Before answering the question directly, you need to know some background information about Ashleys Furniture and Ashley HomeStores.
Ashleys Furniture is one the largest furniture companies in the world. It is also the 88th-largest privately owned U.S. business.
Ashley produces living room, dining area, bedroom, entertainment, and home office furniture in the USA and abroad.
There are manufacturing and distribution facilities in Wisconsin, Mississippi and Pennsylvania.
Ashleys Furniture
Ashley’s furniture has come from China since the 1980s.
This company was the first to recognize China as a potential source of low-cost furniture that could be imported into America.
Ashley has gradually moved its production from China over the past decade to other Asian (and U.S.!) locations.
According to the company, less than 10% of all production is currently sourced from China.
Ashley HomeStores are licensed by Ashley. Ashley Furniture HomeStores operates 658 stores across the USA, with an annual sales volume of $4.58 Billion as of 2018.
Ashleys Furniture HomeStores is independently owned by licensees. For the past 13 years, it has been the largest furniture retailer in the United States.
Ashleys Furniture, the manufacturer, also sells its products through hundreds other furniture retailers in the USA and around the world.
There may be significant differences in the Ashleys Furniture HomeStores because they are owned by different licensees.
These differences could be in the products offered or the customer service provided.
Yelp.com is the best place to find out what to expect at an Ashley store. Yelp.com should list a large number of reviews for each store on its independent review site.
Yelp reviews are not like reviews on retailers’ websites. They cannot be removed, modified, or hidden if they have not been approved by the store.
ConsumerAffairs.com is another good site for independent reviews of Ashley.
This review site contains thousands of reviews about Ashley Furniture products.
Ashley furniture products are often designed with the idea of delivering big, luxurious furniture at a low price.
This can result in sacrificing quality materials internally to achieve this high-value look, which is not possible.
This is especially true for upholstered furniture, and more specifically for reclining furniture.
The industry has seen a drastic decrease in quality and expected life span over the past 15 year.
This applies to almost all the major manufacturers, even venerable brands that are around for more than 50 years.
Ashley’s success in selling furniture that looks great when new has forced major competitors to cut costs and quality to be competitive.
Quality has not suffered in mid-price range mass-produced wood furniture.
Modern manufacturing technology has allowed the industry to produce higher quality wood furniture while maintaining low prices.
These technological advancements have been made primarily in countries where governments/private partnerships have made large long-term investments to modernize factories.
The large-scale manufacturing of wood furniture in the United States is nearly extinct. Nearly 90% of the wood furniture in America comes from overseas.
