By Tyler Stocks
Dunn Daily Record
A local furniture store is closing its doors after more than 65 years of business in Dunn.
While an official date has not been set, on Friday afternoon, giant store closing signs were affixed to the windows of Elmore Furniture, located at 126 N. Clinton Ave.
“It’s been a good business,” Jackie Elmore said. “I’m going to miss this quite a bit. We just want to thank them for their business, them continuing to shop with us.”
The late Abe Elmore began his endeavors into the business world after he graduated from Wake Forest University in 1955, when Wake Forest University was still in Wake Forest. After college, he began what would turn out to be a long, and in some elements, storied, career in the furniture and appliances sales trade.
“My dad came home and went to work with another gentleman here in town that was in the furniture business and they worked together and then he became partners with another company and bought that company out,” said William Elmore, Dunn’s mayor. “We had multiple stores at one time under different names.”
When Jackie and Abe first started out in business, Jackie Elmore said she and Abe attended four different furniture markets every year.
“Now it’s down to two a year but we would go to the Spring and the Fall (markets).”
Major factors for the business’s closing are the global pandemic and the fact that furniture is hard to come by these days.
“Furniture used to be so plentiful,” William Elmore said. “My dad used to come home from the market and would say that the furniture would beat him back home because it would ship in that quickly. I think he would have a hard time realizing today that it’s six, eight, 12 months out on shipment.”
In some cases, furniture can now take up to two years to get in, Jackie Elmore added.
Despite closing the business, William Elmore said that his family will continue to remain an active part of the Dunn community and pursue other business interests.
He added that getting out of the furniture business has been in the cards for some time and that the family is leaving the industry on a high note.
“We’ve been here for many years and we are going to continue to stay here. The furniture industry has allowed us to be involved in many other things so we have business interests that we’ll be participating in and so we’ll hopefully have some excting news coming into this building in a few months. We’ll continue to be here. We’re certainly not retiring, we’re just changing direction some. We will really miss all of our customers that we’ve had over the years,” William Elmore said.
Elmore Furniture operated out of eight locations at one point, but the stores closed one by one leaving the chain with its last shop in the town where it started.
Carolyn Elmore, one of William Elmore’s three sisters, grew up in the family business and started working with furniture when she was 12.
She worked in the office while William dusted furniture, assembled furniture and ran deliveries.
She said she plans to volunteer and remain active in the community as her family continues to pursue other ventures. William Elmore said that he’s thankful to all who have supported Elmore’s Furniture and that he looks forward to what the future holds.
“It’s been a good 66 years or so here,” he said.
