With the opening of a new “At Home” store in Commack, it may be difficult to decide what home decor store is best for a particular consumer.

“We offer a lot of decorative items; furniture, rugs, anything to make your house a home,” said At Home store manager Cindy Rogers.

At Home is open to a variety of consumers and may best serve homeowners.

“There isn’t a specific consumer, [but there are] a lot of homeowners coming in,” said Rogers.

At Home not only provides their consumers with satisfactory services but gives back to the community as well.

“[We] do some charities. We do a lot of Habitat for Humanity, the [charity] where they build houses,” said Rogers.

The staff at At Home are preparing to enhance the shopping experience for their future customers.

“[…] we offer a good selection for a good price,” said Rogers.

Commack consumers have been exposed to home decor at neighboring “Home Goods” for several years.

“I have been shopping at Home Goods for ten years,” said home decor shopper Jennifer Fein.

Home Goods provides consumers with products that other home decor stores do not offer.

“Home Goods has [the brand] Rae Dunn where At Home Store doesn’t carry any Rae Dunn items,” said Fein.

Quality items are the specialty of Home Goods which has contributed to their success for many years.

“We sell a lot of high end brands at off price as opposed to going to a Target or a Walmart [..] so we’re beating the market on it,” said Home Goods store manager Kevin Taylor.

The large assortment of household decor items has been exemplified by the seasonal holidays which provides consumers with an even greater variety.

“All household goods, from furniture, from bath, textiles, kitchenware, utensils, cookware, [and] of course seasonal is the best time of year for us because the store pretty much transitions for the season and we’ll go from 3,000 pieces in a category to 10,000 pieces in a category,” said Taylor.

This has contributed to a higher consumer rate for the Commack Home Goods location in the past two months.

“This is an entirely new management team […]. It’s definitely making a turn for the better, and with the new management team and staff we’re definitely heading in the right direction for success,” said Taylor.

An example of this store’s new found success would be the contribution to charity work within the community.

“We have a food drive, where we will be accepting donations from customers, starting [the week of November 5th]. From a corporate level I do know that once a year we do food drives where volunteer associates from the store go to the local churches and we help serve food to the homeless,” said Taylor.

The nature of these store’s locations within Commack is appealing to customers.

“They’re both located close to home. It takes ten minutes to get there,” said Fein.

Unfortunately, the hour at which these stores open is a drawback to certain consumers. 

“They open a little late for me. They don’t open until 9:00 and I would like to be able to start my shopping a little earlier in the day,” said Fein.

The layout of Home Goods is another criticism that some consumers have. 

“The only change I would like to see at Home Goods is if their aisles were a little wider. It gets a little cluttered especially if you have a shopping cart in there. It gets a little tight feeling,” said Fein.

This issue is not one that some consumers believe to be a problem at At Home.

“As far as cleanliness, appearance, shopability, and neatness I find At Home is better than Home Goods,” says Fein.

Other customers have also shared their positive shopping experiences with the staff of At Home.

“People seem to really love it. Everybody’s been happy and they tell us it’s great,” said Rogers.🔳