Our Story
For our founders, Beth and Larry Barnes, the preparation needed for their entrepreneurial endeavors began long before our doors opened in 1991. Both from humble, working-class families, they had to learn early in life the value of fierce independence, resiliency and the value of hard work. Larry, the youngest of five children was raised in Princess Anne, MD. As one of the poorest counties in the entire state, the Barnes family was no exception. Happy Barnes, Larry’s father worked for the post office as a postal clerk.
His mother, Jean Barnes went to college when Larry was in the first grade to become a school teacher and eventually school Principal. Money was scarce as they grew up, and as Larry recalls, they were taken to a store named J. C. Penney’s once a year where they would each get their 4 pairs of jeans and 4 flannel shirts that would need to last them for the entire year. Larry likes to clarify that the jeans he is referring to are not like the designer jeans today. His jeans were extra stiff, rigid and rough to the touch. The Barnes family not only managed expenses tightly as it pertained to clothing but also in growing much of their own food. Happy Barnes maintained what is commonly referred to as a “depression garden,” where the family would enjoy freshly grown cantaloupe, strawberries and local vegetables.
As Larry grew up, he exhibited a rebellious streak that would eventually force his parents to send him to Military school (during high school). During his time in Military school, he actually recalls keeping the bus fare that his parents sent him in order to come home for the Holidays, and instead hitch hiking his way home (as a minor) from his school, which was over six hours away. After Military school (which an aunt paid for), Larry joined the United States Coast Guard where he served as a medic. From there he went on to Towson University to study education. Much like Larry’s upbringing, Beth’s childhood was also one defined by very humble beginnings. As the second youngest of five children, she grew up in the rural farming community of Willards, MD. As is the case in farming communities, children quickly learn the value of hard work and fierce independence.
Eager to live out these values as a child, it is rumored that Beth once mis-led her prospective employer by exaggerating her age so that she could get a job working in the cucumber packing house. At the time, this type of job would have been looked upon as “beneath” most people, but looking back, Beth sees that jobs like that helped to shape her character and provided a level of resiliency that could not have been gained otherwise. When Beth and her family were not working, they could often be found engaged in local harness racing events. While this may sound like some sort of upscale, equestrian event, let me assure you, that their experience was not “upscale.” Long days or late evenings at the track were followed by early mornings where the demands of a chicken farm, building and grounds maintenance and other responsibilities were unrelenting.
Growing up in those conditions helped to prepare Beth to eventually work for the most influential company and most recognized businessman on Delmarva at the time, Frank Perdue. At the young age of only 22, Beth found herself flying throughout the country and executing some of the largest contracts in the poultry and agri-business sectors. As Beth recalls, in one instance she would be flying back late at night after executing a deal on behalf of Perdue in a single passenger (small) aircraft surrounded by pitch black darkness. In those deals, the details mattered, and Beth was/is obsessively accurate with details. As Beth recounts of Mr. Perdue, in meetings, he would go around the table and ask questions of his leadership team. Often he would want to know about the displays and pricing of the competing brands of chicken. When a leader said, “I don’t know,” Mr. Perdue would stop the meeting, look the person dead in their eyes and ask the person, “isn’t it your job to know?” In those settings Beth learned the importance of being prepared and the necessity of accountability within any organization.
Fast forward to 1990, Larry and Beth lived in Middletown, DE and Larry was working with his brother, David Barnes at the Furniture Barn in New Castle, DE. Together, they were running a growing business by day, and on the evenings and weekends, Larry was a master at buying and selling classic corvettes as a side hustle.
FurnitureLand Then! (Original Building)
FurnitureLand Now!
