Family values keep store going
Ray Allegrezza, Editor in Chief -- Furniture Today, June 23, 2008
So much about this business has changed, even in the 25 years I've been reporting on it.
Domestic manufacturing has largely disappeared, new channels of distribution have evolved and slowly but steadily, more and more family businesses have faded into the sunset.
It seems that one reason that once-proud family businesses fail is that for whatever reason, the current owners have lost their love for a business that admittedly can be an uphill climb.
But just when I found myself wondering if the goose of the independent furniture retailer was cooked, I got an e-mail from Penny Raupp, whose great-great-grandfather opened Winglemire Furniture in Holly, Mich., 150 years ago. Penny told me that her father, Don Winglemire, who is 83, still runs the business.
I learned that the founder, Joseph Winglemire Sr., came to the United States from Bavaria in 1854. Like many of that generation, he worked hard to support his family. After a stint as a tailor, a casket maker and an undertaker, he opened the furniture store, which is alive and well a century and a half later.
Each generation shared Joseph's work ethic and love of the business. Don Winglemire has passed those traits to his four children, who are all involved in the business.
In an era when hard work, dedication and commitment to tradition are erroneously sometimes viewed as old school, Don is to be recognized for instilling the ethics and core values in his family that sadly are often the exception today.
Too often, we hear negative comments about the home furnishings business, especially when the challenges can seem to outnumber the opportunities.
Even so, I still believe that this is a great business populated by great people. And I'm sure if you ask Don Winglemire, he would tell you that the furniture business has been very good to his family.
And I'm here to add that families such as Don's have been very good for this business.
