Direct Buy Downtown Toronto

Direct Buy is a direct-from-the-manufacturer business model, unlike Consumer's Distributing of the 80's. After the purchase of new, much larger home that required much furnishing, we were intrigued by a flyer and attended an "open house". The sales tactics on this first meeting were aggressive to say the least. They wanted a $4000 sign-up fee and promised thousands and thousands of dollars of savings. We were given a glimpse of one of the catalogues for mattresses and were impressed with the DB price versus what we had seen in retail. However, that was just one example and were were VERY SKEPTICAL of this business model (which includes the DB price, a 7% handling fee and essentially no ability to return products once purchased--well, unless you want to pay an outrageous restocking fee). The most distressing thing about buying from DB is that you are not able to touch/feel what you are purchasing--everything is ordered from catalogues, so you had better be 200% SURE OF WHAT YOU'RE BUYING. It took 3 hours for the sales guy to sell us the membership and we did suffer from buyer's remorse, no question.

GOOD NEWS: after we moved into our home and started shopping for higher-end furniture, we discovered that the savings were phenomenal. Caveat: not everything is cheaper than retail, so you really have to do your homework and some profit margins are smaller than others (e.g. appliances and small electronics have a smaller mark-up than furniture).

There has been some negative press about DB and this is what we tell our friends: DB is ideal for those with many rooms to furnish or who are undergoing a major renovation. It is not for those wishing to save a few bucks on a digital camera.