Being Paco

Stewart Clarke Fine Furniture and Interior Design is, simply put, a furniture store in downtown Kalamazoo. I knew before even entering the store that I was not the target demographic, as I am in need of neither of the store's subtitles, nor will I be anytime soon. I believe that Stewart Clarke Fine Furniture and Interior Design are essentially catering to mid-upper middle class professionals and younger retired persons.

Stewart Clarke Fine Furniture and Interior Design is located in a somewhat unremarkable stone building, on West Main, just inside of "Downtown," and is hardly even noticeable, save for the fact that the stone it was built with is just a few shades darker than average for downtown Kalamazoo. Inside the store, you immediately notice two things, the smell; a blend of mid-grade textiles and leather, and the music; an unappealing blend of soft rock and late seventies jazz fusion. Once out of the decompression zone you realize that you aren't in a major chain store, as all the details lack the kind of needless revision that can come only from a lengthy series of comities choosing the specific fonts for the price tags. Immediately, the shopper is forced to choose left or right, as a small display and false wall are positioned not fifteen feet from the entrance. The overall architecture of the store actually makes for a rather large center section filled with an amalgamation of half-rooms, and a lot of beige in between. This center part of the store also serves to highlight the "Sale" status of the majority of the items in this area, seriously to the detriment of the store's "status points." The floors, throughout the store are beige carpet, with assorted area rugs, oriental and otherwise. As the shopper leaves the central area, the design of the store improves markedly, as the store becomes a winding series of complete rooms. Each of these rooms has it's own color scheme, including paint and/or wallpaper. When you are completed with the labyrinth of assorted rooms, you arrive at the primary check out area, which is more a room with sparse appointments than it is a counter and cash register.

Overall, Stewart Clarke Fine Furniture and Interior Design seems to be attempting to project a certain kind of upper middle class sophistication, for "thirtysomethings" and older, a fact that can be seen simply from the products they stock. I think that Furniture is actually an extremely interesting vein of retail design, as it is at once the most fake and the most honest sort that I can think of. Furniture is meant to be sat on, meant to be used, but it is also meant simply to be seen, but it is virtually always meant to be seen in the context of like pieces. The end result of this is that throughout the store, there are "rooms" each of which is a very near pantomime of what someones's actual bedroom might look like, only without the dirty underwear on the floor. The rooms, and the customers are both well aware, however, that the rooms are fake, and it's simply how well the rooms are put together that gives it away, almost intentionally. Frankly, it's too complicated to fully investigate in a single blog post.