Brandon Oriental Rugs: Montgomery County

Showing posts with label Montgomery County. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

A composite view of hand-knotted oriental rug from Bucks County, PA #rugstore Brandon Oriental Rugs - www.BrandonRugs.com - selected for newly furnished living room of new #townhome in #LowerGwynedd PA. The "before images" of the small intimate room and closeup of the chair and #windowtreatment #fabrics show why the homeowner's decision to use a rug with subdued pattern and palette was inspired.

via Instagram http://ift.tt/2fL7QfY

The image shows the before appearance of the living room belonging to homeowners in Lower Gwynedd, PA who used Bucks County, PA oriental rug store Brandon Oriental Rugs to help them find a rug. Also included in the composite image are the fabrics in their room; which limited to some degree the rug choices they felt comfortable using. Finally the rug they ultimately selected is seen. Offering some color and pattern, the 8x10 hand-knotted Peshawar rug (an adapted Agra design made in Pakistan with handwoven Ghazni wool dyed with vegetal dyes) is nonetheless a subdued complement and understated background for the intimacy of the small room, already richly detailed and colorful.

Having in prior years selected several other richly detailed and boldy colored rugs from Brandon Oriental Rugs for their previous home, the decision to keep this rug low key was inspired.

Here are the areas and communities we serve directly with all of our #rug-services (including #Rug-Search(tm); #rug-cleaning, #rug-repairs, #rug-appraisals, #room-measurements, #free-delivery, #interior-design-assistance, #rug-consignments, #rug-storage, #insurance-rug-damage-claims, #rug-shipment):
Bucks County, Pennsylvania: Doylestown, Jamison, Warminster, Warrington, Warwick, Washington Crossing, Upper Makefield, Newtown, Yardley, Langhorne, Richboro, Northhampton, Buckingham, Chalfont, Furlong, Lahaska (Peddlers Village), New Hope, Quakertown, Pipersville, Ottsville, Plunstead Township, Buckingham Township, Solebury, Upper Makefield Township, Lower Makefield Township, Bristol, Oxford Valley, Levittown, Morrisville, Wrightstown, Penns Purchase
Philadelphia and Suburbs in Southeast Pennsylvania: Philadelphia, Bryn Mawr, Haverford, Malvern, Devon, Main Line, Chestnut Hill and Bryn Mawr
Mercer County, NJ and nearby communities: Princeton, Titusville, Hamilton, NJ and vicinity
Hunterdon County, NJ and nearby communities: Lambertville, Clinton, Stockton, Whitehouse Station, Flemington, Ringoes, Basking Ridge, Bernardsville, Chester, Mendham
Chester, Montgomery and Delaware Counties in Pennsylvania: Valley Forge, King of Prussia, Upper and Lower Merion, Ft. Washington, Blue Bell, Lansdale, Abington, Rydal, Haverford, Huntingdon Valley, Abington, Newtown Square, Rydal, Paoli, Swarthmore, Conshohocken, Norristown, Harleysville, Blue Bell, Lower Gwynedd, Gwynedd Township, Montgomeryville, North Wales, West Point, Upper Frederick Township, Pennsburg, Greenlane, Perkiomonville, Souderton, Sellersville, Pottstown, Chester Springs, West Chester
Lehigh, Berks, Northhampton Counties in Pennsylvania: Easton, Bath, Bangor, Allentown, Bethlehem, Center Valley, Lower Saucon Township and the entire Lehigh Valley
The Poconos and Susquehanna Valley: Jim Thorpe, Mauch Chunk, Hawley, Scranton, Wilkes Barre, Pottsville, Stroudsberg, Delaware River Gap
New Horizons (Outside above Listed Areas)? Invite us to help you. We look forward to opportunities to explore new horizons. If we cannot help you with direct-to-door service, we are always pleased to answer questions and offer suggestions of value to you relative to your interest(s) in fine quality handmade rugs. Please give us a call if you need help.

