Dangerous furniture is lurking in restaurants all around the world.
Quietly waiting, presumably safe, until one day multiple screws come loose. The timing could not be worse – a patron is sitting in that very chair! You can guess what happens next.
If you’re a restaurant owner or facilities manager, this may sound like your worst nightmare. And sadly, these nightmarish ordeals happen far too often. You may be wondering, how does dangerous furniture make its way into your favorite burger joint? The culprit is restaurant furniture from big box retailers and home goods stores.
Furniture designed for residential use just doesn’t hold up in a restaurant setting, and when it fails, it can have severe consequences. Besides the risk of a bad review on Yelp!, here are four more reasons you should only use restaurant quality furniture in restaurants.
1. Harmful Consequences
We recently heard a story about an owner that purchased chairs from a home goods store to save money. In this case, that choice had harmful consequences as the chair actually impaled a few guests. The consequences of these faulty chairs went far beyond a bad review and resulted in injured customers and many legal issues.
When you can’t trust your furniture to hold up and perform under the constant traffic of a busy restaurant, you can’t ask your customers to trust you. Injuring a patron is something from which a restaurant may never recover. The furniture at residential stores may look great and seem convenient, but the risks associated with injuring guests far outweighs any of the benefits.
Consider the uses of a home dining set versus a restaurant set. A family may sit down at their dining table and chairs once or twice a day. But a busy restaurant operating seven days a week for a minimum of five hours a day will be used by thousands of people. Restaurant furniture is constantly being pushed, dragged, leaned on, and piled high with food and drink. Not to mention restaurant diners are not viewing the furniture with the same respect as they view their own -- meaning guest are more likely to view furniture as disposable. With this extremely high amount of use, restaurant furniture needs to be held to different standards than their residential counterparts.
Before any of our products are release to the public, they are tested to BIFMA standards. BIFMA is a non-profit trade association that “develops, maintains, and publishes safety and performance standards for furniture products.” Our products are made with high quality, locally-sourced materials.
3. Better Warranties
When you hear the term “risk management” in the restaurant world, it’s often associated with fire, food contamination, or theft. But other areas of restaurant facilities are highly susceptible to risk. When purchasing furniture, owners need to be protected. They need to be sure that they are making a smart purchase and be reassured their purchase will be backed up. Not only do our products meet or exceed BIFMA standards, but they also offer a standard 10-year warranty.
Risk management means knowing that your customers can trust you to offer quality—from the kitchen to right where they sit.
4. Customization
Customers don’t just come to us in search of quality furniture; they come looking for the opportunity to make their furniture their own. Buying furniture in a home goods store means you get what you see with zero room for personalization. When you come to us, the sky’s the limit when it comes to customizing our chairs. Match the finish to any color you choose, engrave your logo onto the back, or add your own upholstery. Don’t settle for what you see on the shelf, make your space your own.
From lengthy legal battles to the loss of loyal customers, the consequences of poor quality furniture are nothing to scoff at. So when it’s time to outfit your restaurant, skip the shortcuts and make sure you are getting the quality your space needs to succeed.
