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Nebraska Article of furniture Mart Expanding To Kansas Metropolis

Nebraska Furniture Mart Expanding To Kansas City

Kansas City, KS, Baronial 4-- In the midst of the Peachy Depression, Rose Blumkin, a Russian Jewish immigrant, borrowed $500 from her brother to open a little furniture store in the basement of a building in downtown Omaha, Nebraska, every bit reported in the Kansas Urban center Jewish Chronicle. Over the years, that picayune shop--the Nebraska Furniture Mart--has become a giant in the world of retail furniture sales, known for its bargain-basement prices, extensive array of merchandise and pinnacle-notch customer service. This Nebraska institution is now making its mode down I-29 to the Kansas Urban center area. In mid-August, the Nebraska Article of furniture Mart will open a 712,000-square-foot retail and distribution facility next to the Kansas Speedway at I-435 and State Avenue West in Kansas City, KS. "Our customers from Kansas Metropolis kept on saying 'Come down here, come down here. We want you.' So, we listened to the customers," said Robert Batt, Blumkin'southward grandson and executive vice president of the Nebraska Furniture Mart. "That'southward what made a divergence here. There are more people hither in Kansas City than at that place are in the whole land of Nebraska. And then it was a natural." The new store is a large footstep for the Nebraska Article of furniture Mart. "This is the offset time in our history that we've ever built a edifice from scratch," Batt said. "It's designed with the latest and greatest. There'southward nothing like this in the state." Article of furniture, electronics, appliances and flooring will all be bachelor under ane giant roof. "It'south destination shopping where you don't have to get to other stores in social club to meet your home-furnishings needs," Batt said. "The selection is bigger than annihilation that's ever been seen. ... We try to appeal to anyone who walks in here at whatsoever cost indicate at any time. We have a high-end design section. But we also have the basics for a couple of kids who are just starting out." Warren Buffett, chairman of the lath of Berkshire Hathaway, which now owns a majority interest in the Nebraska Furniture Mart, expressed excitement about the prospects for the Kansas City store in a February 2003 letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders. In the alphabetic character, Buffett said: "With 450,000 square anxiety of retail infinite, it could well produce the second largest volume of any article of furniture shop in the country--the Omaha operation existence the national champion." Even though Berkshire Hathaway owns a bulk interest in the Nebraska Furniture Mart, the concern is however run by the family. More importantly, said Batt, it withal bears the mark of his grandmother, who he lovingly refers to as Mrs. B. Mrs. B, whose maiden name was Rose Gorelick, was born in 1893 in a shtetl outside of Minsk, Russia. In 1917, she followed her hubby, Isadore Blumkin, to the United States. The couple commencement settled in Fort Dodge, Iowa. But they shortly moved to Omaha, NE, where there was a larger Jewish community. Initially, Mrs. B focused on raising the couple's 4 children and helping with her husband'south business organisation ventures, which included a second-manus clothing store and a jewelry and pawnshop. "Pawn shops are an old family tradition," Batt said. In fact, Mrs. B's brother, Sam Gorelick, started a jewelry and loan in Kansas City, KS called Sam's Loan Part, which is nevertheless in operation today. "The 1920s weren't besides bad for my grandparents. But then the Depression came, and it got real bad for everybody," Batt said. To assistance support the family, Mrs. B opened a pocket-sized furniture store in the basement of her hubby's business. "My grandad liked his jewelry and pawn shop," Batt said. "They never mixed the business organisation. He did his thing and she did her thing. And they provided for their children." Naysayers said Mrs. B's furniture store would never make it. But she proved them wrong. "The business organization just got bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger," Batt said. "Over the years, she got rid of all of her competitors."

Related Topics:Nebraska Furniture Mart, Shaw Industries Group, Inc.