Leons and La-Z-Boy are both successful furniture retailers in the Ottawa region. Read on to learn about which retailer would best suit your furniture preferences.
Furnishing a home is no easy task and there are many critical decisions to make along the way. You will have to decide on a style, a budget, and the particular pieces that you would like to add to your home.
Before you can even begin this process, you will first need to choose which furniture retailer you would like to shop with.
Choosing a furniture retailer is one of the most crucial decisions when it comes to buying furniture. Given that different retailers offer different products and services in terms of style, cost, and quality, you want to ensure that you choose the retailer that will match all of your home furnishing preferences.
Luckily, there are many custom furniture retailers to choose from in Ottawa, each unique in its product and services offerings. The tricky part is often to narrow down your choice.
Leons and La-Z-Boy are two primary examples of successful and reputable furniture retailers in the Ottawa and Kingston area.
Operating for over 100 years, Leons is one of Canada’s largest stores, selling not only furniture but a wide range of merchandise. To this day, the company continues to be run by the Leon family. The business has expanded over the years and now characterizes itself as a “Big Box” retailer as it carries a wide range of quality brand-name furniture and appliances.
Similarly, the La-Z-Boy brand has existed for over 90 years. The local Ottawa and Kingston La-Z-Boy furniture stores are locally owned and operated by the Maxwell family since 2011. La-Z-Boy offers a wide variety of products with an emphasis on quality, comfort, and craftsmanship, specifically focusing on living room furniture.
In fact, the La-Z-Boy brand is most commonly known for its iconic recliner chair. As a retailer, La-Z-Boy is committed to “enriching people’s lives by transforming houses into homes”.
Leons and La-Z-Boy are both great furniture retailers in their own respect. With years of success under their belts, these retailers have similarities and differences in what they offer the consumer. When choosing which furniture retailer to shop with, it is important to understand these differences in order to know which store will best meet your furniture needs and preferences.
This article will provide a detailed comparison of furniture retailers based on the brands they carry, where it is made, the price, financing options offered, interior design services, custom furniture services, warranty plans, delivery services, and where they are located.
Product Categories & Brands
Leons and La-Z-Boy are similar in that they both offer a wide variety of home furnishing products that cater to many styles, tastes, and preferences.
Leons offers a wide variety of furniture for multiple rooms in the home including the living room, bedroom, and home office. More specifically, Leons prioritizes bedroom products by offering a selection of mattresses, bed frames, sheets, and pillows.
Further, Leons furniture retailer places a strong emphasis on home appliances and electronics. Leons sources this wide variety of products from a variety of over 50 external brands.
La-Z-Boy is similar in that they also offer a large selection of furniture for many rooms of the home including the living room, bedroom, dining room, and kitchen. At La-Z-Boy, there is an emphasis on the living room furniture given our expertise in creating high-quality and comfortable sofas, sectionals, and of course, the recliner chair.
In contrast to Leons, La-Z-Boy does not carry external brands. All products offered are La-Z-Boy branded and owned products. This includes La-Z-Boy Residential, Hammary, Kincaid Furniture, and American Drew.
Further, the local La-Z-Boy businesses also work very closely with Canadel in providing options for custom dining furniture. Canadel is a Canadian-made manufacturer out of Louisville, Québec.
There are pros and cons for a furniture store to either outsource products from external brands or carry solely their own.
When shopping at Leons you will find a very wide range of furniture that appeals to different styles and budgets. This is great because it 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 the retailer provides.
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 Leons.
While the consumer may have less variety of choices at La-Z-Boy the company only carries La-Z-Boy made and manufactured products. With this, La-Z-Boy salespeople are expected to be experts when it comes to knowing and understanding the features and benefits of our recliners, sofas, and sectionals. The sales and service team at La-Z-Boy are trained to know furniture like the back of their hand and will be able to answer all of your questions as well as offer up additional information relevant to the products you consider purchasing.
In fact, in-depth training starts with several weeks of training when a team member begins before they can see a client, and continues on a weekly / monthly schedule to ensure a strong understanding of the product, how it’s manufactured, and of course the relevant features/benefits relevant in making the right decision for your home. With fewer suppliers to support, the benefit tends to be deeper knowledge in one area.
Where it is Made
For some, a defining factor in the process of buying furniture is understanding where it was made.
At Leons, the majority of their furniture is made and assembled in Asia, specifically China. In addition, some pieces are also made and assembled in Malaysia and Vietnam.
With this, Leons does offer products that are made in Canada. The parts for these products are manufactured in Asia and then assembled in Canada.
Similarly, La-Z-Boy is 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.
Price
When it comes to price, Leon's furniture falls within the low-mid price range category while La-Z-Boy falls within the mid-high price range category.
The price difference between these two brands is ultimately reflected in the overall quality of comfort and craftsmanship.
