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Henco Furniture & Home Center
October 10,
2012 by in UnCategorized 
By Home Furnishings Business in on October 2012
Located in a small town, Furniture & Home Center doesnt have the immediate market to support a store with an 80,000-square-foot showroom, but the retailer attracts customers from six states in driving distance. A lot of those customers are driving 100 miles, and they pass other furniture stores along the way.
I was getting my first billboard when I had an idea. They needed to know how to get there. I said to put down SelmerIts worth the drive, said Tom Hendrix, who co-founded Henco with his wife, Sherry. Ive never done an ad since when I didnt say that. I can walk down the street in Memphis, and people will say Its worth the drive to me. People will ask their friends, Where is the worth-the-drive store?
Most advertising is on television, and Hendrix believes in treating potential customers with respect to inspire them to make the drive.
I dont talk down to people, he said. I have to visit in their living rooms year after year, so I have to wear well over time.
The Hendrixs children and two grandchildrena 10-year-old granddaughter and 8-year-old grandsonappear in ads as well.
Those grandkids can be in the commercial, but I want them to speak clearly, he said. They look straight at that camera, and they speak clearly.
That respect carries through on the sales floor.
We have one everyday price, Hendrix noted. We do have a no-sales-tax promotion, and once a year we have a clearance event. With that, you have to make sure its honestIf we say its at cost, its at cost.
Hendrix, who grew up on a farm, respects hard work and those who do it. He and his staff know better than to judge customers potential by appearance alone.
A family came in not long ago, he said by way of example. He looked like a farmer who didnt have two nickels to rub together, he had that look that you couldnt tell him anything.
Hendrix engaged the man.
I say, Tell me about yourself, he recalled. He said, Betty and I saved every nickel we could get to buy 800 acres, and now we have 3,000. ... Betty and I have been on the road for three-and-a-half hours from Marks, Miss.
He bought $20,000 of furniture, high-quality furniture, got in his car, waved at me and said, Well be back, Hendrix said. Im better able to work with that guy knowing what hes about.
That kind of treatment, plus Hencos prices and wow factor, have been a winner.
You walk in my store, and people have their mouth open, Hendrix said. We have waterfalls, trees, soda fountains, a restaurant, we have two acres of furniture arranged in shopping strips so they walk by everything in the store.