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Ashley Furniture to Open New Showroom in Santa Clarita

Ashley Furniture Industries is opening a store next month in Santa Clarita, further expanding the company’s presence in the region. The store, which opens July 1, will be the furniture chain’s third location in the greater Valley region. It opened its Burbank location in December and its Palmdale store in October 2009. The new store, located at 26520 Carl Boyer Road, fills a vacancy left by Wickes Furniture, which went out of business in 2008. It also creates more competition for nearby furniture stores, which have weathered a challenging business climate. “We want to have our stores positioned for the market rebound,” said Kurt Haines, vice president of stores for Stoneledge Furniture in Colton. Stoneledge Furniture serves as the operator of Ashley Furniture’s 11 stores in the greater Los Angeles area, Haines said. Many furniture stores nationwide have closed their doors as furniture sales have dropped amid a weak housing market. But Ashley has snapped up opportunities to rapidly expand its footprint by purchasing vacant storefronts. It bought the 41,850-square-foot building in Santa Clarita from Merrill Lynch Trust for about $3.7 million, Haines said. Ashley’s Palmdale location also was a former Wickes Furniture site, and the Burbank location took the place of a former Circuit City store, another company that went out of business. In addition, the company has opened four other stores in the greater Los Angeles area in the last quarter of 2010, Haines said. Furniture Cluster Ashley Furniture was attracted to the Santa Clarita location for several reasons, including who its neighbors would be, Haines said. The store will be located in the same retail center as Walmart and Sam’s Club, as well as other furniture stores. Laura Biery, administrative analyst for Santa Clarita’s economic development division, calls the area a “nucleus” of furniture stores. Easy Life Furniture, which has 18 showrooms throughout Southern California, opened a showroom in Center Pointe Market Place within the last couple of years. Several smaller stores are also located in the area. “It sort of gives you that one-stop shopping experience,” Biery said. One of Ashley Furniture’s soon-to-be neighbors is Consumers Furniture. Greg Moser, owner and general manager of the 33-year-old furniture store, said he expects the chain store will initially take away some of the business from his store. But he isn’t too worried. In the long run, being 500 yards away from the new Ashley Furniture store likely will help business, Moser said. “I look at it as an opportunity to gain more market share,” he said. “They’re gong to be doing a lot of advertising, and most of the customers have to go right by our store to get to their store.” Don Garrison, co-owner of Simply Discount Furniture, had a different response – especially since his Saugus store carries a lot of the Ashley Furniture products. “They’re one of our biggest suppliers, and now they’re becoming one of our biggest competitors,” Garrison said. Simply Discount will remain competitive, he said, by increasing its inventory in other brands and by depending on the appeal of its lower prices. “They’re going to be able to get the exact (same) product for less money,” Garrison said, of his customers.

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