Larry had an uncanny ability to connect with anyone from any walk of life. His energy and charisma made him a total master as it pertained to professional selling. Meanwhile, Beth was working for the Handy Seafood Company out of Crisfield, MD where she managed the complexities of international logistics with very valuable and perishable shipments moving around the globe. This meant she would commute daily from Middletown, DE to Crisfield, MD and back. During many of those commutes, she would have Jessica, then around ten years of age, read the newspaper out loud as they drove. This served to catch Beth up on the news while also getting Jessica to read at a high level at an early age. Around this same time, The Furniture Barn was making some strategic decisions that were creating some tension for Larry. Each evening, he would come home and lament his concerns to Beth. Finally, one night, Beth reached her limit and said, “Larry, I don’t know what to tell you. Either deal with it and keep working there, or go and open your own furniture store, but make a decision because I am tired of hearing about it.” That may seem a bit insensitive, but rest assured, that was exactly what Larry Barnes needed to hear. Shortly thereafter he gave his brother one year of notice that he was going to go and open his own furniture store at nearly the opposite end of the state. During that year, Larry continued to work hard for his brother David, and doubled down his hustle to buy and sell corvettes so he could bootstrap the upstart expenses for his upcoming entrepreneurial endeavor.
In September, 1991 it was official, our first ever retail location in TAX FREE Delmar, DE, FurnitureLand. It was a 5,000’ pole building (agriculture building) with no insulation, no plumbing, and no air conditioning. There was a porta-potty out back and if you turned on the light inside at night, there were no secrets. It was a shell of a building with a gravel parking area and a plain concrete floor.As Justin and Jessica recall, Larry and Beth actually sealed the concrete floor themselves using 18” paint rollers to apply the coating by hand on a 90 degree humid summer day. This original store is still a part of FurnitureLand’s now 50,000’ retail footprint, better known as “section B.”
As is the case with a business upstart, Larry found himself wearing all of the hats. He would unload the incoming product. He would sell, load and/or deliver the outgoing product. He would maintain the grounds and the showroom. He would place his orders with the vendors and try to manage his own accounting. He was doing it all, and quickly realized that it was impossible for him to do it all, and do it well. That’s when he went to Beth, who had a successful, stable career and asked her to quit her job and come help him at FurnitureLand.
For some context here, please note that they had spent all they had and then some to buy the land, build a building, and buy products to sell.Now Larry is asking Beth to walk away from the only real secure source of income for their family to join him on this wild entrepreneurial ride. She thought he was nuts, but she said yes.
Beth’s presence brought much needed systems and structure to an otherwise chaotic environment. She was an early adopter of technology and quickly introduced computers and software to help improve operations, ordering and accounting. In addition to streamlining, organizing and systemizing operations, Beth often found herself as Larry’s delivery assistant. Their first delivery truck was actually in such disrepair that the clutch would stick to the floor. This meant that while Larry would drive with one hand, pull the rope for the clutch with the other, Beth would shift the gears. Everything from heavy double reclining sofas to solid wood armoire’s Beth and Larry would deliver these items as a team. They worked in the store during the days, and often delivered the furniture in the evenings.
As time progressed, their unrivaled work ethic and fiscally responsible reinvestment strategy lead to several expansions, eventually totaling 10X growth to 50,000’. As the business grew, Justin and Jessica were also growing up. As a teenager, Jessica often participated in supporting Larry and Beth by faxing them a dinner menu at work so she could have it prepared for them when they arrived back at home. Her desire to support the family business eventually landed her a role in the company in high school and then into college. While pursuing her business degree at Salisbury University, Jessica began working in the company on a full time basis. This career path allowed her to experience every facet of the business from the ground up. Payment processing, order entry, buying, merchandising, systems integration, office management, Jessica was exposed to every facet and detail of the business.She was not awarded a position after college; she worked her way into influential roles by mastering each step along the way.
