Shopping local on Vancouver Island means buying from a business that is owned and run here, so the help after the sale comes from here too. For furniture, that part matters as much as the price. A sofa or a power recliner stays with you for years, and sooner or later something needs a part, a repair or a phone call.
Merit Home Furniture is a family business with four Island stores, in Duncan, Nanaimo, Campbell River and Port Alberni. From our Duncan store, delivery is $150 across the Island, assembly included. When a covered part fails, we order it from the maker and our own repair technician does the work. When a special order runs late, we lend you furniture while you wait.
Below is what a local store does after the sale, what it costs, where the money goes, and what buying local does not promise.
What does an Island furniture store do after the sale that a website cannot?
An Island furniture store carries the follow-up for you. The warranty claim, the damaged delivery and the late order all come back to people you can phone or visit. Nobody asks you to box up a sofa.
Buying from an Island store
You call the store you bought from. For a covered defect, Merit orders the part, and our furniture repair technician books the repair at a time that suits you. A piece that arrives damaged usually stays in your home, in use, while the replacement comes.
Buying from a seller off the Island
Who fixes it depends on that seller's terms, so they are worth reading before you pay. If the answer is a return shipment, a large piece has to be packed and collected. Nobody on the other end has seen your stairs, your room or the piece.
Our side of it is written out on the Merit warranty and repairs page. Each maker sets its own warranty period, so we tell you the period for your piece before you buy. What each maker covers and what voids it differs a fair bit.
After the sale at Merit, situation by situation
| When this happens | What we do |
|---|---|
| Delivery from Duncan | $150 across the Island, assembly included, booked Monday to Friday, 9 to 5 |
| Gulf Islands delivery | Available to some islands; call for details |
| Pillows, bedding, small items | Collected free at our Duncan store, or delivered with your furniture |
| Picking it up yourself | Free at the Duncan store |
| Your old furniture | Taken away when we deliver, from Duncan usually $25 to $50 a piece |
| Arrives damaged | You usually keep it and use it while we order the replacement |
| Special order runs late | Loaner furniture at no charge, and usually a discount if you carry on |
| Changed your mind on a stocked piece | Exchanges encouraged up to 30 days, case by case |
| Placing a special order | A 24% deposit when you order |
| Warranty defect | We order the parts and do the repair |
| Stain, rip, tear, cut or burn | Not covered by a maker's warranty; covered only by an extended plan |
Those are the Duncan store's terms. The Nanaimo, Campbell River and Port Alberni stores set their own delivery rates, so ask the store you are buying from. A mattress going across the Island may need a different shipping method, and we work that out with you when you order.
The extended plan is SmartOne by Zucora. It runs up to five years, sends someone to your home for the repair, and covers the electronics in power recliners. We count the five years from purchase; Zucora counts from delivery. It can be added to anything we sell, a mattress or a recliner included.
The full wording sits on our returns and deposits page. How a deposit works when you change your mind walks through a special order step by step.
How long a special order takes from an Island store
A special order from an Island store is built for you in the cover and size you pick, then delivered by the store that sold it. In Duncan, the pieces in the store are display models, and most of what we sell is ordered in.
Lead times run by maker. Mattresses take about 2 to 3 weeks, Ashley 4 to 6 weeks, Island Living made to order 6 to 8 weeks, and Decor-Rest and Mako 8 to 10 weeks. Each time runs until the piece is ready for pickup or delivery. Lead times for every brand we carry are listed in one place, including the ones that are usually in stock.
When an order slips, the loaner in the table above covers the wait.
Does buying local furniture on the Island cost more?
Buying furniture locally does not carry a built-in premium. Merit buys through BrandSource, which describes itself as a family of 4,500 owner-operated appliance, electronics, mattress and home furnishing stores across North America. Over 125 of them are in Canada. A buying group gives a family store purchasing weight it would not have alone.
