By: Lynne Lynch,
Source: http://www.columbiabasinherald.com
Category: Small Business Grant
MOSES LAKE - The Home Center furniture stores celebrated 43 years of business in March.
The Moses Lake store opened 18 years ago and the Ephrata store followed, eight years ago, said Wendy Cox, a general manager who oversees both locations.
She has worked at the business's Grant County locations for 14 years.
The business's original store was in Stanwood and still exists.
"We're just family-oriented and really enjoy the community we're in," Cox said.
Employees try to stay active in the community and take customer service seriously, she commented.
All three stores employee a total of 14 people.
Cox describes the stores as providing a family atmosphere and small environment for employees.
"We're so close and care about each other," she said.
The stores' offerings include couches, beds, dining room sets and recliners.
The Home Center is a full-line mattress company.
The Moses Lake store measures 50,000 square-feet and provides the company the opportunity to buy in great volume, according to The Home Center's website.
Owner Roger McSteen, of Bothell, said he loves Eastern Washington and having two stores here.
He called this area more of a family-oriented community, with more one-on-one relationships built with the company and customers.
His employees have served generations of families, including great-grandchildren in Stanwood.
During the business's early years in Stanwood, the store's former owner, Roger Wilcoxen, was McSteen's employee.
"Part of the agreement was he would stay and work for me," McSteen said. "We went through the hard times of me buying the business. We would sell all day and deliver all night."
There were some rough times in the beginning, but as business started to come back and grow, they brought on five employees in Stanwood.
Growth followed in Eastern Washington.
Years later, he doesn't plan on retiring.
"I don't believe in retiring," McSteen said. "When you retire, you die. I have no intentions of retiring."
He attributes his success to having extremely good people in all of his stores and successful relationships with customers and vendors.
They try to satisfy every customer who walks through the door.
Before he bought the furniture business, he ran a Seattle-based gentlemen's clothing company called The Squire Shop. It had 36 stores throughout Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana.
The furniture business was an opportunity that arose after he left The Squire Shop.
"I liked it so well, I traded hats with the owner," McSteen said. "It's all retail and it's what I've done all my life."
Source: http://www.columbiabasinherald.com/business/article_b1f54d48-801e-11e1-b012-0019bb2963f4.html
