apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Not sure why they are closing. But my big question is, is there going to be a sale?

Simple. They have horrible customer service. Their salespeople are condescending and incompetent, and like you said "they don't like us." Their website is lousy. It's 2007, who prints catalogs of brightly colored furniture using black and white line art?!

The 2 times I've been in there the salesperson was rude and condescending. I can't remember how many times he rolled his eyes at me. He gave me incorrect product info (the wrong seat height for counter stools) which I later found in the catalog. He's obviously very unhappy, and has a huge chip on his shoulder for having to explain to almost everyone who walks in the store why their chairs are better quality than the HM chairs even though Modernica's are no longer the officially licensed Eames products.

I'll admit, they have great products, so despite all this attitude I still wanted their chairs. When I went into the store to purchase them, the salesperson walked away from me as I was talking to him mid sentence to go help another customer. When he finally got back to me, he entered my purchase into their website and printed an invoice. He charged me for bar stools when I had requested counter stools. When I told him about the error, and increased price, he pretended not to know what I was talking about. When I insisted he had charged me too much, he finally admitted he wasn't able to enter the counter stools on their website. (This would be like going to a brick and mortar Barnes & Noble and having the salesperson enter your order on the bn.com website... but then, not be able to do it). He got loud, saying he didn't know how to do it, that he would refund my money, and told me to try it myself online.

No matter how great the product, it's not going to sell with crap customer service.

Last week it said Liquidation sale in the window.

The table I bought from them had a terrible finish on it. I have stuff from Ikea that's holding up better.

>Ikea that's holding up better.

Ikea people are always polite. :)

That's so true.

I bought a mid-century looking sofa there (for a stomach-churning 5k) before other mid-priced people like Room and Board started to do similar things. Their delivery people broke the front door glass of my apartment builiding and they wouldn't even return my calls about it. When they did, they said I had to deal with the delivery people (who of course couldn't give a shit) to get reimbursed for the glass repair.

Good riddence Modernica.

On the brighter side, when I was in L.A., I discovered this great place in Venice who has AMAZING customer service. The scale of the chair I wanted was too big for a NY apartment, so they made it for me with a couple inches off each side at no extra cost. They're shipping was very affordable from the west coast, and they gave me calls while it was being made to give me a heads up on when it would be done. They also have every fabric known to man. Check them out:

http://www.lojadesigns.com/

I recently completely refurnished my house with modern and contemporary elements, all of which I purchased over the Internet. It was a year-long process, involving much research and many emails requesting fabric and finish samples and seeking important details about the various products. Every source was very helpful--with the exception of Modernica. Unlike, say, the Artifort folks (who responded to my email by telephoning me more than once from the Netherlands), the Modernicans were unhelpful to the point of rudeness. As far as they were concerned, I should hunt down a retailer to bother and leave them alone--even though they offer some of their stuff for sale directly online. I don't live in NYC, but I say good riddance, if only vicariously.

i found several fiberglass shells and inquired about bases via email to their customer service. when it became apparent that the bases i had would not fit there frames, all responses to further emails ceased. i asked if they had any suggestions for where to find bases, or if they could provide me with a bolt pattern for their bases (i have a sneaking suspicion i could modify it with little effort) and how to properly clean the fiberglass. no further response... anyone here have any suggestions on the bases or how to clean the fiberglass? they are in great shape, and for $1 a piece i couldn't pass them up.

That's funny. The staff in the LA store on Beverly were always very helpful, even chatty.

Ah, the differences between LA and NY....

The last time I was in Modernica the women repeatedly used the word "iridescent" to describe a chair that was actually "translucent". Their customer service was fine on the phone - but really lacking in person. I'll be sad to see them go - mostly for the case study pieces. But I wont miss the rudeness. Farewell!

It would be great if we could chalk it up to bad service, but my guess is that this is part of a larger contraction in the home furnishing business. Desiron just closed the LA store after only 10 months in the market. Horizon (a contemporary home furnishings store open for 83 years) is liquidating. Shelter, a beautifully executed local custom furniture manufacturer/retailer, closed the Santa Monica store at the beginning of the year. And HD Buttercup continues to struggle. This tightening seems to be hitting the middle of the market hardest, leaving the Ikeas and Armani Casa's of the world relatively unscathed.

The one time I bought something at the Soho Modernica the sales guy couldn't have been nicer. It was a very cool store and I'll miss it... maybe the vicitim of super-high rents in Soho?

Nelsorp: Regarding cleaning the fiberglass shells, I've had great success with Barkeeper's Friend (I've only used the powdered kind, but the liquid may be just as effective). It removes stains from fiberglass without scratching the finish at all. Works better than anything else I've tried.

