MACON, Ga. — In the past 85 years, the Loosier family's helped countless other families turn their houses into homes with Loosier Furniture Express.
But they soon won't be selling furniture out of their Macon store on Eisenhower Parkway any longer after announcing on Tuesday they're closing the store.
"We held our face, our faces high and our heads high. Most of the time when people come in, they had no clue what was going on, how bad it was," Josh Loosier said.
He's a third-generation owner of the family store.
His dad opened up a furniture store in downtown Macon during the late 1970's. After ten years, he moved the store to the location in west Macon where it's been ever since.
"Furniture business is very hard, you know. In tough economies you know, furniture is one of the first kind of businesses to go," Loosier said.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, he said they had a couple good years of business. But everything after that has been too slow and not profitable enough.
"When the economy starts to get good, furniture is one of the first to, or one of the last to kind of come back. So it's, it's always been an up and down road for the furniture business," he said.
They've liquidated their entire store with big sales, including savings of up to 75% off retail value. Then in January or February, they'll close their doors for good.
"Hopefully these last few months they can come in and we can help them out one more time and be there for them. And they were there for us just as much as we were trying to be there for them," Loosier said.
While his family understands it's a necessary next step for the business, he said it wasn't an easy choice to make. He grew up in the family store, playing around the furniture with his siblings.
When he grew older, he and his friends worked in the warehouse over summer breaks.
He started running the store with his sister after his dad retired and said he'll always be thankful for their customers, especially those who had generations of families shop from their store.
"You've helped support me and my dad's family for 30, 40 years now since he's been here in '78. 50 years, just helping him raise us and all that stuff. Always been loyal to us, most everybody, 95% of the people that have bought here before buy again. And it's just a huge thank you for the life that I've been able to live and my family, and my sister and brother," Loosier said.
He said they're planning on selling the store to another business, that he hopes has better luck than his family did with theirs.