The future of Willits Furniture Center
Customers and friends, for sometime now we have heard questions and rumors regarding the future of Willits Furniture Center. There have been questions about whether or not the business will continue (or that it has gone out of business), and whether or not we are switching locations since the building is for sale.
We have no plans to end the company or vacate the building at this time, but you are correct in thinking that we do have the building and the business on the market to be sold.
Currently, we’re looking for interested parties. Margie and I would like to retire sometime in the next few years, and selling the location and business are big parts of making that plan work. Until we find the right buyer, we are doing business as usual.
In fact, we’re doing better than usual. Willits Furniture Center recently celebrated its 51st year and showed an increase in sales. We hope that any new buyer is able to expand this upward trend, while ensuring that the customer service and community focus that has made Willits Furniture Center a success continues to deliver.
If you are interested in finding out more about purchasing the business, call the store at (707) 459-4224 and ask for Mike or Margie Smith. To find out about the building, call Ruth and Randy Weston at Summit Realty: (707) 459-4961.
Please share what you’ve read with your friends and neighbors. We still offer the best deals in the area on quality furniture, lamps, and other accessories. We still deliver your furniture to your home, help to organize your existing furniture, and take old items away so that you don’t have to deal with them. Thank you for sharing our message of concern and welcome.
Happy Holidays,
—Mike Smith Owner and Manager of Willits Furniture Center
Mendocino National Forest lawsuit
I was reading in the Record Bee that the Mendocino National Forest is being sued by a bunch of waco environmentalists from an outfit in Arcata, by filing a law suit against Mendocino National Forest supervisor Ann Carlson. According to the law suit she approved the bid of seven logging projects totaling 7,000 acres along hundreds of miles of roadway in the burned scarred area by the 2018 Ranch Fire. The suit is because of the project to log burned out trees and makes no sense because leaving the burned trees produce fire fuel for any major fire to come…that’s like putting a can of gas out there without a lid. Why would we want to save trees that are burnt on the outside that could be made into good lumber on the inside if we log them soon.
Instead they will stay there for more fires to burn wildly in and around that forest area. How about the private property owners in and around the national forest…do they lose out too? One thing for sure if the waco environmentalists win and the scarred area becomes a fire zone, we’ll have a bigger fire then we had in the past. When that fire is out of hand the waco environmentalists need to pay for all the loss revenue to the Mendocino Forest Service, as well as the people that are damaged should be able to sue the environmentalists the same way the people sued PG&E. The supervisor Ann Carlson needs to be sure that is part of the lawsuit answer to the environmentalists. Maybe some of the fire will end up in Arcata and make them pay attention like the people in the Mendocino forest had to when the fire was ragging towards Ukiah, Redwood Valley, Willits and other areas.
It is time for the people in these areas to sign a petition supporting the logging operation and telling the environmentalists to stick it where it fits best.
**Judge ruled in favor of the waco environmentalists…why would we want to save now, we have fuel for the next year.
This could be your land!!
Common sense thinking with a heart and the Christmas spirit
—Ron Rose, Lakeport
Death Knell for retail jobs and Kmart
Today I mourn the passing of retail jobs in America.
When I first moved to Lake County 33 years ago, I laughed at the grand opening of Kmart, smugly thinking I’d never shop there. I was an elitist fool from a big city where we had so many choices I never needed Kmart.
But for a third of a century I’ve shopped there hundreds of times for both necessities and impulse items.
And now they’re closed, today, victims of small towns’ inability to compete with online shopping. Empty shelves reflect the overkill of big box florescent lighting. Employees look dazed as they take down signs and remove display cases. So many badly-needed jobs are lost to our community.
My laughter turns to tears.
—Nancy Harby, Lakeport
