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When The Lamp Company was first established
(in 1984), the dominant style of lamp was solid color
ceramics, but even the most extensive lines still only
offered 20 to 25 different colors. We reasoned that if we
were to offer to make lamps any color the customer wanted
that we would be swamped with orders. Well, not exactly.
Still there was sufficient demand that we became very
proficient in the processes that allowed us to make this
offer, but only just in time for the market to shift away
from solid color lamps.
Then came the “Chinese invasion”. The vast majority of lamps
sold in the U.S. today are imported from China and are sold
at a price well below the cost of manufacturing that lamp
domestically. Interestingly enough this seems to have
increased the demand for custom lamps. The variety of
imports is impressive but sill incomplete and though custom
is substantially more expensive than imported we are called
upon frequently to fill in the gaps. That capability not
withstanding we keep an extensive inventory of portable
lighting; especially floor lamps.
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Many of the custom lamps we make are made up of items that
are either of sentimental value to the client ( a teapot
inherited from great aunt Susan) or of some special interest
(the helmet of the client’s favorite High School football
team etc.). We still do custom color and execute many
different designs brought to us by our many creative and
innovative customers.
The Lamp Company specializes in floor lamps for two
reasons. First, the product is largely ignored by
most other portable lighting sources ( floor lamps
don’t fit neatly into the typical furniture vignette
and take up too much floor space in traditional
lighting showrooms for the amount of turnover they
offer) and secondly we have taken up a bit of a
crusade offering an alternative to floor lamps that
are shipped in 24” X 18” box. |
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To
accomplish the challenges of shipping a 60” to 72”
tall floor lamp from China the industry has gone to
cutting the main shaft of the floor lamp into three
or four pieces. As a repair center we are amazed at
the number of these lamps we see that have come
apart and cannot be repaired not to mention how much
product we see that is simply not straight to begin
with. Do we sell such lamps? |
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because you can’t reach the lower price points any
other way. But what about those customers who
want a real quality product that they can enjoy for
many years to come? For those customers we search
the market for those floor lamps with a “full” shaft
and when we can’t find it then we make it in house.
That is what it means to be a lamp specialty store
as compared to just another retailer. |
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