September 2014 NGN Spotlight: Sarah Bumps

Next Gen NOW Spotlight

Meet Next Gen Member Sarah Bumps, buyer for Davis Furniture, Wenatchee, Wash.

Sarah Bumps never thought she’d work for her father’s furniture store. Now she can’t imagine working anywhere else. : Like a lot of NextGens, you work for your family’s furniture store. Was this your destiny?

Sarah: Well, it’s certainly my destiny right now—and I love it. I never thought

Bumps loves hiking around Wenatchee with her rescued retriever Paxon.

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I would be here. I got my degree in interior design and was working in the construction world. One day my dad sat me down in a bar and asked me if I was interested in a job. I always liked the industry. I just thought it would be on the architectural side.

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Next Gen NOW Spotlight

“Just because you have all of these different types of media available to you doesn’t mean you have to use them. You need to know your audience.”

—Sarah Bumps, buyer, Davis Furniture : What was your first job at the store?

Sarah: I came in as the buyer. Our other buyer was leaving.

I’m kind of surprised looking back. I didn’t know a lot about buying. I bought some terrible furniture, but my dad didn’t give up on me. I guess he had that confidence in me that I could catch on and grow.

: Your worst purchase?

Sarah: My dad remembers some teal sofa from my first market, but all I remember is a Broyhill floral skirted sofa. That one stayed around for a long time. It got to the point where I didn’t want to walk by it in the store. We can laugh about it now and we do, but it wasn’t funny back then.

: What did that sofa teach you?

Sarah: That it’s not about me. It’s about the customer and

what the customer likes. As a buyer, I’ve learned to be very humble and tell myself with every buy that “It’s not about me, it’s not about me.” If you’re listening to the needs of your customers you’ll know what sells.

: Many younger retailers stress social media

with their stores. True for you?

Sarah: For us, we don’t do a lot of social marketing. We invest in a lot of radio, TV, print and direct mail. That sounds old school, but our audience is 55 to 60 years plus and those are the media they’re comfortable with. Just because you have all of these different types of media available to you, doesn’t mean you have to use them. You need to know your audience. around.

: But that audience isn’t always going to be

Sarah: Sure—and in many ways it’s already starting to change.

We have quite a lot of younger people moving in from Seattle with money. We need to find a way to reach them.

: What’s the best part of your job?

Sarah: I like the people and the relationships. I like it

when a customer feels comfortable enough that they’re sitting in a recliner talking out their furniture ideas with me. And they don’t know they’ve been doing it for 30 or 45 minutes. I’m a relationship person so, of course, I like that part of my job.

: You moved back home from Seattle.

Is it hard for Wenatchee to compete with Seattle?

Sarah: Apples and oranges. Seattle is great, but you

can’t beat the community feel of home. I could go a week in Seattle and not see someone I know. It’s just so big and so fast there, but here you see someone you know or someone you sold a piece of furniture to everyday. That’s a nice feeling to have, you know?

: But don’t you miss the bright lights

and big city?

Sarah: That’s what’s interesting because I really

thought I would, but I’m loving it here. I love the orchards all around here and the rivers are very pretty.

I love taking a hike before or after work. I just take my dog with me or get on my road bike and go. It’s so different. I mean, Seattle is nice, but this life? This life is nice, too

: What do you get out of Next Gen Now? Sarah: Getting plugged into other people is the big-

gest draw for me. I think it’s important for me to get to know other buyers, retailers—anyone in the industry who’s my age. If we’re all in this together, we’re going to need to know each other 20, 30, 40 years from now.

And not just know each other, but understand where each of us is coming from and that we all have ideas that can help one another.

Next Gen NOW (NGN) is a community of young, passionate, engaged industry professionals whose mission is to give a voice to the needs and goals of the up-and-coming future generations. NGN strives to educate the industry on how and why it should attract and keep young talent. The NAHFA supports NGN by facilitating meetings and educational opportunities and introducing the industry to its members through RetailerNow. Connect with NGN members at ngnow.org or on Twitter @ngnow. www.retailerNOWmag.com

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