Monday, September 9, 2013

Bucks County Oriental Rug Store Brandon Oriental Rugs - www.BrandonRugs.com - Shows That Hand-Knotted Oriental Rugs Are Best Friends With Leather Furniture And Arts & Crafts (especially Stickley (tm)) Furnishings of Every Kind

There is a synergy between leather furniture and hand-knotted rugs (especially geometric Persian designs like Heriz, Yalameh, Bidjar). This extends to Arts and Crafts furniture of every kind; especially that made by Stickley (tm).

This is an easy design technique that always looks elegant and well done.

Keep in mind too that the mating of Persian rugs with A&C furnishings is a much more affordable rug solution than using reproduction Arts and Crafts rugs by Tufenkian(tm), or other "new rug" and "antique reproduction" rug manufacturers.

Sunday, September 8, 2013

A Hand-knotted Oriental Rug Is Often at the Center of Someone's World. Brandon Oriental Rugs Knows the Importance of That.

The hand-knotted rug on the floor of this room is at the center of someone's world.

We invite you to think of all that happens here in the life of a family.

It is no insignificant place.

Brandon has had the privilege of helping many homeowners all around the metropolitan Philadelphia area create such gathering places.

Call us when you are ready to create a room with heart at the center of your home.

Monday, March 18, 2013

BRANDON RUGS WEEKLY RUG SPECIAL (New Feature: Bookmark Us)

A New Selection Offered Every Monday

Persian Kazvin (approx 12x18) $4,150.00 (origin: Iran)

[This is a used, "old" rug. It was purchased by the original owners in 1989 and was in their home until 2012. It is presently in storage. It is being sold by Brandon on consignment on behalf of our customer. Rug was washed prior to being placed in storage in 2012. But, price includes an additional complete rug wash prior to final installation.]

The rug offered on this page is specially priced for immediate sale for one of the following reasons:

1.) The rug is scheduled for return to its source and is offered here at a last chance price.

2.) The rug belongs to a customer who is offering it here for consignment sale. These rugs are sold "as is", but the price includes complete professional cleaning (wash, deodorization, moth-proofing) prior to installation.

N.B.: Prices posted here are for rug only and do not include padding, delivery/shipping, or applicable sales tax. Rugs may be purchased on an approval basis, but all sales final after forty-eight hours if not returned in original condition.

Questions? Contact Chris or Pam at Brandon Oriental Rugs/ Loom-And-Essence by phone at 215-794-2300. (Sorry, no back and forth via e-mail on these offers.)

If you have a hand-knotted rug in good condition that you want to offer for consignment sale via this page, please contact us.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

The Future Crop of Handknotted Oriental Rugs Is Afoot

The material growing on the special breed of sheep below is the special ingredient for future creation of fine handknotted oriental rugs. It's a natural, organic, green, renewable resource in production.

Over several months, the wool covering these sheep grows into magnificent fleeces which, upon shearing, will be acquired by the world's best rug-making concerns.

Then, following a time-perfected process -- which takes considerably longer than the production of the raw material -- the wool is spun, dyed and used to build a rug knot-by-knot; and something wonderful results -- the following being but one example of an incredibly diverse set of superb examples available to satisfy any discerning taste.

And, needless to say, there is ALWAYS a bumper crop of beautiful handmade rugs available for your consideration and consumption at Brandon Oriental Rugs. Tell us what's cooking with your design project, and we'll suggest appropriate ingredients to help you serve it up right.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

RUG SALE ( TALE OF THE TAG ): What's Attached There Reveals A Company's Retail Philosophy AND Beliefs Concerning Customer Motivations and Sophistication

This is the layout of all the tags that are attached to all the rugs at Brandon's store.
Rugs are given actual designations (TYPE) based on origin and tradition,
not some made-up marketing or brand name (e.g. - "Oriental Luxor Epoch 2001").
SIZE is an actual measurement, not a nominal, standard-size category.
QUALITY states the materials and contract grade so that you can actually
comparison shop styles and qualities that appeal to you.
ORIGIN is country where the rug was actually made. This matters.
ACTUAL PRICE means just that. It isn't a manufactured price that we can spend
the afternoon sipping tea while we negotiate over it. It isn't a big number that gets turned
into a small number for any of the myriad reasons for which "discounts" are supposedly offered.
It includes EVERYTHING: the rug, the pad you need for the rug and your floors,
the applicable sales tax and delivery with installation (on room size rugs.)

