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Friday, 13 June 2008 |
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 Staff Photo/B.J. Bethel
Renee Deitsch, an interior decorator at Logan’s Furniture in St. Marys, arranges items inside a cabinet at the store. Logan’s which started in 1958, celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.
By B.J. BETHEL
Assistant Managing Editor
ST. MARYS — Logan Furniture has provided service to local residents for 50 years. The store is marking its anniversary with a sale and a meet and greet Saturday.
The store, opened by the Logan family in 1958, was located on East Spring Street. The store was bought by their son, Tom, and Cal Caywood in 1965. During that time, it moved from its Spring Street Location to Celina Road. It was sold to Bill and Sue Schreves in 1995.
Saturday’s activities are to let the store show appreciation to the local community.
“They really appreciate the support of the community over the years,” bookkeeper Opal Burns said. “People were so loyal to them as customers and they’ve continued to be. That’s why we have been in business so long. I’ve been here 20 years myself.”
The store will reduce prices by up to 50 percent on select items and will provide a cake to celebrate the event. Scott Stephenson, who runs the store now, said he appreciates the loyalty customers have showed the store throughout the years.
“We just want to thank all the past and present customers,” Stephenson said. “We appreciate everything they’ve done for us. We’ve had it for 12, 13 years now and everything has been going good and we appreciate everybody coming in. We’ve met a lot of nice people.”
With 50 years of history, Logan Furniture has seen styles and trends in furniture change over the years.
Stephenson said older styles are making a comeback.
“We’re going back to more earth-tone colors,” Stephenson said. “The greens and the stuff like that. People are going back to simpler furniture again. They want the straight-line, more modern look. Since we’ve remodeled the store, we have more of that in and we are hitting a younger crowd, which is good.”
Stephenson said the store keeps up with the various trends in different ways. The store relies on an interior decorator and salesmen, as well as catalogs and industry circulars.
Most of the trends start in California, then make their way east.
Loyalty has been the key to the store’s survival. Logan Furniture has managed to keep older customers, as well as attract their children as they grow older and buy furniture of their own.
They also specialize in a local customer base.
“We try to get a lot of the younger market, but the older people still come in,” Stephenson said. “We have a lot of people from Otterbein, which is awesome. It’s a great place for us. We also get a lot of Dayton people who come up and have houses on the lake.”
Logan Furniture’s service area stretches across Mercer and Auglaize counties as well as portions of Shelby County. The store does quite a bit of business in Wapakoneta and Celina.
“It takes a while to build, and they did a great job of building it,” Stephenson said. “We try to keep up with our service and things and that takes a lot of time. Tom and Cal did a great job of building that up.”
As the store goes through its generational changes, Stephenson said he hopes to keep up with the generations of new customers.
“You always want the kids of your previous customers to come in,” Stephenson said. “That’s what we try to do, especially the younger couples.”
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 18 June 2008 )
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