Getting couch delivered from store that doesn't.

June 10, 2005 8:10 AM

I found a great couch. But it's in a chain store whose closest outlet is 100 miles from my city and doesn't deliver. How can I get it home?

I'm in California and took the opportunity to visit my all time favorite chain store, World Market. There, I saw this couch, which is the size and shape and design I've been looking for. I live in NYC and the closest WM store is in Delaware. They don't deliver. The only solution I've thought of is hiring a 'man with a van' from Craig's List to go get it for me, but I'd need at least two to muscle it upstairs and I have no idea how to find a trustworthy man w van. I wondered if anyone has a brighter idea? I could rent a truck and go get it myself, but I don't know anyone I could ask to help me with the moving-it-in part.

posted by CunningLinguist to Home & Garden (9 answers total)

Make it the central event of a MeFi Meetup. Seriously.
posted by Doohickie at 8:13 AM on June 10, 2005

Gorgeous couch. Yep, I agree - host a mf meetup/couch-christening party. Hopefully no one will pee on it.
posted by iconomy at 8:24 AM on June 10, 2005

Have you looked into a Freight Service? Google is your friend here. Many of them will be able to package and deliver it to you at fairly reasonable costs.
posted by Poltroon at 8:51 AM on June 10, 2005

When living 2 states away from the closest Ikea, and needing cheap and easily assembled furniture, we called up U-Haul and rented a van. It was pretty inexpensive, considering the options.
posted by thanotopsis at 8:57 AM on June 10, 2005

Citimove rates "man-with-a-van" outfits.
posted by mlis at 9:17 AM on June 10, 2005

I had a similar experience in Los Angeles -- found a dirt cheap sleigh bed roughly 60 miles outside of the city. I rented a pick-up truck from Hertz for the day (roughly 25 bucks four years ago). The store had plenty of employees on hand, so loading the bed at the store wasn't a problem. When I got home I had friends help unload.
posted by herc at 9:30 AM on June 10, 2005

FWIW, you can rent large pick-up trucks from your local Home Depot for 15-20 dollars per hour (and the first hour is 75min long). I don't know how receptive they are to exploitation of the truck, but a few friends and I tried to do this awhile ago to get a couch home from goodwill. Although it was way cheaper than u-haul (50 bucks roundtrip), we ended up just lashing the couch to the top of someones sedan.
posted by muddgirl at 9:37 AM on June 10, 2005

This is really meant as a constructive comment, but have you thought about trying to find the same (or a similar) couch from an outlet that does deliver. I love a store called Room and Board, and they have a couch that to my eye looks very similar (even the price is similar).
http://www.roomandboard.com/rnb/coll.do?coll=RB3364&dept=RB103

They also have a great delivery policy and a NYC location.
posted by bove at 10:33 AM on June 10, 2005

I agree with bove in principal: just find a similar couch. Though I don't think the couch bove linked to is similar (it's just a sectional and the one you linked to is a couch with one of the seats doubling as a chaise lounge), the couch you want is very common these days. My ex-gf bought one (in Toronto) about 3 months ago and I saw one on Craigslist a couple days ago. Considering I'm pretty much a hermit but have seen two, I imagine they're extremely common, or about to become so.
posted by dobbs at 6:07 PM on June 10, 2005