Second-generation owners Pete and Bryan Wak (center) are flanked by nephew Dustin Thomas and his wife Ashley, who represent the future of Ben’s Fine Furniture.
Ben’s Fine Furniture blends Alta with home-grown marketing smarts
By Andy Kriege, YSN
Bryan Wak has been working in the furniture industry for six decades and at 69 years young, he’s not about to slow down. Instead, the BrandSource member continues to keep Ben’s Fine Furniture & Mattress on the cutting edge of technology, setting up the family business for the next generation waiting in the wings.
Wak and his sister, Harriett “Hat” Thomas, began working in the store as youngsters in the early 1960s. “Hat was 7 and I was 8 when we started working for dad, cleaning used appliances,” he said. Hat retired a few years ago, and he now operates the company alongside his brother Pete.
“When my dad turned the business over to us siblings, we leaned on each other during the good times and the bad and we have persevered through it all,” Wak said. “All these years later we are still going strong.”
Family Affair
Wak’s nephew Dustin Thomas and his wife Ashley recently stepped into the business and are the third generation to carry the family operation into the future. “We not only treat our customers like family, but we also treat our employees like family — because most of them are,” he said.
Ben’s, based in Port Huron, Mich., opened shop 1947 and now operates out of two locations. Over the course of its 76 years the company has variously carried appliances, TVs and sewing machines, but since the 1990s has focused exclusively on furniture and mattresses.
One of the secrets to surviving for seven decades, when virtually all the independents in the area have died off, is the company’s ability to distinguish itself from its competitors. To that end, Wak has played a large roll in finding creative ways to drive customers into the store. A self-proclaimed “marketing junkie,” Wak meticulously directs his marketing campaigns and assembles them months in advance.
“I know creative advertising, and I’ve been around long enough to know what works and what doesn’t,” he said. Wak often comes up with his own creative images and banners for use on his website, and closely tracks the performance of every campaign the store launches.
AVB Marketing’s Madeline Corley, who works with Wak on Ben’s Alta Series 7 website, is impressed with his marketing acumen.
“When Bryan began doing marketing for the store at the age of 17, he never imagined how this business would change or how his skills would evolve,” she said. “While he is still learning the ins and outs of the changing technology, he is thoroughly enjoying it and loves to get creative. Bryan is always going above and beyond to come up with unique ways to display his products and promote his sales.”
Marketing Maven
Indeed, Wak is very adept at using every aspect of his homepage, catalogs and promo blocks to promote new products and collections. “He updates them monthly,” Corley said, “so there is always something new for the customers to engage with. He stays up to date with all promotions and sale pricing for his vendor lines, and is also great at managing promos, rebates and new product introductions.”
Wak is also active in BrandSource’s Michigan Region and openly shares his 50-plus years of retailing expertise with his fellow furniture members. In one instance, after he noticed that most dealers did not have written policies like a simple furniture service agreement or a furniture disposal policy, he stepped up and offered his own to the group.
“Most of my furniture colleagues would just punt when faced with the question of what to do with the old furniture,” he said. Now, thanks to Wak, the group has access to straightforward written policies.
Trade Secrets
Longtime Michigan Region board member Terry Denno of Denno’s Furniture & Mattress has been friends with Wak since they both joined the group around 2010.
“We typically get together at our region meetings and discuss advertising media, market trends and best practices in general,” Denno said. “Bryan has many unique ideas that some of the furniture dealers haven’t explored. He’s not afraid to try something new.”
“We share our struggles, successes and trade secrets with each other,” Wak said of Denno and fellow confidant Dick Skaff of Skaff Furniture. “We are at war with the big boxes, not each other.”
Added Denno, “It’s relationships like the one I have with Bryan that make being part of this group so fantastic.”
As for the future, Wak has no plans to sundown out the door anytime soon. “I have a job that I love and we’re doing pretty well,” he said. “I’m not ready to retire, and at 69 I don’t want to find another job … why would I?”
YSN publisher AVB BrandSource is the nation’s largest merchandising and marketing co-op for independent appliance, mattress, furniture and CE dealers.
