‘Just not the place for us anymore’: Store closing after decades in downtown Raleigh
Kimbrell’s Home Furnishings, a family-owned business founded in South Carolina, is closing its downtown Raleigh location after more than 70 years there.
A sign on the Fayetteville Street-facing side of the store reads: “Location Closing. Up to 70% Off.”
Store manager Rodney Tillery told The News & Observer that the closing is the result of a changing downtown.
“The changing structure of downtown just chased our customer base away,” Tillery said. “It was a tough decision, but it was tough to run our operation with all the construction.
“The demographics of downtown have changed, and the customer base we have been serving are now spread out all over the city and not able to get downtown to do business.”
Tillery said the other downtown closures because of COVID-19 and the May protests over the killing of George Floyd didn’t help things, but that those events are not to blame for the store closing.
The store was among many downtown businesses damaged in May, but it was repaired and cleaned up and reopened quickly, Tillery said.
“We were surviving,” he said. “We just can’t get our customers to come downtown.
“It’s just not the place for us anymore.”
On Monday morning, Harold McKnight loaded up a mattress at the Kimbrell’s store. He said he has furnished almost his entire house from Kimbrell’s.
“When you’ve dealt with people for years and they treat you right, you keep wanting to come back,” McKnight said.
The Kimbrell’s company, founded in Columbia, South Carolina, in 1915, has several locations in North Carolina, including Garner, Durham, Fayetteville, Sanford and Charlotte.
There is a second location in Raleigh, on New Bern Avenue, and that store will remain open.
Tillery said the company just opened new stores in Greenville and Wilmington.
Tillery has worked for Kimbrell’s since November 30, 1988, and said he plans to continue working with the company. The store previously employed 15 people, but is now down to seven employees. Tillery said he hopes those people will be placed at other Kimbrell’s locations.
The 210 Fayetteville Street property was purchased by Greg Hatem’s Empire Properties in November 2019. That building, owned until that point by Kimbrell Investment Company, first opened in 1954, reported Triangle Business Journal. But the Kimbrell’s timeline in downtown Raleigh extends at least as far back as the 1940s, according to classified ads in The News Observer seeking truck drivers and salesmen.
This story was originally published September 21, 2020 at 11:20 AM.
