RETAILER RAGE: Park Avenue Home Furnishings properly responds with a punch in the ‘knows’ from its challenging situation as a fighting independent furniture retailer in sea of change

Editor’s Note: With respect and honor, I am posting an important response — a Rant Back — to my June 20 posting about Adam Smith's activist invisible hand.

As you will read below, a hopping mad Gary Patrick O’Reilly wants my hide and really seeks to garret the constellation of free-riding Internet interlopers that are reigning on his and many a retailer’s merchandise parade.

I commend O’Reilly for his candor, courage and commitment. My hope is his rage stimulates positive action, response and more action.

Responses, who knows? I hope this posting stimulates responses, which can only nourish the mind in moving forward.

Write on, Gary!:

First of all, Ivan, I would think a man who chooses to use so many unintelligible words for the common masses would at least be grammatically correct in his language and not have numerous typos and spelling problems in a short 9 paragraph column. Petty gripes...on to business.

I know you do not have the guts to run this reply, sir, but in case you do, my email address is (click to send an e-mail) goparkave@aol.com (We'll see if you have any readers to begin with.)

Let's begin by responding to your critique of my (click to visit) website.

Park Avenue's internet site is a new venture. It certainly is not yet fully functioning. Regardless, my intention is not to sell goods online, rather to offer links to my manufacturer's sites and to direct people to my showroom.

Selling furniture online, in itself, is not a great proposition. You yourself spoke of the "horror stories" regarding FurnitureLand South and the shipping problems that arise in doing business that way. You refer to these online retailers as "phantoms."

Search Google on AICO Furniture and you'll have 279,000 links, the bulk of which are people with $0 overhead offering free shipping anywhere in the USA. Consumers are not stupid.

They just want the best price, as all of us do. So if I am not here displaying these goods, the consumer cannot see and touch them, rendering internet sales powerless.

You say retail is tough. Keep sitting at your keyboard while I spend $40,000 a month on a mortgage for my store. Keep stroking away while I personally support 30 employees and their families.

Keep running your uneducated mouth while I spend nearly $40,000 a month on advertising with the Chicago Tribune alone, not to mention the TV commercials and other media outlets.

How dare you challenge the abilities of my sales force! Why don't you get out of your chair and research the situation before you make your opinions known (as a small side note aside from furniture issues, another problem with the internet is that an oblivious man can speak detrimentally about a business he has no knowledge of)?

You wrote "Park Avenue has to become the indisputable brand in the hearts and minds of shoppers." We are! And we have been for 30 years!

But when Joe Website can sell and ship you a bedroom set for 20% over my cost, even my most loyal customers will buy there. Would you spend $6,000 for something you could buy for $4,300?

I don't think so. And when the 2,000 pounds are dropped off in your driveway and the mirror is cracked and the dresser has a crushed corner, then what?

You call the company you bought it from, and they refer you to me for service. Steal my sale and then count on me to be your reputable liaison between you and the customer?

I don't think so. Competition in my market area is fair. Someone 2000 miles away with no showroom or inventory is not competition. It's apples and oranges.

Most people used to "buy locally, to my advantage" as you say. In this "internet-new media-driven world," that just isn't the case. I'm happy to know that in your little office, the troubles of the independent retailer don't loom so large.

Why don't you take a walk outside and see if the sun can't stir up some sensibilities?

The rest of us might feel slightly pacified.

Gary Patrick O'Reilly