Welcome home: New Ashley Furniture HomeStore location brings jobs, commerce to vacant business
By Rochelle Moore
Published in News on April 16, 2018 5:50 AM
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News-Argus/ROCHELLE MOORE
Manager Eric Chapman inside the new Ashley HomeStore showroom on North Berkeley Boulevard.
Ashley HomeStore will open to the public at its new location along North Berkeley Boulevard today.
Jack Roush, president of The Parrott Group, which operates 12 Ashley HomeStores in three states, set his sights on the Goldsboro market three years ago and eventually decided on the former Save-A-Lot location, at 211 N. Berkeley Blvd.
"We're just excited to be here," Roush said. "It seems like it's a very good market to be in, and we look forward to serving the needs of the entire community."
The store opens at 10 a.m. today and a grand-opening celebration, including special pricing, on April 28. The company operates stores in several North Carolina locations, with a distribution warehouse in Kinston, and other stores in South Carolina and Georgia.
"We're in Jacksonville, Greenville and Morehead City, and we have outlets in Kinston and New Bern," he said.
The Goldsboro store offers a variety of home furniture inside a 16,500-square-foot showroom. Financing plans and professional design assistance are available.
"We don't sell appliances or electronics," Roush said. "It's furniture and mattresses.
"We've got collections in all categories -- living room, dining room, bedroom -- every room in the house. There's furniture and there is a finance plan to suit just about every need."
Company officials considered other Goldsboro properties before centering its efforts on the former Save-A-Lot store, which closed in August 2016. The renovation of the store took close to three months, with final pre-opening work taking place last week. Signs were also added to the front doors, notifying the public of the opening date.
The furniture store will bring added life to the shopping center that has remained mostly vacant for nearly a year, following the March 2017 closing of the adjacent Kmart store. Planet Fitness recently opened in a portion of the former Kmart building.
The Ashley HomeStore, which has hired 18 employees, will operate Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and on Sunday from noon to 6 p.m. The store plans to offer competitive pricing, Roush said.
"We guarantee every price to be the best you can find," Roush said. "If you find it for less someplace else, we simply beat the price."
The store will also participate in the company's Hope to Dream program, which provides no-cost mattresses and a complete bedding package, to area children in need, said Scott Freeman, learning and development manager for The Parrott Group, headquartered in Florence, South Carolina.
A portion of profits made on the sale of every mattress in Goldsboro will go into the Hope to Dream Fund, which will provide a mattress, box spring, bed frame, sheet set, comforter and pillow to area children.
Mattresses are given out once a quarter, with children being selected through an application process. Applications can be picked up at the store or found online at www.ashleyfurniturehomestore.com.
"It is for children that don't have a bed to sleep in," Freeman said. "In order for the charity to work, we have to know where the children are."