitting in a box for 20+ minutes is not as good as food that you receive and eat immediately. What I’m after is basically a fast-food restaurant that serves real food and perhaps has a more pleasant sitting atmosphere than your local Mickey D’s. I think the problem is that, generally speaking, fast food isn’t real food. Or to be more precise, fast food, by definition, isn’t high quality food. I say this as someone with a fair amount of experience as a cook/sous chef. Good, high quality food takes time to prepare, and therefore the total amount of customers that can be served is limited. Restaurants take this into account, and offer things like cocktails, and wine lists, and other stuff that pretty much requires servers. Having said that, I’ve heard pretty good things about Chipotle. You might want to give it a try of there is one near you. > [@](#): > > Let me start over. Instead of food and furniture (an imprecise analogy and a subject I don’t know well, respectively), I’ll use electronics, which I’m more familiar with. > > \>snip\> > > Does that make more sense? It does make sense. The problem, as I see it, is that more people are ignorant about specific kinds of items than are expert on them, and stores have to cater to the public at large. Yes, if the OP knows what he wants as far as furniture is concerned, he would be better off not having to pay for help he does not need. The same is true of you and electronics. But let me ask you this. If such a furniture or electronics store made sense financially, don’t you think someone would have tried it? Ask any retailer; employees are the biggest expense and pain in the ass involved in running a business. Most retailers would absolutely LOVE it if all they had to do was open their doors and ring up transactions. Just LOVE it. But it just doesn’t work that way, and complaining about a particular store that employs a sales staff is pointless, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/furniture-salesman-pointless/533543/24 "2010-03-24T21:40:12Z")
> [@Contrapuntal](#): > > Now I’m confused. Why isn’t it the same thing? You order the food, take it home, and do with it what you will. > > \ > > Well, I’m still confused. Go to a fancy restaurant. Order something to go. Wait in the lobby. Get your food, pay for it, and go home. Where have you had to pay for service? How much more clear can he get: IF he buys it in that manner, by the time he gets home, is food is cold, and reheating it will make it inferior. It eliminates one problem, but causes another. What he wants to be able to do is what he does at any fast food restaurant. Go in, order the food, get the food, and then go sit down by himself and eat it while it’s still hot and not have someone constantly coming over to the table and bugging him. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/furniture-salesman-pointless/533543/25 "2010-03-24T21:43:06Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > How much more clear can he get: IF he buys it in that manner, by the time he gets home, is food is cold, and reheating it will make it inferior. It eliminates one problem, but causes another. > > What he wants to be able to do is what he does at any fast food restaurant. Go in, order the food, get the food, and then go sit down by himself and eat it while it’s still hot and not have someone constantly coming over to the table and bugging him. He’s already explained it, but thanks for the input. You might want to read the pertinent posts next time before you butt in. ---
**Author:** ![Algher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Algher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algher)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/furniture-salesman-pointless/533543/26 "2010-03-24T23:01:03Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > “So tell me… what’s it gonna take to put you in this leopard-print beanbag today?” Two rum and cokes and a Quaalude is what it took the last time I settled into one of those for awhile. I hear the OP regarding wanting quality without needing to pay for the help. It is an interesting issue, especially with something like furniture. ---
**Author:** ![RhapsodyInBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RhapsodyInBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RhapsodyInBlue)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/furniture-salesman-pointless/533543/27 "2010-03-25T15:52:04Z")
Just to clarify the “self-serve” option of choosing from a catalog and ordering over the phone - the NC discount places offer just about every brand of furniture available, from low end to high end. The only things they don’t deal in are the brands that are exclusive to their own stores (for example, Ethan Allen). They do offer Henredon, Baker, Scott Thomas, Theodore Alexander, etc. It’s not really a fast food equivalent. Many furniture manufacturers also have the on line option of letting you pick a chair or sofa frame and selecting swatches so you have an idea of how the piece will look covered. But, of course, that’s just a picture on a monitor. If you want to do the work yourself, you can often request actual swatches or chips, which can take 2-3 weeks to arrive. To go this route, you need to know what you’re doing and you need a lot of patience. You can save boatloads of money though. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/furniture-salesman-pointless/533543.md?page=1)