(How) can I get a discount on a sofa from CB2?

April 20, 2016 10:48 AM

I would like to buy this sofa from CB2. I would not like to pay full price. Do they ever have sales or promotions on furniture?

As stated above, there's a couch at CB2 that I'd really like to order. I love a good bargain and I'd like to avoid paying full price. Do any of you have insider knowledge on when they might be having a sale? If I go to one of their brick and mortar stores (there's one near me) and just ask for a deal, am I likely to get one or will they just laugh at me? Any other ways I might get a better deal on this couch? (Yes, I'm checking Craigslist.) Thanks!

posted by kitty teeth to Home & Garden (12 answers total)

They do have sales pretty frequently--the current one appears to be on outdoor furniture-- and sales on regular furniture come around periodically, especially over holiday weekends. You can get on their email list via their website to get sales notifications and they may actually give you a discount coupon for getting on the email list.

You can certainly ask at the store if they'll sell you a floor model or if they have any sales coming up (or if the price is negotiable). All they can say is no.
posted by The Elusive Architeuthis at 10:55 AM on April 20, 2016

If you live in or near a large metro area, you could search Craigslist regularly for the model name. I've done that with both Ikea and CB2 furniture in the Bay Area and found success.
posted by rogerrogerwhatsyourrvectorvicto at 10:57 AM on April 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

Sometimes they have floor sample sales. Sometimes people sell them on Craigslist or eBay and you should keep searching by model name, plus there are TONS of new apps beyond CL and eBay.

Um, have you seen this sofa in person? Because it's teeny tiny. How long do you want this sofa in your life? Is it a 3yr investment, or a 10 yr investment. Do you like the legs?

I ask all of this because I just went through a HUGE sofa hunt last summer and you can find that exact sofa in a knockoff for like $400 at a sofa warehouse or similar. And you can get a GREAT version of that sofa dirt cheap and have it recovered from a hotel furniture resale place.

The legs would be easy to find or fabricate. I live down the block from a CB2. I like furniture. And especially chairs *swoon.* While I sometimes see stuff I like, the scale is always too small and the price way way too high. And their stuff is knockoffs of even higher end designs...

Their tables are sometimes worth it. The couches, chairs and beds they sell can all be had better or cheaper and more human sized - sometimes all three!

If you tell us your location, I'm sure someone can recommend great out of the way stores to find new couches.
posted by jbenben at 11:04 AM on April 20, 2016 [2 favorites]

Do you know someone who is a Interior Designer or Architect? CB2 has a design trade discount.
posted by Julnyes at 11:05 AM on April 20, 2016

You can certainly ask at the store if they'll sell you a floor model or if they have any sales coming up (or if the price is negotiable).

Yeah, I'd just straight up ask if they'd be willing to come down on price. You'd be surprised at how readily a lot of department or chain stores will negotiate on price if you ask a manager. My father used to do that and he rarely wound up paying the listed retail price for anything, including furniture. A lot of it depends on how comfortable you are with it-- my father was so good at it that the managers would be practically crying by the end -- but it's definitely a thing.
posted by holborne at 11:06 AM on April 20, 2016

Get on their email list. They have somewhat frequent 15% off sales, but they tend to be limited to certain lines or types of furniture, so you have to wait until what you want comes up.
posted by quince at 11:09 AM on April 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

Have you moved recently, say within the past 12 months? I recently moved, and filled out a USPS.com Change of Address form online. I received an envelope filled with coupons at my new address, and one of them was for Crate & Barrel.

I can't remember if it said it could be used at CB2, but it's worth a try.
posted by invisible ink at 12:19 PM on April 20, 2016

If you can't find a sale, you might consider opening a new credit card with an above-average sign-up bonus and using that for the purchase.

For example, I opened a Starwoods Property Group AmEx last fall with a 25,000 point bonus for spending $3k in the first 3 months (and you get roughly 1 point per dollar spent, so I really end up with 28k points). I believe now that if you look around you can find a 35,000 point bonus.

I stayed at a really nice resort in Scottsdale (~$400/night) recently for 30k points. With the higher sign up bonus, you could spend a few thousand more and get to 40k points, where you can get 5 free nights at some pretty nice places.

You're not saving out of pocket, and of course your vacation will have additional expenses, but if this is something you're into you can get good value out of it.
posted by paulcole at 12:35 PM on April 20, 2016

Discounts are scarcer at CB2 than other chain stores, it seems to me. They have sales on furniture when they discontinue it, and they do 15% off for Black Friday every year, but I'm guessing that's too long to wait. Otherwise it is pretty hard to get a code without exclusions, and even then you're lucky if it covers the sales tax.
posted by mama casserole at 12:51 PM on April 20, 2016

I went through this exact issue last month. I wanted the full-length Avec sofa and was about to purchase it. At the time, the CB2 homepage displayed an offer of 15% off any item if you signed up for the mailing list. But before I pulled the trigger, I found someone selling the Avec on Craigslist, 6-months old, for half price. So I did that, and didn't pay sales tax. (And then the next week, someone listed the Avec for $90. doh.)

I don't see the 15% off mailing list offer now; you might want to do some Googling on that.
posted by benbenson at 1:31 PM on April 20, 2016

Response by poster: jbenben, I'm in Los Angeles. I think you might be too? Can you steer me in the direction of where I might find one of these knockoffs? Are they exactly exact knockoffs? I've seen similar-but-not-quite-the-same couches and they aren't quite right (like the ones on The Sofa Company's website).

I haven't seen this particular couch in person but it is almost exactly the same length as couch I just got rid of; that one was the perfect size for my apartment so I'm not worried about the size here. I do love the legs on this one, but what I am really in love with is that particular shade of green upholstery. It is beautiful (to me) and I'm worried that if I buy a cheaper knockoff with the goal of having it reupholstered somewhere else, I won't be able to find the right fabric. I also don't particularly want to deal with the added headache of having an entire couch reupholstered, but I would consider it if it will save me several hundred dollars.

I'm not really sure how long I'm going to want to keep this couch but I imagine that my cat will defile it with his hairballs at some point, so not forever. I'm looking for better-than-Ikea quality, but it doesn't have to be something that gets passed down to my (nonexistent) children.
posted by kitty teeth at 7:45 AM on April 21, 2016

Hi kitty teeth, I'm not jbenben but I'm also in Los Angeles and find most "off the rack" couches too small for me (blasted long femurs!). I'm sorry that I'm in a rush right now and can't give you specific links, but several years ago when I was on the hunt for a couch I had surprisingly good luck with having one custom made (the guy ran his "showroom" out of a public storage unit in culver city, but had great Yelp reviews). Knockoff of a Resto Hardware design, custom sized, for about a quarter of the price (and he had endless fabric swatches). It held up very well. So I'd do a Yelp/CL search for independent/sole proprietor custom sofa/couch shops and check a couple out, see what you can find there!
posted by tyrantkitty at 7:49 AM on April 25, 2016