Michael’s Furniture Closing After 58 Years in L.A.

Furniture World News Desk on 10/11/2019

Michael’s Furniture Warehouse recently announced that it is offering total liquidation discounts on everything in the store as Jerry and Roz Reisman prepare to close the business they have operated as husband and wife since 1972, when they acquired it from the original owner. Tiger Capital Group is conducting the going-out-of-business sale at the 40,000-square-foot, value-focused furniture store at 7700 Woodman Ave. in Van Nuys.

Beginning Friday, October 11th, bargain-hunters will find discounts starting at 30 percent off on quality bedroom, dining and living-room furniture, as well as a wide array of accent items, accessories and more. Prices for certain clearance items are reduced by up to 70 percent. All told, the inventories are worth more than $2 million at retail, and everything must be sold to the bare walls.

While those discounts are significant, the final chapter of Michael’s Furniture is noteworthy for other reasons as well, said industry veteran Mark Bannon, Director of Furniture Solutions at Tiger Capital Group. “Along with their dedicated staff, Jerry and Roz Reisman have cheerfully served furniture shoppers from across the San Fernando Valley for generations,” he said. “Michael’s Furniture is a mainstay of the community—not to mention cable TV.”

Starting in the 1990s, the Reismans took to the local airwaves with a constant stream of campy cable TV commercials packed with puns and peopled by costumed characters. The latter included “Mattress Mike,” “Boxsprings Bob,” “Furniture Faye” and “Bunny”—a store manager decked out in a bunny suit. “The original idea was to play off of the Energizer Bunny,” Jerry Reisman explained. “That didn’t quite work, but people ended up loving the bunny in the commercials. He never spoke, just made hand gestures.”
 
Roz Reisman sometimes wore a French maid outfit in the commercials, which later featured their daughter and two grandchildren. Jerry Reisman’s signature sendoff became a trademark for the family-centric spots. “I’m bald and proud of it, but for the commercials I’d put on a hairpiece,” he explained. “I’d pull off the rug, rub my head and say, ‘Michael’s Furniture—the store with less overhead! Your neighbors shop here, too!’”
 
Michael’s Furniture was fun, Bannon said, but it was also a seriously successful local business. “You’re talking about a store that brought in up to $9 million annually at its peak, with a masterful approach to sales,” he said. “Jerry is a classic American furniture entrepreneur. His father and grandfather were both in the business and he grew up learning the trade. He knows the value of hard work and treats customers and employees like family.”
 
In fact, Bannon said, the Reismans were known to spend up to $50,000 annually to buy daily lunches for all staff members.
 
In 1971, Jerry Reisman was just 22 when he bought Michael’s Furniture, then 10 years old, from its original owner. Roz Reisman joined him in the business after they married a year later. Why not change the name? As Jerry Reisman explains, “I didn’t have the money to change the sign.”
 
“As this final sale gets under way, customers are encouraged to hurry in for the best selections,” said Bannon. Sale hours are 10 am to 8 pm, seven days a week.