The throwback success of Salt Lake City’s Sterling Furniture

Retailer spanning 7 generations and 150 years has a no-nonsense approach to retail

Many of the columns I do require sorting through hundreds of pages of court filings. And usually when I’m wading through all those public records, it’s about a bankruptcy. So much attention paid to what went wrong, and so little human connection in all those sad numbers. 

Thus, stopping in on Sterling Furniture in Salt Lake City to meet the Williamson family and learn about what’s gone right for so very long restored some hope and reminded me how much fun showroom visits can be. 

A fixture in Salt Lake’s Sugar House area since the 1930s, the three-level, 35,000-square-foot store is a throwback in almost every respect, from its blue awnings to the many window displays to the bread-and-butter, made-in-America product assortment.

“When I’m working with customers, it feels less like I’m selling them a piece of furniture and more about helping them find the right looks for their home,” said Bekah Williamson, part of the seventh generation of family to run the business. “If we make the sale, great, but we’re more interested in the relationship.”

After chronicling the merciless boardroom decisions that culminated in the bankruptcies and corporate deaths of Conn’s, Badcock Home, Franchise Group, Mitchell Gold, United/Lane, Big Lots and others, hearing Williamson’s devotion to her customers seemed like something that needed celebrating. 

“It’s all about repeat business for us,” said Mark Williamson, the sixth generation of ownership at Sterling and its general manager, “people remembering us from when their parents bought from us, or their friends had a good experience with us. A good experience is good publicity.”

Consider that the year Sterling Furniture started up here in what was a frontier settlement, in 1875, the telephone, dynamite and the copy machine all made their debut. The census of 1870 shows that only 12,000 people lived in Salt Lake, which Brigham Young had settled less than 25 years prior. Today, Salt Lake is one of the fastest-growing metro areas in the country, with 1.3 million calling it home.

“We’re a fixture of the community,” Mark Williamson said. “People know us. They trust us to do right by them.”

Viva Las Vegas

Williamson is at the Las Vegas market this week with a rather tidy shopping list. He’s open to a new bedding supplier for starters, and he’ll be looking at new upholstery at England and occasional at Coaster and Pulaski. The store also carries upholstery from Best Home Furnishings, which doesn’t exhibit in Vegas, and Intermountain Furniture Manufacturing, a Salt Lake City-based supplier. In bedroom, Sterling carries Winners Only, Perdue and Whittier Wood Furniture.

“The only good thing about Vegas is that once you’re inside the building, you can stay there the rest of the day,” Williamson said, referring to Vegas’s daunting July heat.

Intermountain is another cool furniture story. Founded in the Salt Lake Valley in 1928, it’s still in the family. The company specializes in traditional, Western and leather seating.

Last man standing

The origins of Sterling Furniture trace back to the 1870s when Hans Madsen and his family came to the valley from Denmark to settle. The family moved the business from downtown to the Sugar House area in the 1940s, moving into what was a bank. The company also transitioned from manufacturing to retail. The bank vault that is still inside the store is a de facto mini-museum, and it shows inspection stickers that date back to 1916. 

Fifty years ago, Sterling found itself anchoring a Furniture Row as Granite, Rockwood and Southeast congregated nearby. All are long gone, except of course for Sterling. Granite shuttered in 2004, ending 80 years of retail in Sugar House. A powerhouse for decades, Southeast, which was known for its lavish window displays during Christmas, shut down in 1979 to end a more than 50-year run in the area.

“Back in the ’70s and ’80s, Sugar House was where all the (furniture) stores were,” Williamson said. “We’re still hanging on. We’re the only place for furniture in our price range in this area.”

Of course it helps to own your own building and, therefore, pay no rent, which is the case for the Williamsons.

Sterling sells value, product people can trust, into-the-home service, “made in America” upholstery and quality. 

“You’ll get tired of the look before you get tired of the quality,” he said. The furniture “will last long after you need it to.”

Spreading the word

Bekah Williamson, who joined the business two years ago, leads the store’s marketing efforts. These include partnering with students of the business school at Brigham Young University, five of whom interned with Sterling to help with social media and promotions. She said she hopes to repeat that partnership this fall. 

She said the website also is a focus, and increasingly will be going forward. The company does not sell online, however, something the family sees as antithetical to the relationships with customers they work so hard to cultivate.

As for most furniture retailers, Sterling Furniture sees its fortunes tied to the local real estate market. And like other hot growth areas, Salt Lake is seeing a huge increase in housing, but much of it in rental property rather than affordable new homes.

“It’s a real tradeoff,” Bekah Williamson said. “There is some benefit because there are so many more apartments, but the rents are so high that it means less discretionary income left for furniture.”

New renters are turning to secondhand furniture and what the Williamsons call disposable furniture of the kind one can get at, say, Costco. 

“A lot of our customers are those who bought the disposable option first, then it broke,” Bekah Williamson said. 

So, if you happen to see any of the Williamsons at the Vegas market, including Mark, his wife, Jill, his sister Deb, his son Peter, his daughter-in-law, Bekah, all of whom help run the store, would you welcome them into your showroom like the furniture royalty they are?