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The Martin household had owned and operated Martin Furnishings and Design at 121 Bradford St. NW since 1945.
“I had a very good run, however it has been crucial to me that (this enterprise) isn’t simply my legacy,” stated Ben Martin, who owned the enterprise along with his mom Anne Martin.
Household is “what I wish to be remembered for,” he stated in an interview final week.
Clifford Martin, who died in 2006, based Martin-Johnson Furnishings with a enterprise companion, and about 5 years into the enterprise, Clifford and his father purchased the enterprise and renamed it Martin Furnishings.
Clifford’s brother Johnny additionally joined. Ben Martin, Clifford’s son, began working on the retailer in 1981.
“I labored as a result of it was obligatory,” Martin stated, drawing fun from his mom. “One of many (staff) had a again damage and I didn’t have a selection — I needed to come to work.
“However,” he paused, “that is all that I do know.”
When Ben Martin started on the retailer, seven different furnishings companies had been within the space.
“We had been the one ones loopy sufficient to remain in (enterprise),” Martin stated.
Once more, fun from mother.
“The enterprise began evolving shortly 20 years in the past, once I bought my spouse Courtney concerned,” stated Ben Martin, referring to the design facet of the enterprise. “Primarily, my enterprise mannequin was to remain the heck out of their manner. You may see I’m not God’s reward to style, however they’re.
“The issues we’re doing now with lamps and pillows, it’s their doing.”
Anne added, “When Clifford began it, (the enterprise) had stoves, fridges, garden furnishings till Walmart got here. They put down carpet. They might do all that, however it was on a small foundation.”
Right this moment, “it’s form of a novel, old-town household operation,” Ben Martin stated. “We’re form of a dying breed.”
The Baileys stated that once they “heard that the Martins had been seeking to retire, we knew we would have liked to protect the enterprise,” Brian Bailey stated.
“We’ve seen many long-standing native companies shut” in recent times, he stated.
Ben Martin stated the Martins approached the household in 2022 concerning the enterprise’ future.
“We simply began speaking, and it bought a bit extra severe and extra severe, and issues began falling into place,” he stated. “Now we have lastly gotten up to now.”
“I’m glad for Ben,” Anne Martin stated of the transition. “It’s an enormous job. It’s loads greater than it was with my husband (Clifford).”
The Baileys may be new to downtown Gainesville, however they’re not new to furnishings.
They personal and function Consign & Design Interiors at 5556 Atlanta Freeway, Flowery Department.
“Since we began, now we have been dedicated to creating each buyer really feel valued and welcomed in our shops,” Bailey stated in a press launch concerning the Martin buy.
“We consider in making the purchasing expertise enjoyable and social, and we attempt to supply merchandise and types that swimsuit each shopping for want and funds. Our aim is to convey this type of purchasing expertise to as many individuals as attainable, so increasing simply is smart.”
Preserving the identify on the signal isn’t the extent of preserving the shop’s historical past.
Savannah Bailey stated she wish to kind a type of gallery of images alongside a retailer wall.
In any other case, “we’ll do a resurfacing inside and outside, having the entire inside painted and the outside painted and refurbished,” Brian Bailey stated in an interview with The Occasions.
Nonetheless, “it’s going to be the identical workers, the identical (product) strains,” Savannah Bailey stated. “We’ll be bringing in another (furnishings) strains we stock now.”
For the shopper, nonetheless, “will probably be the identical purchasing expertise they’ve at all times liked,” her husband stated.
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