cheap living room sets



Ruth got his start 70 years back driving a delivery truck and getting his neighborhood buddies to help him haul mattresses. Health issues are forcing him to close down his Gerard's Furniture shop.

"I is not going house to mope about it," Ruth said, sitting at the center of his Florida Boulevard showroom. "I am going to continue working. I must deliver this furniture all ."

This is the second time that Ruth has had a sale. Twenty-two years back, when he turned 65, Ruth brought in an outside business to help him sell the stock off.

"So I came back."

Ironically, the identical firm that assisted him with all the retirement sale back is assisting him with this going-out-of-business sale.

87, ruth , still does business like he always did. His shop doesn't have a website. "I don't text and that I don't email," he explained. "Only been a few years ago we got a computer for bookkeeping."

Gerard's includes a focus on high-end, American-made furniture.

"All that stuff on the world wide web, it's like going into the boats. It's gambling. You do not understand what you going to get," he said. "Some of this leather is seconds, some of it's rejects."

Ruth began working in the furniture business during his senior year in Baton Rouge High at Lloyd Furniture Co., then at 1126 North Blvd.. After graduation, he attended LSU joined the Coast Guard during the Korean War.

He returned to Baton Rouge and to his job.



"I had been making $35 per week at Lloyd Furniture, then I got a offer from Hemenway's Furniture on Plank Road," he explained.

He had been a salesman in Hemenway's, Ruth got into hydroplane racing. He was a driver for your Tom Cat Baby, a ship with a Corvette engine that won the prestigious and dangerous Pan American race on Lake Pontchartrain.

With Lewis Gottlieb, Ruth became buddies Throughout the ship races. Gottlieb backed some rushing teams.

Ruth got a call from Gottlieb 1 afternoon. The owner of Simon Furniture Co. had expired and his children weren't interested in taking over the enterprise. Would Ruth be interested in having a furniture store?

Gottlieb told him to check the store out, and when he was interested, he would help him finance the deal.

"It was a great store, and that I knew I could do some good over there," Ruth explained. The issue was money. But he did have a life insurance policy he purchased from a fellow member of the Red Stick Kiwanis Club.

"Mr. Gottlieb advised me to bring him that insurance coverage into the lender," Ruth said. "He told me'You're going to make it."

The Furniture of gerard started in 1530 Foster Drive in 1966. There were three employees: the Ruths and a bookkeeper. Throughout the day, Ruth sold furniture. In the evenings, he delivered the things he sold.

At that time, the most popular trend in furniture has been Victorian - and Spanish-style furniture. A Atlanta furniture salesman detected Gerard's Furniture and advised Ruth he had to find a few of those items in the shop. Ruth told the guy he did not have the money so he phoned a Get More Info Virginia maker and got them to ship three suites of furniture to Gerard's on credit. "That cranked up business," Ruth said. "We offered out the hell of that furniture"

A couple of years later, Ruth discovered about a shop. Ruth checked out the building at 7330 Florida Blvd. and decided to buy it and fix it up.



The Florida Boulevard location of the Furniture of Gerard opened around 1975. The store won nationwide acclaim for its completeness of the choice, which included artwork, furniture, fabrics, rugs and decorative accessories. 1 room is filled in the early 1970s with George Rodrigue prints. His son Larry prints at a different part of the shop and has a gallery of original Louisiana art.

To round out the selection the furniture markets are visited by Ruth check my site in North Carolina.

"Baton Rouge has always been interested in good taste and standard furniture," he said. "The men and women who buy nice furniture want to take a seat in it, would like to feel it, and when they have any knowledge in any way, unzip it and see what's inside ."

Recently, he had been diagnosed with lung disease. That led him to close the shop after meeting with four kids and his wife.

Because his kids have professional occupations, the decision was made to liquidate the organization.

"I never got rich, but I managed to raise four kids, send them off to school -- and not have to pay any institutions or attorneys to get them out of difficulty," he explained.

Regardless of his years in business, Ruth said he chose overnight to close the shop.

"My family would go crazy trying to figure out everything at the furniture shop," he said.

He made a point of helping eight grandchildren and his kids find items in the shop to help decorate their homes.

Plans are to spend the upcoming few months selling all of the stock off . The shop will close, when all is gone.

Ruth said he's seen a boost in clients since declaring his organization was shutting down. 500 people showed up at the shop the day after it was announced he was shutting.

"We had them come from 20, 30, 40, even 50 years back to buy things on our economy," he said. "It has been rewarding."

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *