Ouch.... The last quarter takes a pound of flesh from the Big 4

The recession may be technically over, but you wouldn't know it by reviewing the most recently reported quarterly results from the largest domestic office furniture manufacturers:

• HNI (Parent company of Allsteel): quarterly sales down 31.5%
• Herman Miller: "Consolidated" (read slashed) another 150 jobs in October, and announced their quarterly sales down 32.4% 
• Steelcase quarterly sales down 35.9%
• Knoll quarterly sales down 36.1%

What does this all mean? Continued deep discounting on large (and not so large) projects, and a feeding frenzy over any project on the street.

Case in point, there was an estimated 40 people representing 29 different office furniture dealers and/or manufacturers at a mandatory project walk-through this past Monday.  For the time being, I don't think I'm going too far out on a limb to say it remains a "buyer's market" for office furniture.