To compare prices, let’s take a look at the average costs of a sofa!
| Leons Sofa | La-Z-Boy Sofa |
|
General Sofa Cost Range: $599 – $3,999
Stationary: starts at $599 Motion: starts at $2,499
*Research was done through an online website |
General Sofa Cost Range: $2,079 – $5,499
Stationary: starts at $2,079 Motion: starts at $2,579 |
At La-Z-Boy, we offer options to upgrade and customize your furniture of choice.
*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
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 a new piece of furniture while paying off the investment over time.
Leons offers a few options for furniture financing: a Visa Desjardins card and a Flexiti card.
Similarly, La-Z-Boy has a partnership with Flexiti financing in order to provide furniture financing options to clients.
The financing options offered at both Leons and La-Z-Boy are similar. You have the opportunity to finance your furniture 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 the article Furniture Financing: Everything you Need to Know.
Warranty
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 Leons carries and sells products from external brands, the warranty offered differs from brand to brand. When purchasing a piece of furniture, the Leons salesperson will ensure that you are made aware of the warranty offered on that particular piece of furniture depending on the brand that manufactured it.
With this being said, Leons does offer an informal Warranty which they call the “Platinum Promise”. With this, they promise to give you peace of mind ensuring that they will do whatever they can to make you happy with your purchase.
Further, all furniture sold at Leons is protected within 72 hours of delivery and pick-up. Any damage done within this period of time will be covered and repaired free of charge.
Although Leons does not offer their own warranty protection plan for all of their furniture, they do offer additional fabric and leather protection plans which cover accidental repairs for up to 5 years.
In contrast, La-Z-Boy is the retailer and manufacturer of their upholstery branded products.
With this, La-Z-Boy products are sold with a manufacturing warranty that covers 1-3 years of damage caused by manufacturing error or workmanship. This warranty is applicable across all upholstery categories on a consistent basis.
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 Warranty Worth it.
Interior Design
As a Big Box furniture and appliance store, Leons does not place emphasis on home design. With this, Leons does not offer interior design services.
Alternatively, with the sale of furniture, the La-Z-Boy team is inspired to help turn your house into a home. Home design is an essential part of bringing your furniture purchasing together into a seamless and stylish room.
With this, professional design assistance is complimentary with any purchase at La-Z-Boy. With an 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 the 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 cover in your own room before you buy.
Custom Furniture
Leons offers some customization on select pieces of furniture. Any potential customization is dependent on what is offered by the brand or manufacturer of any specific product.
Depending on the product you choose, you may have the option to choose a specific colour or customize the fabric on the piece. With that being said, this is the extent of customization options on furniture sold at Leons.
At La-Z-Boy, custom furniture is not only offered but is encouraged. Given that La-Z-Boy products are made and manufactured by La-Z-Boy, anything offered in-store or online is customizable to meet your individual taste.
More specifically, La-Z-Boy offers hundreds of options in colours, fabrics, styles. Anything can be customized including textiles, accent pillows, welt trim, nailhead trim, wood finish, leg design options, and recliner optional add-ons.
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.
Delivery
Furniture requires some heavy lifting. It is often best that we leave this part of the process up to the furniture retailer. Both Leons and La-Z-Boy offer delivery services in order to ensure that your purchase makes its way safely into your home.
Leons offers a standard delivery service in which your purchase will be uncrated, moved inside, unpacked, and set in place. Leons does not disassemble any existing furniture as a part of the delivery service. Further, the removal of old furniture will not be disposed of through Leons.
Leons offers free local delivery service on orders over $498, before taxes. If your order is not over $498, the standard delivery fee is about $50 within the Ottawa area.
In contrast, La-Z-Boy offers a white glove delivery service at a flat fee of $129.99 (local Ottawa & Kingston fee). For orders delivered outside of Ottawa & Kingston, our white glove delivery fee is $169.99.
La-Z-Boy delivery service is an all-encompassing experience in which the delivery team will bring the furniture to your home, unpack it, assemble it, inspect it, set it in place, and remove all waste.
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.
The La-Z-Boy delivery team is hired and trained in-house. Given that the delivery people are trained to work specifically for La-Z-Boy, the white-glove service is standardized ensuring a high level of care with every delivery.
Typically at La-Z-Boy, the estimated delivery time is between 1-2 weeks for furniture that is in stock in the warehouse. Alternatively, custom furniture orders take up to 90 days for delivery.
To learn more about delivery at La-Z-Boy, check out the delivery service page: La-Z-Boy Ottawa and Kingston Furniture Delivery Service.
Where to Buy: Eastern Ontario Locations
You can shop for Leons furniture at two locations in Ottawa and one location in Kingston.
La-Z-Boy is located in both Ottawa and Kingston with a total of 4 locations.
What’s Next?
Leons 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 high-quality furniture that is consistent in comfort and longevity. Our 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.
