Now more furniture and home-furnishing stores are taking a bigger-is-better mentality and opening showrooms of their own to compete directly with their largest rivals.

Rather than asking customers to look through catalogs to find the sofas, chairs, dining room sets or other furniture they want, many independents are giving shoppers an experience much like the one they get in larger stores. And with the explosion of e-commerce, brick-and-mortar merchants often can offer more selection, helping them compete with online clearinghouses.

Still, it's not a decision to be taken lightly, said Jim Brandt, who recently opened a Drexel Heritage showroom for his Raleigh Design Center.

"There's a major cost layout. It blows my mind how much money I've had to pay out already," said Brandt, who estimates that he has spent $50,000 just on the inventory to fill the showroom.

However, Brandt said a fundamental shopping principle convinced him to do it.

"The big part is that people still want to touch it and feel it and see it," he said. "There's no substitute for touching a couch or a chair, for feeling how well it's made."

If done correctly, a showroom will more than pay for itself, said John Wilson, who bought Raleigh's 1st Choice Cabinetry with two business partners in April 2006.

One of their first decisions was to expand the 2,000-square-foot showroom into a 10,000-square-foot facility. The company has a smaller showroom in Pinehurst.

"Obviously, you've got to generate more sales, and they have to be profitable sales," Wilson said. "But if you can show people more product and more variety, we think it leads to better sales and a more informed consumer."

So far, sales are averaging 40 percent more than last year, Wilson said.

Customers such as Pam Schweitzer of Raleigh say the format appeals to them, not just because of the ability to touch and feel the goods.

"Because it's a smaller operation, I know I can call and I can get my answers," she said. "In large places, I've experienced when I've ordered something and they say it's going to be 16 weeks and when I call back, the person's not there anymore."

As long as customers seek them out, a showroom can give owners added flexibility as far as location is concerned, said Brandt of the Raleigh Design Center.

Brandt said he saved $3,000 a month in rent by taking flex space that's not in a major shopping center, rather than leasing prime retail space.

For retailers in the Triangle, getting a leg up on the competition is particularly important because of the area's proximity to furniture mecca High Point -- with its massive showrooms -- and steep competition within the market.

Still, there's a distinction between the retail showrooms popping up locally and the showrooms in High Point, which can stretch 80,000 square feet and are geared toward business-to-business sales, said Brian Casey, president of the High Point International Home Furnishings Market Authority.

"It seems to me it's just a larger retail floor designed to show a broader array of home furnishing products," he said.

But, Casey said, he doesn't mind retailers borrowing the "showroom" moniker.

"If consumers are familiar with High Point, maybe that label makes it more enticing for them," he said. "If it helps them to sell more furniture, I'd be happy for them to call it whatever they want."

The expansion of the showroom store model isn't unique to North Carolina or even furniture stores, said Dan Butler, vice president of retail operations for the National Retail Federation.

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