Furniture First Adds Members in Texas, Vermont

September 13, 2016  by Jane Chero in Business Strategy, Industry   

Tom and Mary Barker opened Aladdin Home Store in 1998. Mary grew up in a retail family and helped her father, I.G. Evridge, establish the furniture division of her family’s store, Evridge's Furniture and Appliances in Brady, Texas. Tom Barker joined the Evridge Corporation in 1985 when he and Mary were married.

Aladdin Furniture has grown into one of the most notable furniture stores in the Hill Country, and was voted by the Reader’s Choice Awards of the Highland Lakes Newspapers as the favorite place to buy furniture and appliances. It was also voted the business with the most helpful employees.

Wendell Farrell opened Wendell’s Furniture near his hometown in 1999. The “farm boy turned entrepreneur” returned to Vermont after living for a time in California and Massachusetts as he built a wide range of work experience that included dairy farming and education.

A lifetime of people skills and an innate sales ability helped him build his business rapidly. Wendell’s business plan was centered on customer experience and customer service, and he set out to “be nicer to his customers and treat them far better than his competitors.”

Today he operates two retail locations – one in Colchester and one in South Burlington, Vt. Wendell’s son Ryan now manages day-to-day operations; his daughter, Tara, handles purchasing; and his cousin Joe is Sales Manager.

Furniture First is a national home furnishings and mattress buying group serving full line independent retailers with retail sales over $2 million. Collectively, the group represents $1.8 billion in retail sales. Furniture First occupies showrooms at both the High Point and Las Vegas Markets where they display products from several of the group’s approved vendors.