I just bought a chair from Macy's in April! I got it on a mega-sale (it was literally half off), and have been entirely pleased with the experience. Delivery took place just like the nice Macy's lady told me it would, and the chair is even nicer than I imagined it would be. It's very comfortable and the construction is high quality. This is the chair, for illustrative purposes.
Now, this is North Carolina, not NYC, and I happen to know that the chair I purchased was made right here, and we haven't had any problems around these parts with bedbugs (thank lord baby jesus) or fleas. Customer services tends to be really good around here, as well. Good luck!

Do you have pets with fur? DO NOT GET MICROFIBER unless you like vacuuming it every day. It's a hair magnet.

I can't comment on the stores, $1500 is out of my price range.

No pets, currently. Just a hairy husband. :) A cat or small dog's not out of the question in the future, though, so that's something to consider (but it seems so soft, the microfiber!).

Nice chair, msali... glad to hear a positive experience.

We have cats and are about to get microfiber, due to the fact (so we hear) that cats will not scratch on that fabric as much as cotton.

So there's a nice piece of conflicting info for you.

I have a microfiber sofa and loveseat and a longhaired (albeit with a short haircut, currently) cat and no problems with hair. I see more of my hair on the sofa than the cat's.

I wouldn't buy a sofa online unless you've seen and sat on it in real life first.

I remembered how to do a link on this laptop (I think), so here's the current front-runner.

It was $50 cheaper (as was the matching recliner) over the 4th of July weekend, so I might wait for a future sale, and maybe to check out the Macys showroom in person. It would be nice to try it out first, I agree. I love looking at furniture anyway (my father was even a furniture rep).

Come to think of it, I'm 44 years old and I've never purchased a new sofa. It's always been second-hand. Not that that's so bad; our current saggy sleeper's still rather comfy. It was second-hand from my folks. My mother gave it up rather reluctantly, I fear, letting Jon and me take it with us when we moved down to Miami for a couple years. I guess we've had it about ten years now, and my parents had it about five years before that, so it doesn't owe the world anything. It's a sleeper (a severely uncomfortable sleeper in pull-out form -- anyone seen the Seinfeld with Elaine crippled by the sleeper-sofa bar in her back at Jerry's parents? Yeah, that.), and heavy as hell. But we never have to worry about spilling anything on it. And new furniture would probably make the rug look dingier. Still, the new one reclines. Ahhh...

Oooh that has really good armrests for curling up with a book.

Doesn't it, though? This one's rather nice as a nonreclining option (course, it's hard to find a reason not to recline). And this is what I was looking at from Macys, though I wish it came in the chocolate brown or espresso colors; it does come in mocha, but the mocha, online at least, looks more orange (I'd definitely wait for a sale at Macys, though -- the furniture was several hundred dollars cheaper, uh, yesterday). I know Jon would love the matching recliners, in any case.

You can tell I love big, chunky, comfy furniture. My mom has a living room sofa no one's ever sat on. :)

Try Overstock.com. My mum has bought a couple things from there, including a couch, and is very happy with her purchases.

I bought my couches from Pennsylvania House, but it doesn't look like they do living room collections anymore.

I've never purchased a new sofa, but I've purchased enough other stuff online to know that website reviews generally just attract cranks.

We have the loveseat version of the last link you posted from Macy's, in mocha. Both sides rock independently as well as recline. We love it.

It's microfiber. We have a beagle & I wear white fur on all my dark clothes. The dark microfiber looks fine, but the dog isn't allowed on the furniture, so take that for what it's worth.

Microfibre is one durable fabric — wears like iron.

sueinnyc has the most awesome armchair ever which she bought from Ethan Allen. It not only rocks but it swivels.

A friend also recently furnished her new apartment from Ethan Allen and she is really happy with her purchases.

Thanks for the feedback, folks!

Ethan Allen is nice stuff... a bit more pricey, but the quality might be worth the investment.

Jon said there's a Raymour & Flanigan near the Strand, so maybe we'll go take a look sometime. I also really like that Macys set... what a coincidence you have the loveseat from it, toastedbeagle. Nice to hear a firsthand review. I'm still uncertain about the mocha color, though; it sounds up our alley (in the espresso/coffee/brown family), but on the website it looks orangish. Is it more brownish/coffee colored in person? (My mom's been a under-the-weather this week, but when she's able we're gonna go exploring up at Macys and hopefully have a look. There's no rush really. I tend to take awhile to push the button on big purchases anyway.)