The Brick vs. La-Z-Boy: A Comparison of Furniture Retailers

Furnishing a home is a big undertaking and there are many important decisions to make along the way! You will have to decide on a design style, a budget, and the particular pieces that you would like to fill your home.

Most importantly, you will have to choose from an endless selection of furniture retailers. Given that different retailers offer different products and services in terms of style, cost, and quality, it is important to find a retailer that will best suit your furniture needs and preferences.

More specifically, Eastern Ontario has a wide variety of furniture retailers to choose from. The Brick and La-Z-Boy Home Furnishing & Décor are two primary examples of successful and reputable furniture retailers in the Ottawa and Kingston area.

With this being said, the Brick and La-Z-Boy each have something unique to offer and appeal to a different type of consumer. So which retailer is right for you?

This article will provide you with a detailed comparison of both retailers based on the categories below. After reading this comparison, you will be able to make an informed decision about the retailer that best suits you!

About Each Retailer

Before we dive into a detailed comparison, let’s get to know each retailer!

The Brick was first established in 1971 as a single furniture store in downtown Edmonton, Alberta. Going on 50 years of business, the Brick now operates 209 retail stores and 7 distribution centers across Canada.

According to the Brick’s motto, they are “dedicated to saving you more” offering a range of household products.

In comparison, La-Z-Boy is an American company, founded over 90 years ago in Monroe, Michigan, United States. The local Ottawa and Kingston La-Z-Boy locations have been locally owned and operated by the Maxwell family since 2011.

Most commonly known for inventing the iconic reclining chair, La-Z-Boy offers a wide variety of products with an emphasis on quality, comfort, and craftsmanship, specifically focusing on living room furniture. As a retailer, La-Z-Boy is committed to “enriching people’s lives by transforming houses into homes”.

History

Product Categories & Brands

The Brick and La-Z-Boy are both well-known retailers of household products, but their selection differs.

Product Categories

The Brick Ottawa, and Kingston locations, carry a range of home furnishing products suited for multiple rooms in the home, including the living room, dining room, bedroom, and home office. The Brick also offers a variety of accent furniture, such as accent chairs, and home decor.

Additionally, Brick’s product selection expands beyond just furniture offering mattresses, home appliances, and electronics. Among all of the product categories at the Brick, the selection is vast.

With such a range of household products, some may consider the Brick a one-stop-shop for setting up a comfortable and functional home.

Alternatively, La-Z-Boy focuses on offering comfortable, quality, and stylish home furniture and decor. More specifically, La-Z-Boy offers a large selection of furniture and decor suited for the living room, bedroom, dining room, and kitchen.

With this, at La-Z-Boy, there is an emphasis on living room furniture given the brand’s expertise in creating high-quality and comfortable sofas, sectionals, and of course, the recliner chair. This upholstery furniture is offered in stationary, manual reclining, and power reclining.

La-Z-Boy Product Selection

Brands

It is also important to note that the Brick does not manufacture their own products. Instead, they carry products from external brands, such as Abbyson, Beldivo, Chateau d’Ax, Cindy Crawford Home, DeFerh, and Designed2B.

In contrast to the Brick, La-Z-Boy stores do not carry external furniture brands outside of accessories and home decor. Given that La-Z-Boy is not only a furniture retailer but also a manufacturer, all upholstered furniture and case good products offered at La-Z-Boy are company-branded and owned products. This includes La-Z-Boy Residential, Hammary, Kincaid Furniture, and American Drew.

Further, the local Ottawa & Kingston La-Z-Boy businesses work very closely with Canadel in providing options for custom dining furniture. Canadel is Canadian-made and manufactured out of Louisville, Quebec.

When it comes to decor, La-Z-Boy partners with suppliers to offer unique and fashionable home accessories, including area rugs by Surya.

Pros & Cons to Different Product Selections

There are some pros and cons to each store’s approach as a furniture retailer, specifically when it comes to outsourcing products from external brands versus carrying their own.

When shopping at the Brick, you will find a very wide variety of products that appeal to many different styles and budgets. This allows the consumer to have a considerable amount of choice during their shopping experience.

With this being said, there are also challenges that come along with having so many options available. It can become challenging for the service personnel to maintain the same depth of product knowledge on each and every supplier offered by the retailer.

Alternatively, at La-Z-Boy, you will find La-Z-Boy branded and manufactured pieces in the upholstery category. Although La-Z-Boy furniture comes in a wide range of shapes, sizes, and styles (over 60x frames and 800+ fabrics), you are more limited in your choice of brands when shopping at La-Z-Boy compared to the Brick.

While the consumer may have less variety of choices at La-Z-Boy, our salespeople are experts in knowing and understanding the features and benefits of our recliners, sofas, and sectionals.