With few exceptions -- even among rug stores that claim to be "direct importers" -- the rugs you see when you shop all originated in the inventories of eighty or so importers which produce most of the handmade rugs and associated textiles in the world. Some are names that can be recognized from their branding efforts -- which have yielded mixed results. Nourison, Samad, Safavieh, and Kalaty via massive, long-term advertising campaigns and marketing systems have tried to penetrate formerly under-served markets. (There's a joke in the rug industry that anyone can become an oriental rug dealer who has ten square feet of floor space and a spare $20,000 to "invest" in purchasing "samples". Consequently, if your local convenience store or supermarket doesn't have a rug kiosk yet, it's probably just a matter of time.) For the most part, however, the rug importers choose to remain unknown to the general public so as to remain dedicated resources for select dealers competent to properly educate and serve interested buyers.

As a result of a business model where all of the rug dealers (nationally and worldwide) are, in effect, "sharing" the inventories of the same importers (producers), it sometimes happens that a price tag from a store that previously held a rug accidentally remains as an artifact on that rug when it gets to the next store. We, at Brandon Oriental Rugs, possess of some of these artifacts and would like to use them here to demonstrate how fine rugs are being represented (or misrepresented) to possible buyers; and how that suggests what some dealers think about the real aspirations and motivations of their customers.

Please appreciate that rug dealers are not "non-profit" enterprises. Although the overhead costs involved in generating a sale often yield slim profits, the bottom-line price of any rug -- the price a customer actually pays to make a purchase -- is structured to yield a profit sufficient to cover the costs of the sale plus a little extra to enable sustainability and growth of the company. As Brandon Oriental Rugs discussed in a prior blog post ( http://brandonrugs.blogspot.com/2011/02/how-is-sale-really-measured.html ) companies use retail formulae which generate "tag prices" for items based on their costs. As shown there, some dealers' prices are REAL prices (what you're really going to pay) while some are "Silly Putty" prices: meant to be seen in an initial-state only for the sake of allowing a customer to be wowed by numerous price manipulations that bring forth (abracadabra style) an "AMAZINGLY LOW SALE PRICE". Granted, most everyone enjoys a good magic show, but few mature observers would deny that the illusions are accomplished with tricks. That being said, in a world that demands "immediate everything", why is the tricky wait-till-ya-see-this stuff tolerated?

Anyway, let's look at some tags. Here's Example #1:

This is an 8x10 Pak-Persian rug. Average sale prices nationwide are between $3,400 and $4,400 depending on importer source and style of rug. With Bloomie's "65+10+5%OFF"deal, you'd pay $4,750 plus tax for this rug during one of their BIG sales promos. The BIG SALE is a BIG misrepresentation, and costs the buyer more than they should have to pay.

This is a 9x12 Pak-Peshawar rug. Average prices are much more disparate because of widely differing qualities within this general type. On average a 9x12 will cost between $3,300 and $4,900 depending on knot density, importer source, and quality of finish on the rug. With Bloomie's "65+10+5%OFF"deal, you'd pay $5,375 plus tax for this rug during one of their BIG sales promos. The BIG SALE is a BIG misrepresentation. Caveat emptor.

I can speak from experience, and say that sometime during the late 1970's large department stores fell victim to the guerrilla marketing of upstart "DISCOUNT" marketers. Take your pick of products: from mattresses to shoes to oriental rugs, every department was besieged by the "unbeatable low price" challenge from discounters . The first wave was "50% OFF DEPARTMENT STORE PRICES". Who could resist?

So, as their sales volume plummeted, department stores fought back with the same discount techniques, but "on steroids". (My dad once told me: "As Americans we believe that if a little of something is good, more must be better.") If people wanted discounts, they'd get absolutely incredible discounts ("give the customer what they want".) "60% OFF"; "55-70% OFF"; "65%+10%+5% OFF"; and the killer app "75-80% OFF" have been spun off of prior "Never Before; Never Again" offers.

Who could resist? Who would question such offers to see if they yield REAL savings? But as the evidence above demonstrates, "BIG SALE" offers are manufactured from pricing formulae that don't truly deliver on customers' expectations to get the "Best Ever Deal" on their purchases.

