From the May 24, 2010 issue of Furniture Today

Furniture Today's exclusive Top 100 U.S. Furniture Stores report ranks furniture stores by 2009 sales of furniture, bedding and decorative accessories, including fabric and furniture protection and warranties. To qualify, a store must specialize in home furnishings.

The mix may include electronics, appliances and other home furnishings, but furniture, bedding and accessories must account for 25% or more of total sales and at least 25% of those sales must come from the stores. Retailers with a broad merchandise mix, such as department stores, mass merchants and warehouse clubs that operate separate home furnishings stores are eligible for listing with the sales from the free-standing home stores only.

Macy's is on the list based on the sales from its Furniture Gallery stores as well as JCPenney for their Home stores. Groups of stores with common ownership that operate under separate names qualify for the list. Examples are Berkshire Hathaway, which operates Nebraska Furniture Mart, Star Furniture, R.C. Willey, Jordan's and Homemakers and American Signature, which operates Value City Furniture and American Signature Furniture. The detailed analysis includes: *Sales for the Top 100 were down 8.6% from 2008 to 2009 *The Top 100 Stores sold through 8,577 units in 2009 *Ashley Furniture HomeStores is still the No. 1 furniture store, with IKEA No. 2.

*18 pages*