Most of our prices are on the product pages. The Decor-Rest 2003 sofa, a Canadian-made piece, lists at $1,549 in fabric and $2,899 in leather, before applicable taxes. Island Living shows no prices online, by Island Living's own policy, so a Island Living piece is priced when you call.
It is worth asking for our best price on anything. Sales come up often, and sometimes the better offer is on delivery or the extended warranty instead of the sticker.
Where furniture money goes when it stays on Vancouver Island
Money spent at an independent store tends to stay closer to home, and there is BC research behind that. In a 2013 study commissioned by CUPE BC, Civic Economics surveyed independent businesses across the province.
BC independent retailers recirculated 45% of their revenue in the local economy, the study found, against 17% for chains. Recirculation here means wages, buying from other local businesses, and local giving. With restaurants counted too, independents kept more than 2.6 times as much money circulating as chain competitors.
The same study named furniture and home furnishing stores the strongest independent retail segment in BC. Small firms are most of the economy here too. Federal figures for December 2024 count 170,512 small employer businesses in BC, or 98.4% of all employer businesses in the province.
That study measured independents in general, not Merit, and its figures are more than a decade old. Read them as a general direction; they promise nothing about any one store.
Popular places to shop local for furniture on Vancouver Island
The four Merit stores sit in four Island towns, and each one sets its own range:
- Duncan showroom: 107 Ingram St, (250) 746-5527, open Monday to Saturday, 9 to 5.
- Nanaimo: 3230 Norwell Dr, (250) 756-1153.
- Campbell River: 1300 A Homewood Rd, (250) 286-0868.
- Port Alberni: 2935 Third Ave, (250) 724-6644.
Online orders go through Duncan for now. Because the Duncan store shows display models, a call before the drive is the easiest way to ask what is set up. A call also settles whether a given piece is carried at another store. How the four showrooms differ, town by town, is covered separately.
For local food, crafts and other Island goods, the Island Good directory lists businesses from across Vancouver Island and the rural islands.
What buying local furniture on the Island does not promise
Buying local does not mean the furniture was made on the Island. Island Good, the Vancouver Island Economic Alliance's local label, covers products made, grown or processed on Vancouver Island and the rural islands. Its logo is open to growers, producers, processors, distributors and retailers here, so a local business on the Island can apply for it.
Two of the makers we carry are close by, across the water. Island Living makes its made-to-order line in Burnaby, BC, including the Carmanah sofa. The Province describes Mako, maker of the Aspen panel bed, as "a furniture producer in Surrey." Island Living also sells an in-stock range made overseas. The Canadian Made tag on each listing is the thing to check. We have 324 pieces in the Canadian-made collection, and Canadian-made and Island-bought are separate questions.
It does not mean every repair runs through us. Danby, which makes the wine coolers and beverage centres we list, uses its own authorized servicers, and its warranty does not cover repairs by anyone else. For an appliance, the claim starts with the maker or the Merit store it came from.
And it does not mean the lowest sticker on every item. A national chain or a website can sometimes beat us on a given piece. What we offer is the follow-up in the table above, from people who live here.
Where these numbers come from
- Civic Economics for CUPE BC, Independent BC: Small Business and the British Columbia Economy (February 2013), checked October 2026.
- Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, Key Small Business Statistics 2025, checked October 2026.
- Vancouver Island Economic Alliance, Island Good, checked October 2026.
- BrandSource Canada, About us, checked October 2026.
- Province of British Columbia, BC Manufacturing Jobs Fund release, 8 April 2026, checked September 2026.
- Merit's own delivery, returns and warranty pages, the owners' policy answers, read October 2, 2026, and live product prices, read October 16, 2026.
Asking an Island store what happens after the sale
If you bought from us and something needs looking at, call the store you bought from. If you are still deciding, call the Duncan store and ask what happens after the sale for the piece you have in mind. You will hear the same answers as on this page.
How we work across the four stores is gathered on our Island guide page.