Hom Furniture has carried outdoor products at its nearly 20 stores for two decades. And while the category isn’t a doorbuster for the company, it is a significant source of revenue for the retailer.
Executive Vice President Kyle Johansen says the company has large showrooms, some as large as 140,000 square feet, which means there’s plenty of space to dedicate to outdoor in the key selling months.
However, with tariffs, an uncertain economy and a slowdown in sales from the previous few years, 2025 was a tough year for outdoor retailers. Hom Furniture was no exception, but they found practical ways to make the most of a bad situation.
First, Johnansen says PFAS regulations went into effect in Minnesota last year. That meant any product the company had left over that did not pass PFAS standards could not be sold in the state.
“This has been very challenging, specifically to us in the Minnesota market,” Johansen says. “Though some retailers didn’t follow the law, we did, and a substantial bulk of our inventory became illegal to sell.”
Fortunately, the company has stores in North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Wisconsin, which gave them an outlet for the product they couldn’t sell in Minnesota.
“Ultimately, it was a big nightmare to be shuffling everything around and then getting new product that didn’t have the PFAs in,” he added. “We were able to work with our suppliers to get replacement cushions, if that’s what was needed, and so forth, to keep us going.”
The company carries Tropitone, Homecrest, Treasure Garden, OW Lee, Lane Venture, Hanamint and Agio, to name a few. However, Hom Furniture’s Thomas Cole and Furniture Creations Direct private-label products, which they directly import from China, are a substantial part of the business. Johansen says it allows them to compete against the big-box players like Home Depot and Costco.
Consequently, tariffs and the uncertainty of when and how they might change presented another challenge to Hom Furniture.
“I don’t think anybody in our industry has been able to escape the tariffs,” he said. “Even when you look at domestic manufacturers, a lot of their components still come from overseas. There are a lot of great suppliers, but even they can’t get around the tariffs easily. A number of the suppliers have tried to produce in other countries like Vietnam, but it’s very difficult to move operations there. At the end of the day, we’re fighting the tariff battle because we can’t get around it.”
The weather is also a unique issue for the outdoor category, and with stores in states where temperatures drop to 25 degrees below zero in the winter, outdoor is strictly seasonal.
Regardless, Johansen says Hom does well in the category, and it has helped them keep their revenues steady when furniture and mattress sales are a little slower in the summertime.
Johansen says he tends to stay on the optimistic side, and he believes the outdoor industry will continue to grow.
“We had substantial years in 2020 and 2021, but after 2022 things became more challenging,” he said. “Hopefully, with the replacement cycle of outdoor furniture, people are getting ready to get rid of anything that they bought on Amazon or Wayfair during the pandemic. Especially here, where the weather gets so cold, it wears down outdoor furniture quicker than other places. Overall, I’m optimistic for the category, and I have no reason to believe we won’t have a solid year.”