Here's example #2:

This is from the (at least for now) out-of-business PTK store on Lancaster Avenue in Bryn Mawr, PA. It's for an 8x10 tapestry weave, Chinese-made, French Aubusson style flatweave rug. With PTK's most-of-the-time 65%OFF "deal" the price would be $1,700 plus tax, which IS within the average price range for rugs of this type.
But why create the phony high price to sell at the REAL price? Everyone knows "the game". Nobody really believes "the game" anymore. Maybe that's why this particular store is gone.

And Example #3 (a mixed up tag):

We don't know who created the rug tag above, but it's a curiosity. Of note is the fact that the dealer IS selling at an "actual price" -- which was an average price for the rug type until this year. The hand-written side shows he's using a formula to develop his tag price ($4,826?). Rather than round down to $4,825 for retailing, he chose to round up (on the printed side) to $4,899. Another question mark comes from the writing on the "Quality" line on the face of the tag. As you see it says "Silk Flower 100%Wool". Something's amiss there. If it's 100% Wool, there's no silk anything about it. If there's actually silk something in it, it can't be 100% wool. (I'd be doing fiber analysis on that rug based on the questions raised by the tag.)

Here's Example #4 (what we call a "Dodger Tag"):

We don't know the store responsible for this tag, but the seller apparently doesn't want to commit to telling you what kind of rug you are buying. There are different reasons for the uncertainty. Maybe he doesn't know what kind of rug it actually is, and so gives it a "sounds good", catchall, "Persian Weave" designation. Maybe he doesn't want you to know too much about the rug to prevent you from any effort at comparison shopping. ("Persian Weave" is such a broad class that it actually says little about what you're looking at.) The "dodge" is compounded on the "design" line where the designation is given as "Persian". So we don't know if this is a coarse Persian Heriz or a fine Persian Tabriz reproduction made in India, and so don't know if the price on the opposite side is good, average, or bad.

We do know the seller is using a set formula to price his rugs. $2,560 is an odd starting price which indicates it was generated as some multiple of a lower wholesale price. The starting price is then discounted 30% to an equally odd selling price of $1,792. ("Not a penny more or less.")

Lastly, Example #4 : "Hide The Price So You Can Make Whatever Deal You Want" Trick-Tag

This tag was attached to a rug we cleaned for a customer a couple of years back. They had just moved into the area when their dog added a little extra color to their rug which they had purchased in the mid-1990's. (We've blurred the name of the company in Texas that used this tag -- which is no more but has the same name as a large importer with multiple distribution centers in the South.) The gimmick here is that the tag shows NO obvious selling price, but actually has two prices encoded. The number above the bar-code looks meaningless, but contains the target selling price for this rug. It is $4,200. To give the floor salesperson wiggle room, the wholesale cost of this particular rug is also encoded. It is the number following the meaningless diversion (100) after "Made In India", i.e. $1,826. So, there's $2,374 of wiggle room, which is a lot for a company comfortable with wiggling. In this case, we found out that our customer with the artistic dog did not get a lot of wiggle extended to them. They paid $4,500 for their rug, which was the dealer's target price PLUS the cost of a pad PLUS the cost of delivery. They had a nice rug -- our cleaners were able to remove the dog graffiti -- and obviously they were satisfied with the deal from the Texas rug-dealer all those years ago or they would not have made the purchase. Nonetheless, had they been able to see through this particular trick, they could have held out for a better deal. There are other things deliberately hidden in plain sight with a tag of this type. Again, this dealer does not want to educate buyers about what they are buying. This $4,200 rug is an "Indian Persian" rug. One could as easily label it a "Far Middle East" Rug, and provide as little useful information.

So that concludes our demonstration of rug tag antics. In summary:

1) On the supposition that the gullibility of prospective customers is limitless, stores have adopted pricing strategies that defy credulity -- especially if scrutiny beyond immediate impulse is exerted. Still the prospects can't seem to get enough of the frenzy, and the farce is perpetuated

2) Lost in the diversion of the "BIG SALE" is any attention to educating the buyer about their purchase. People seem to be shopping not for products and benefits, but for prices. (We get innumerably more questions like "What do these things cost?" than we do questions like "What kind of rug is this?" or "Can you show me why one rug costs more than another?" or "What makes one rug better than another?")

