When it came time to open a new showroom for Yardbird, a Minneapolis-based outdoor furniture company, owner Jay Dillon looked where his customers were coming from.
“Kansas City topped the list,” he says.
So he opened a showroom in Overland Park. Customers finally got to see the furniture for themselves after stores reopened following COVID-19 orders. Sectionals, dining sets, and fire tables are available in a number of collections, made from wicker sourced from recycled ocean plastic, aluminum and teak.
Dillon founded Yardbird on the premise of cutting out the middleperson, dealing directly with material suppliers to keep costs down.
So far, the top seller among Kansas City-area customers has surprised him.
“Teak,” he says. “Usually that’s more East Coast than Midwest.”