As for the Soho Modernica, ugh. Talk about making you feel like you don't deserve to be in the store, much less doing crazy things like asking questions about fabric or (GASP) pricing...

i will miss Modernica and will especially miss seeing those great bubble lamps in their windows and their great colors of fibreglass shell chairs. but i have to agree with almost every post about how snotty and condescending the one guy in there generally was. i've been in the store a lot and it was never a welcoming experience. i also agree that the l.a. store on beverly couldn't be more helpful. i bought two of their split rail chairs and ended up having my questions answered by the l.a. store even though i live in nyc and work in soho. anyhow, perhaps they closed because you can buy modernica on line and have no need for the store, i.e. through circa50.com in vermont, who are great.

and re richardinLA's comments, i think it's a point to consider, but i'm not convinced that places like HD Buttercup are struggling because of a contraction in home furnishings. whenever i've gone there, my expectations are high and i am always disappointed. something is way off with that place.

Just wanted to offer some support for the SoHo staff. I bought a couple of chairs from there and found them to be polite and helpful. Ok, they don't fawn over you like the staff in some other shops but they're far from snooty. I've endured far worse treatment in Dune or Moss or Desiron.

But I do wonder how much longer the Modernica business model will remain viable. In a market where licensed originals are becoming increasingly available, expensive knock-offs are bound to appear less attractive. Why buy from Modernica when you can go round the corner to R&B or DWR and buy the official reissues (with some touchy-feely sales assistance thrown in)?

Sounds like they deserve to go out of business. Crappy attitudes can never make up for great product, at any price.

Whether someone is spending $20 or $20,000 they deserve respect and friendly service that conveys the retailer's appreciation of their business. Stores with snooty, rude, condescending or otherwise unfriendly service deserve to go out of business. I never visited the store, but from the posts here it sounds like goodbye and good riddance Modernica.

A contraction in the home furnishing market? Maybe in LA, but not here in NYC where the economy is doing fine. Real estate market is active, low unemployment, record bonuses, etc. And there are at least two dozen furniture stores just within a couple blocks of the Modernica store and I haven't seen any other closings.

I've made recent purchases down the street at Moss, DWR, R&B and Desiron and have never experienced the same kind of behavior I got from Modernica. I don't need touchy-feely sales assistance. I'd settle for a sales person who's indifferent yet competent. What you get at Modernica is just plain rude and offensive treatment.

I wonder if the popularity of DWR and similar catalog/internet sales-driven furniture stores took a hefty chunk out of their clientele? What clientele wasn't annoyed and rebuffed by the apparently rude salespeeps, that is.

Modernica is my store, so I'll tell you why I closed it. We are more and more focused on our wholesale business to hundreds of stores throughout the world like Design Within Reach. Our wholesale business has doubled in the last year and having a store in NY that needs constant micro-management doesnt make sense. Yeah I wanted to restaff the store, but sometimes a new staff can be worse than the original one. The lease was on it's way to expiring, so we decided to let the store wind down, not to mention $29,000 a month rent. I wish some of you bloggers had called me and told me what lousy service you got, I would have done something. So sorry about that. I should have come to NY more often than every 2 years.Our LA store service is great, and at least now if you live in NY and order something from us you won't have to pay NY sales tax. If there's anything you need, please email me at FrankN@Modernica.net

I recently ordered an Eames red armless fiberglass counter stool with an H-base by Modernica from Accurato.com. The fiberglass looked quite different from the color sample online - it had large white strands throughout that didn't show up in the picture or color sample as more than a slight textural difference. When I tried to return my almost $300 stool (or even exchange it), I was told nothing from Modernica could be returned or exchanged per Modernica's rules. So buyers of Modernica items beware!

If you want the stool (it's attractive, but not what I had wanted), you can contact me at for a decent price. It's in the original box with the plastic still on.

i dont know frank, but i know his brother jay from la..i guarantee you, jay is a great guy, a sincere guy, so i assume frank is as well..years ago, i bought a texaco teague desk from jay, when i was in la for the bills/cowboys superbowl..to this day i marvel at how ahead of the times jay was, to know to buy those abandoned gas station desks and restore them to mint condition..and the snitty comments on here about shoddy service from modernica seems rather high handed..if they closed the store in soho, it was probably because it was difficult to mind it from la..no more, no less..by the way, jay and frank built all the furniture you saw in men in black..these guys deserve a little respect, just for what two guys from nebraska, accomplished after they relocated to la..