Barney’s Furniture reopened on June 1 when the stay-at-home orders ended, but only long enough to have a going-out-of-business sale. However, owner Barry Seidman said the pandemic was not to blame, and plans were already in the works to convert the location to an Ashley Furniture Outlet.
The Seidman family already owns the Ashley HomeStore locations in Springfield, Jacksonville and Quincy, but he said the outlet store is a different concept. “It’s a new concept developed about three years ago. I wasn’t ready to do it then because it was a brand-new concept and I wanted to see how it was working,” Seidman said, noting that there are now around 35 Ashley Furniture Outlet stores nationwide.
In a June interview with SBJ, Seidman explained that the closure due to COVID-19 simply delayed the ability to liquidate the remaining inventory. Now, supply chain issues related to the pandemic have delayed the opening of Ashely Furniture Outlet.
“The last several months have seen a good deal of disruptions in raw material availability and supply chain,” Seidman said. “Manufacturers around the world were shut down for an extended period, and now even though reopened, are contending with keeping manufacturing lines fully operational.”
Seidman noted, “Because of these issues, we’ve had to push back slightly the opening of our new Outlet. We don’t want to open until we are confident that supply will be sufficient to meet our customers’ demands.” Instead of being open by Nov. 1, the Outlet now plans to open in January 2021.
In the meantime, a portion of the building is being used temporarily as a mattress store. According to Siedman, Sleep Savers features a full line of mattresses at discount prices.
