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In a recent, rather unscientific
survey, Draperies & Window Coverings asked our readers to tell us
about the market for shutters. The impetus for this endeavor was a similar
survey we conducted in 1999 that showed the shutter market to be red-hot—nearly
eight of 10 respondents back then described consumer interest in shutters
as “high.” (See D&WC, April 2000, page 40.)
The results of our latest survey can be found beginning on page 46 of
this issue. The most striking comparison to our 1999 survey is the flip-flop
in consumer interest in shutters. In 2001, eight of 10 respondents described
consumer interest as “average” or “low.” Is the market
for shutters cooling off? Probably. But probably not for very long.
The problem with last year’s survey is not that it was unscientific,
but that it was so recent. The questions appeared first and most prominently
in our November 2001 issue, and later online on our Web site. That is,
it was conducted at a time when our nation was still recovering from shock
and our economy was uncertain heading into a holiday season everyone hoped
would revive business, but no one was prepared to fully trust.
Ask our readers to respond to the same questions today and the answers
could be quite different. We hear over and over again about how homeowners
are reevaluating expenditures and spending more money on creating inviting,
comfortable and safe home environments. Certainly the overall aesthetics
of shutters is very appealing to those plans and that is borne out in
our survey results (see Table 7).
Have no fear, as more signs of recovery crop up, we are likely to see
consumer interest in shutters rebound. In the meantime, there are many
other interesting trends noted in our 2001 survey results. Among them
are the higher percentage of Interior Designers who responded to our questions;
the fewer number of years respondents have been in the window coverings
business and the fewer number of years they have been selling shutters;
and that the price of wood shutters seems to be coming down (efforts to
increase sales in a down market?) while the price of vinyl shutters is
creeping up.
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