Local Furniture Store Celebrates More than three decades in business

Carmichael, CA (MPG) - Perhaps you are in need of a new mattress or dresser to fill that spare bedroom left vacant when your kid went off to college. Or, maybe you’re just ready for a new sofa or recliner and don’t want to pay exorbitant department store prices.

If you’ve got fine home furnishings, furniture, either antique, contemporary, new or pre-owned on your brain, David and Judy Fleege, owners of Twice As Nice Furniture likely can help.  And, you can count on their more than three decades in the business as testament to the quality of their inventory and customer focus.

The couple, both Chicago-area natives, brought their passion for antique and preowned furniture retail sales to Mission Avenue in Carmichael on August 3, 1983.  The Auburn Boulevard store opened in 1987, marking 34 years in business this month.

“Our first location was at Mission and Whitney,” says David, a former furniture and appliance sales professional for Montgomery Ward, a 23-year retail and catalogue order retail enterprise that dated back to the turn-of-the-century and, at one time, was second only behind Sears as the nation’s largest catalogue order and brick and mortar department store chain.

“I sold appliances for Montgomery Ward originally,” says David. “Then, when we moved to Wisconsin, we met a couple in the 1970s who sold antiques, tools, furniture and other things. They kind of took us under their wing and showed us the business and that’s how we got into this. Here we are 34 years later.”

Just as with any family-owned business, this one affords David and Judy with inherent opportunities for working side-by-side and growing their client base, figuring out what works best for their business and what doesn’t, and for carving out prospective roles for one another.  In this case, David does the buying.  Judy also buys, but her primary role involves keeping social media updated, marketing and customer service.

“I really do everything,” said Judy, who briefly worked as an activities director for a local nursing home before the couple opened the business. 

David buys much of the store’s inventory from wholesalers, private parties and roughly six different manufacturers. If there’s something you don’t see in the store, there’s a good chance they can find it for you.  But be prepared to wait if you’re looking for a grandfather clock. Apparently there is demand.

“We have a waiting list for grandfather clocks,” David says. “We can get them, but so many people want one lately we have to put them on a list and call them.”

The store also has one part time employee, although, at one time, the couple’s daughter, now in her 40s, worked for the family biz.  She, says Judy, may or may not take over the business if and when retirement comes calling.

Coming from a background in furniture and appliance sales, David says he has always stuck to a fail-safe strategy for pricing inventory and keeping an edge on the other guys. 

“I shop my competition,” he says. “I know what they have, what they are pricing it at and what the quality is. They all have the same things. I know how to order and get that price down to where I want it, whether you’re talking about wholesale or antiques. I can get the deals I need.”

More than half of the store’s inventory is not just made in the United States, but in the Sacramento.  “That’s very important to us,” David says.  And, just as Montgomery Ward, Sears and many of the other big-box retailers did throughout much of the 1970s and 1980s, Twice As Nice Furniture accepts layaway.

“We offer it because it makes it possible for folks who are just starting out to buy a bed set or a dresser or something for that first place and pay it off in time so they can afford to have what they need,” David said.

You won’t find any used fabric sofas, chairs or mattresses in the store.  They are all new. But you can find a good deal on solid wood end tables, book cases, antique writing desks, storage cabinets, unique accessories and other items.

“The only furniture we sell that is used or as we like to call it ‘pre-owned,’ is made of wood,” Judy says. “We never sell used fabric items.”

Mattress set prices begin at $149 for a twin and go to $299 for a king set.  Headboards and frames are extra. Solid wood rockers with craftsman style wood framing sell for a very reasonable $249, and several of the store’s solid wood chest of drawers and end tables, some with beautiful slate inlay range between $179 and $299.

Thirty four years in business naturally brings challenges along the way and Twice As Nice has certainly seen a few of them.  During the 1980s, for example, the store offered more collectable items, such as dish and glassware, vintage accessories and even memorabilia, in addition to furniture items.  While there are still some of those items available, that trend has dropped off. 

“People don’t shop much for collectables today like they used to,” Judy says.

Most recently, one of the biggest challenges has come from Mother Nature herself.  

“When it’s hot outside, like triple digits, which it has been the last few weeks, things really slow down,” says David.

But there are upsides, namely, the building up of long-term relationships.  David and Judy claim to know more than 95 percent of the people that walk through the doors. And they know their families, as well. That brand of customer loyalty and turn-over business are the key to any successful retailer, family owned or not, and to watch generations of customers come and go is perhaps one of the most rewarding aspects of being a true “Mom and Pop.”

“We are so fortunate to have the best customers in the world. Almost everyone who comes in here we know,” Judy says.  “We know their parents, and their parents before that.  We have many customers going back three generations. That’s pretty neat.”

For more information, call (916) 344-6423, or visit Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Twice-As-Nice-Furniture-366498443619