STORES TO CLOSE
All Badcock stores
shutting down after
inventory liquidation
by Teresa Eubanks, CLJNews.com
BLOUNTSTOWN, FL – When his folks retired in 2012, Chris Wise and his wife, Stormy, moved back home to Blountstown from Eastpoint, where they had been running the family-owned the Badcock store. Once back home, they purchased the Blountstown Badcock store that Chris had grown up working in. They had planned to one day turn over the store to their daughter, Myah, and her husband, Cody Barfield, when their time came to step away.
Sadly, the family legacy that started when Rick and JoAnne Wise opened the area’s first Badcock store in the late 1970s is coming to a close after the company that bought the 120-year-old business recently declared bankruptcy.
Chris announced the news on social media Thursday morning. “It is with heavy hearts and by no choice of our own, that we announce that all Badcock stores will be closing,” he wrote.
“We had the privilege to follow in my parent’s footsteps in owning and operating the Blountstown, Eastpoint, and Port St. Joe Badcock stores and it pains us to know that we won’t be able to pass this legacy along to our daughter,” Chris wrote. “Badcock has been more than a business for us. The owners, the vendors and our valued customers have become family over the years.”
This decision will impact over 360 stores throughout the southeast, most of which are family-owned, Chris said. The company was started by the Badcock family in 1904 with the goal of bringing quality furniture to mining families in the Central Florida town of Mulberry. The Badcock descendants sold the business in 2022. It was later re-sold to another company which recently declared bankruptcy.
He got the news Tuesday afternoon during a Zoom call with other Badcock owners and company President Mitchell Styles, who is the son of one of the original Badcock daughters. “He was very emotional,” Chris said. Styles told them he had approached other companies, including Ashley Furniture, who were not interested taking on the Badcock business. “The furniture industry as a whole is not healthy right now,” Chris acknowledged.
“As of Tuesday morning my business had value,” he said. “Before then, I could have sold it ….today, it’s worth nothing,” Chris said. He doesn’t yet know what he may do with the three buildings he owns that housed the Badcock stores in Blountstown, Port St. Joe and Eastpoint.
Despite a rough economy, he said their three stores continued to do well. “The furniture industry is tied to the economy. People don’t go out and buy things like they used to,” Chris said, noting, “They have to take care of food, fuel and other things first.” For the most part, shoppers today wait until something is broken before buying new furniture. Still, they were hanging in there. “Our stores were doing OK. We were paying the bills and surviving.” He added, “That’s what’s really painful – We were profitable.”
Even after having a couple of days to absorb the impact, he said he’s still too emotional to look at the post he put on social media this morning because, “I’ve got 14 employees who will have to find work.”
On Thursday, a longtime customer walked into his Eastpoint store Thursday and put her arms around him. “I just needed to hug you and tell you I’m sorry,” she said.
So now what? “We will be open for approximately 90 days while all of the merchandise is liquidated, so come in and see us and enjoy some great deals,” he posted online. “We don’t know at this time what the next step for our family will be, but we do know that God is in control and is faithful and kind. So while we are sad to see this chapter end, we look to the future with hope and anticipation of where God will lead us. We appreciate your support over the years and ask for your prayers over the next weeks as we help the families who work with us navigate this time as well.”
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