The sales and service team at La-Z-Boy are expected to know furniture like the back of their hand. They will be able to answer all of your questions as well as offer up additional information relevant to the products you consider purchasing.

Where it is Made

For some buyers, where the product is made can be a defining factor in making a purchasing decision.

For this comparison, we will solely focus on where each retailer’s furniture products are manufactured.

At the Brick, some furniture is made in Canada, but most furniture is manufactured in China, Malaysia, and Taiwan.

La-Z-Boy is also a global manufacturer with operations in North America, Asia, and Europe. La-Z-Boy’s products are primarily made in North America for North American markets. The global headquarters of La-Z-Boy is in Monroe, Michigan but the majority of our recliners, chairs, sofas, and sectionals that are sold in Ottawa and Kingston are manufactured in Dayton, Tennessee.

For more information, check out the article Where La-Z-Boy Furniture is Made.

Cost

When it comes to cost, the furniture products at the Brick fall within the low to high price range. In contrast, La-Z-Boy furniture falls within the mid to high price range on the market.

With this, the Brick appeals to a wider range of budgets, while La-Z-Boy caters to those shopping within a more specific price range.

To compare prices, let’s take a look at some average costs of living room upholstery furniture!

Cost Range	The Brick	La-Z-Boy
Sofa	$550 - $4,560	$2,079 - $5,499
Sectional	$950 - 8,499	$3,599 - $19,000
Recliner Chair	$520 - $10,999	$799 - $3,489

*The Brick costs gathered through website research. These prices have likely changed since publishing this article.

La-Z-Boy offers options to upgrade and customize your furniture of choice. With this, prices are subject to change or increase.

*All La-Z-Boy prices listed in this article are subject to change. We aim to update all cost-related articles twice per year. This article was last updated on March 21st, 2022. Please visit lzb.com and select an Ottawa or Kingston La-Z-Boy store location to view the most up-to-date pricing.

Financing Options

Regardless of which retailer you are shopping with, furniture of any kind is often a significant investment. The option for furniture financing can take some strain off of your pocketbook and allow you to enjoy new furnishings while paying off the investment over time.

The Brick and La-Z-Boy both have a partnership with Flexiti Financing in order to provide furniture financing options to clients.

With this, both the Brick and La-Z-Boy offer the opportunity to finance your purchase at a 0% interest rate as long as the purchase is paid off within a given period of time. Based on the plan you choose, there are different options available to pay off your investment over either 3 months, 6 months, 12 months, 24 months, or 36 months. Further, depending on the plan chosen, you may be required to pay a financing fee at the time of purchase.

To learn more about furniture financing, take a look at our article Furniture Financing: Everything you Need to Know.

Warranty Plans

As previously mentioned, furniture is a significant investment. When making a big purchase on furniture, you want to be confident that your investment is protected and will stand the test of time.

Many furniture retailers offer a warranty on furniture in order to give you that extra peace of mind.

Given that the Brick carries and sells products from external brands, the warranty sold with each product differs from brand to brand. When purchasing a piece of furniture, the Brick salesperson should ensure that you are made aware of the warranty offered with that specific piece of furniture depending on the manufacturer.

With this being said, the Brick does offer an additional protection plan that extends the furniture warranty for 5 years. This includes manufacturer defects, a single incident accidental stain, and a single incident surface repair.

La-Z-Boy products carry a manufacturing warranty that covers some mechanical and frame parts for a lifetime while other parts for 1-3 years of damage caused by manufacturing error or workmanship. This warranty is applicable across all upholstery categories on a consistent basis.

Take a look at the article Are La-Z-Boy Recliners Guaranteed for Life for a detailed breakdown of the recliner warranty at La-Z-Boy.

For an extra cost, La-Z-Boy also offers a more comprehensive service protection plan that covers up to 5 years of accidental damage. The cost of this protection plan extension is relative to the price of the product.

For more information on La-Z-Boy’s warranty and protection plan take a look at the article Is La-Z-Boy's Extended Warranty Worth it.

You may also find some useful tips on how to maintain the look of your furniture in the article 2020 Furniture Care Tips.

Interior Design Services

Furnishing a home can be overwhelming. Trying to coordinate furniture, choose colours, and mix patterns is not easy.

To combat this, many furniture retailers offer interior design services for their clients.

The Brick does not offer an official Interior Design Service.

Alternatively, professional design assistance is complimentary with any purchase at La-Z-Boy. With a consultation appointment, an interior designer will meet with you either in person or virtually for consultation and interior design collaboration. Your consultant will make recommendations in furniture styles, colours, and textures based on your personal space and preferences.

Your La-Z-Boy interior designer will guide you through the design process using a 3D state-of-the-art rendering of your room. This will give you the unique advantage of every item shown in your space.

If you are unable to meet with a consultant, La-Z-Boy offers many free resources online for design inspiration. Take a look at our Before and After design blog posts and hear from our designers themselves. Finally, La-Z-Boy provides a free Augmented Reality app for your phone that will enable you to ‘see’ your frame and upholstery cover in your own room before you buy.

Design Center

Custom Furniture

It is important that any furniture you purchase reflects your tastes and preferences. Customization allows you to make a piece of furniture uniquely yours.

The Brick offers a specific furniture selection called “Designed2B” that is customizable in over 40 different fabric swatches. Otherwise, furniture is not customizable at the Brick.

At La-Z-Boy, custom furniture is not only offered but it is encouraged. Given that our La-Z-Boy products are made and manufactured by La-Z-Boy, any furniture offered in-store or online is customizable to meet your individual taste.

More specifically, La-Z-Boy offers its selection of upholstery furniture in hundreds of colour, fabric, and leather options. Depending on the style, customizations include choice of textiles, accent pillows, welt trim, nailhead trim, wood finish, leg design options, and recliner optional add-ons.

When it comes to reclining furniture, most pieces are available in manual or power with additional power upgrades, including heat & massage, headrest & lumbar support, and remote controls.

To learn more about La-Z-Boy’s custom furniture options take a look at the article Custom Furniture at La-Z-Boy, What to Expect.

Custom Furniture

Delivery Services

Furniture requires some heavy lifting. It is often best that we leave this part of the process up to the furniture retailer.

The Brick offers a Room of Choice delivery service. In this case, the delivery team will bring the product into your home and drop it off in your room of choice. Local delivery costs $89.99 while out-of-town delivery costs $149.99.

The La-Z-Boy delivery service is an all-encompassing White-Glove Delivery experience in which the delivery team will bring the furniture into your home, unpack it, assemble it, inspect it, set it in place, and remove all waste.

At La-Z-Boy, local Ottawa & Kingston delivery costs $129.99 and out-of-town delivery costs $169.99.

With La-Z-Boy delivery services, an existing piece of furniture can also be moved somewhere else in your home at no additional cost. Further, if you have taken advantage of the design services, the delivery men will set up your furniture based on your predetermined floor plan.

Additionally, we offer the option to dispose of any old furniture in a local landfill at an extra charge of $40 / per piece.

Our delivery team is hired and trained in-house. Given that our delivery people are trained to work specifically for La-Z-Boy, our white-glove service is standardized ensuring a high level of care with every delivery.

Typically at La-Z-Boy, we estimate delivery time to take between 1-2 weeks for furniture that is in stock in our warehouse. Alternatively, custom furniture orders take up to 90 days for delivery.

Due to Covid-19, and an increase in demand, custom orders have been delayed. In fact, you may want to learn about How COVID-19 is Affecting Furniture Delivery Delays and How to Plan Ahead.

To learn more about delivery at La-Z-Boy, check out our delivery service page: La-Z-Boy Ottawa and Kingston Furniture Delivery Service.

Where to Buy: Eastern Ontario Locations

The Brick

1960 Cyrville Rd, Ottawa

565 W Hunt Club Rd, Nepean

8231 Campeau Dr, Ottawa

770 Gardiners Rd #1, Kingston

La-Z-Boy

La-Z-Boy is located in both Ottawa and Kingston with a total of 4 locations.

8231-A Campeau Drive, Ottawa

290 West Hunt Club Road, Ottawa

1750 Cyrville Road, Ottawa

770 Gardiners Road Unit#3, Kingston

Store Location

What's Next?

The Brick and La-Z-Boy are both great choices. With a detailed comparison of each retailer’s products and services, the choice is now yours! You now have the information necessary to choose a retailer that best meets your specific needs and preferences when it comes to cost, time, style, protection, and personalization.

La-Z-Boy produces quality furniture that is consistent in comfort and up-to-date style. The cost of La-Z-Boy products is ultimately reflected in a high-level of quality and durability.

We are also confident that our team of design consultants and interior designers at La-Z-Boy Ottawa & Kingston can help you find the furniture that suits your unique needs and preferences. Our team undergoes extensive product training and are trained on the best way to shop for furniture. They’ll be able to answer all of your questions as well as offer up additional information relevant to the products you consider purchasing.

Further, our customization options and complimentary design services take our product services to the next level by ensuring that the furniture you purchase fits seamlessly into the style and layout of your home.

If you are interested in furnishing your home with La-Z-Boy, visit us at one of our local Ottawa or Kingston locations to meet with a consultant today. If you prefer, you can also book a consultation online to get started.