A reputation as a go-to destination for furniture values, a fun atmosphere, operational efficiency and a willingness to explore opportunities outside many furniture retailers’ traditional comfort zone have made Bailey’s Furniture a formidable player in Alaska’s furniture retail scene.
Last year, while most furniture stores were in survival mode, the Anchorage-based dealer opened in Fairbanks, a new market 350 miles away from home. This March, the family-owned retailer converted one of its sleep galleries to a new concept, Bailey’s Furniture Express; and began a 10,000-square-foot addition to its 70,000-square-foot warehouse at its Anchorage superstore.
Through 2009’s first two months, sales were up 17 percent, a record start for the store. Ron Bailey, president, said coming from outside the industry and starting the business on a shoestring in 1990 helped develop a culture that focuses on offering value to customers and expecting the best from all vendors, not just those supplying furniture.
Humble Beginnings Bailey’s Furniture started small, selling used office furniture out of a 1.500-square-foot space in Anchorage.
“We’re not your typical furniture family—none of us had ever worked in a furniture store when we began,” Bailey said. “I was a young Realtor doing some work at the time for my father-in-law, and he needed some office furniture.
He went to a store occupying two quonset huts, with new goods in one, used in the other.
“We were looking at commercial property, and office furniture was for sale at this property,” Bailey recalled. “I priced out new office furniture to see what was out there, made an offer and took it all. My parents were in their 50s then, and my dad suggested I ask my mother to help out.”
The Baileys rented what he called “a little hole in the wall”—1,500 square feet with office furniture and used residential furniture picked up at auction.
“Nine months later we moved to a 20,000-square-foot location, and the rest is history,” he said. “We had no bad habits—but then again, no good habits either. We’ve always been value-conscious. My reputation among the reps is if it’s not a good deal, Ron’s not buying it. I work markets dawn to dusk. I believe we have the same reputation with customers.”
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