Ann: Publication of Research Report by Patersons, page-43

Here are the reasons why the new 'furniture and rugs' thing will fail:

Furniture and rugs generally are higher price items than pots and pans, so they cost more as inventory to begin with so they tie up more working capital when the company is already short on cash after years of losses and without a bank facility. If they buy and hold stock, they need more warehouse space than pots and pans, once warehouse cost goes up especially when they are already trying to consolidate and down size.

If they try to copy TPW who do drop shipping by way of a curated magazine / pre order experience, they need scale and volume ie large orders of same item each time to keep cost low and margins healthy. SHP has already damaged customer relationships badly over the years, do you think they would now go and spend say $500 for a piece of furniture when SHP can't even get a $100 pot delivered on time especially with drop ship? Not to mention suppliers see SHP's bad run as a retailer and there is risk of the company going out of business and not getting paid, so they either sell them stuff at higher price or don't sell them anything at all.

Either it's just the same board and management trying desperately on something without thinking it through. Don't see why TPW, HVN, Fantanstic or Nick Scali losing any sleep just cos Shoply now wants to play in the furniture space.