Nov. 21, 2022

The Sioux Falls Furniture Mart USA headquarters has doubled in size, opening new retail locations for Ashley HomeStore and Furniture Mart this week.

The 300,000-square-foot addition began in 2021 at 140 E. Hinks Lane — along 60th Street North east of Minnesota Avenue — and included 200,000 square feet of additional warehouse space.

That has been filling up for months, and Monday was opening day for the retail side.

“It’s a beautiful store,” said Cory Price, CEO of Furniture Mart USA. “It will be the nicest furniture store in the area — by far — having so much inventory on hand that the customer can take today. The customer wants that instant gratification, and they’ll be able to get it here.”

That’s the rationale driving the now 600,000-square-foot headquarters, which includes both the Ashley and Furniture Mart stores, as well as a large clearance center called Outlet 08 that’s still being stocked.

“We’ve worked a lot more this year on trying to revamp customer care; it’s very important to us, so we put in a whole department,” said chairman Bill Hinks, who founded the business with a single store on West 12th Street in 1977 on property connected to a mobile home lot he owned.

“We decided we want to be the best furniture company out there. That’s in our planning now. We want to make sure our customers get what they want and that we get more business from them later.”

The melding of online shopping, in-person shopping and delivery as fast as possible — if not the same day from the store — is on display within the new headquarters and in its additional plans, which include reorganizing the customer pickup area for an optimal flow.

Inside the new stores, “I don’t think this is going to be the store you can walk through in 20 minutes,” manager Bridgit Venekamp said. “You’re going to walk through and be looking. It’s going to be an experience, 100 percent, and the clearance center with its size is also going to be a destination. I think the store is going to be a destination. It’s stunning.”

There’s also a plan to add an upscale design studio on the second floor, “so we can work with so many people who are designers working with their customers,” Hinks said.

Furniture Mart is in the top 35 for furniture retailers nationwide. It had a record year in 2020 and beat it in 2021.

“Things in a lot of areas have slowed down,” Hinks said. “We’re lucky in the Midwest to stay somewhat even.”

The company includes 58 stores in 38 communities. In Sioux Falls, that includes Ashley HomeStore, Furniture Mart, Carpet One and Unclaimed Freight Furniture.

Today’s customer “is expecting more service,” Venekamp said. “We’ve had to really get better at our sales process. The salespeople are having to spend more time with attention to the customer, fact-finding, working that process to differentiate.”

The new stores are opening at what’s typically the busiest time of year in the industry.

“Black Friday used to be about the day, and now it’s about the month of November,” Price said.

“It’s been like that for five or six years. Retailers started promoting the whole month versus the single day, and now it’s great deals the whole month of November, including Cyber Monday. So far, we’re doing pretty good. We’re almost keeping up with last year, but we’ve had to bump up our promotions and some deals on the inventory we have and really entice the customer to come see us.”

The major suppliers “have come aboard on that and gave us some really good buys,” Hinks added.

Inventory in the new stores offers a massive selection, but what’s trending is “very sleek, modern, almost a retro throwback look is really popular right now,” Venekamp said. “The natural colored woods as far as finishes, a lot more natural color. And we’re seeing a little return to the black finish.”

Hours for the new Sioux Falls stores are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. weekdays, with a 7 a.m. opening on Black Friday, and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekends.

Furniture Mart USA also continues to develop stores in other markets. A new Ashley and Furniture Mart just opened in Duluth, Minnesota.

And a former Younkers in Sioux City is being converted to a two-story Ashley and Furniture Mart.

“We have a store right now we’re signed up for in a mall area in the (Twin) Cities, and we have some land we’re looking at and a contract in Iowa,” Hinks said. “In the back of my mind is to try to find the right piece of land in Brookings. That’s the last city we have not really done what we need to do.”