3) Because real information is difficult to gather, comparison shopping devolves from the high ground of relative cost-benefit analysis (one rug compared with another; one dealer's price for a particular rug type compared to another's for the same type) to an irrational, greed-motivated, stimulus-response-conditioned, reflex-logic (reinforced by self-hypnosis) that 85% OFF is obviously better than 60% OFF. The dumbing down of educated consumerism is compounded by the branding craze. (I can explain the differences between a Tabriz rug and a Bidjar rug, for example, and how those differences might translate into price differences. I have no idea how a Martha Stewart Collection rug differs from a Vicente Wolf or Victoria Hagan Collection Rug. Is there any difference other than the different audiences targeted with the use of these and other famous names? In truth, it would make a whole lot more sense to have rug collections devised by the curators of rugs at the world's great museums or by the rug departments of the world's great auction houses than by some fashion designer, or self-promoting celebrity. Whatever Martha and the rest might know about many things, I'd wager that the guys tossing rugs around the rug bazaars of Iran and the other rug making countries know immensely more about what matters when it comes to the subject of handmade rugs.)

4) There are many different levels of interest and appreciation when it comes to satisfying a rug need. As with any pursuit, any effort expended in study will yield worthwhile rewards in improved results. We've seen and helped to participate in expanding many personal rug collections. Those which grow based upon a quality commitment are much more satisfying than those which grow because it's "President's Day Sale" time again.

Monday, June 4, 2012

ABOUT BRANDON ORIENTAL RUGS

Though we are proud of the visible demonstration that our store makes of the magnificence and enduring qualities of REAL Handmade Rugs -- and of our commitment to offering the same to our customers -- Brandon Oriental Rugs is NOT just a store, we are a service.

Those shopping for rugs who take advantage of the unique benefits our Rug-Search(TM) service offers will save time, effort, and cost in their acquisition of fine handmade area rugs.

Brandon also offers complimentary design assistance related to rug selection and use with professional evaluation of the wants and needs of our customers in consultation with them and/or their interior designers or architects.

Other complimentary services (including free local delivery and in-home trial of multiple rugs) are offered to make rug-search and selection an enjoyable process.

Additional services associated with fine handmade rugs (including professional rug cleaning, rug restorations and repairs, and rug appraisals for purposes of estate protection, insurance, and loss evaluation) are also provided by Brandon Oriental Rugs.

We take pride in being "The Home of REAL Rugs"(TM) because, regardless of where you choose to make use of them, "REAL Rugs Bring Pride to Every Room"(TM).

Our real commitment to keeping things real means that we only offer:

Real Handmade Rugs (No tufted or machine-made imitations; and no rugs made with synthetic, plastic, man-made fibers, or rubberized backings);

Real Selections (customers are NOT limited to choices from current store inventory. Every rug available to us we can make available to you. Once you have conveyed your desires to us, we can bring as many solutions as we know exist to appropriately resolve your wants and needs. We bring real solutions in the actual sizes you need for immediate on-site evaluation in your rooms. We do NOT offer or countenance sample "strike-offs", or sample sizes because of their uncertainties of realization in time or fact.)

Real Savings Based on Real Prices (Brandon's pricing is based on QUALITY not discounting, or limited time offers, or manufactured events. You never have to wait for a "SALE" to be certain of the best possible value, and you can readily comparison shop (comparing quality with quality) to appreciate the values we offer. You can be certain that you will "Spend less for the quality you want to acquire, or get better quality for what you want to spend"(TM) .) (The only thing possibly "unreal" about our prices is the wonder that they are not much higher considering the skill, time, and quality materials invested in producing each and every hand-knotted rug.)

Whether you are an expert or a novice in the use of REAL, hand-knotted rugs, Brandon Oriental Rugs works to advance your appreciation and experience of all that is of significance to you in your special rug search. Our resources are available to you to help you realize your goals, and to assure you the enduring pride and satisfaction experienced in achievement.