Similarly, Justin, Jessica’s YOUNGER brother joined the organization on a full time basis after obtaining his undergraduate degree in business from Wesley College. Justin’s career path weaved in and out of nearly every role in the organization. He spent time as a sales person, groundskeeper, delivery driver, warehouse manager, operations and customer service leader. While serving as the warehouse manager, Justin simultaneously attended graduate school in the evenings to earn his Masters Degree in Business Administration (MBA). Simultaneous to Jessica and Justin’s professional growth, the organization was also growing. By 2005, FurnitureLand had expanded by nearly 10X their original foot print, and had added 6 pole buildings, totaling another 35,000’ around the complex that served as warehouses to support the growing business. It was during that time, that Larry and Beth decided to make yet another huge entrepreneurial leap by building and opening our first Ashley HomeStore. While this may sound exciting, this meant another major investment would be needed on top of building and opening a new store. You see, the 6 warehouses that were on site were already beyond capacity, and the company was managing short term leases on an additional 5 warehouses at other locations around Wicomico and Sussex Counties. For those keeping track, that means that Justin, as the warehouse manager had 11 warehouse locations/buildings to oversee, and he and his team had to manage the complexities of rotating shelf stock, picking, receiving and security for all of these locations. Recognizing the inefficiencies of this operating format, Beth and Larry soon realized that another store would mean that the time had come to invest in a proper distribution center.
In 2006 the Barnes family broke ground on both the Ashley HomeStore and the FurnitureLand distribution center. For context here, Larry and Beth always “lived within their harvest,” meaning they didn’t like debt and lived within their means.
They were not content to lease real estate or equipment and always made the sacrifice needed to be owners of their assets and therefore empowered to control their destiny. This type of investment, however, was staggering. To acquire real estate and build one building would be frightening, but to acquire land for two buildings, build two buildings, and outfit both with the latest technology, inventory, equipment and infrastructure was a historic investment. As Larry often recalls, “we were scared. It was more risk than we had ever taken before. Everything was on the line.”
Thankfully, both the Ashley HomeStore and the FurnitureLand Distribution center were quickly erected, and enjoyed a solid year or more of continued growth and excitement when the 2008 mortgage crisis (Great Recession) swept through our nation. During this time, we saw dramatic declines in traffic and retail sales. Only 18 months into taking the largest risk in its history, the organization found itself in a time of uncertainty. Unlike many organizations, however, that ceased to remain relevant and survive, the leadership team used this time to truly study and enhance our operations. Every expense was scrutinized. They invested in market research. They doubled down as being the disruptive force in the local market place with their same day delivery program. They networked with members of their buying group and began comparing results in performance group settings where industry benchmarks were established and clear, honest metrics were measured. The team learned the importance of building value as it pertained to gross margin. Often, retailers thought that they were losing on price, but what we found is that price became subjective according to value. Learning to recognize and convey the true value of our goods and services helped us to better understand the role of healthy margins to run a healthy, enduring retail operation.
It was also during this time that we realized the terrific foresight our founders had in choosing to be OWNERS who did not carry an unmanageable debt burden.While store front after store front went vacant and tenants defaulted on their leases, we remained in a position of strength because we were not beholden to a lease or a landlord. We owned our real estate, our trucks and all of our equipment. The early sacrifices and disciplines established by Larry and Beth allowed us to survive and even enhance our business in the worst economic season since the Great Depression. As the future unfolds, this approach often leads to a slower, more intentional growth strategy, as we will not move hastily at the expense of our preparation for all economic seasons.
Coming out of the Great Recession proved to be a season of stability and growth.With FurnitureLand well established the Ashley HomeStore side of the portfolio continued to surge and show promise.As we surveyed the local market place, it became clear that Sussex County was/is ripe with growth. Being positioned in driving distance from New York, New jersey, Baltimore, DC and other heavily populated, high tax areas, Coastal DE was quickly becoming one of the most popular places in which to relocate.This lead us to begin studying real estate opportunities in Millsboro, DE, where in October, 2019 we would open Ashley HomeStore #1,000 (for Ashley global retail). Our instincts about that market were accurate, as we blew Ashley’s forecast out of the water for year one by selling DOUBLE (100% more) the volume of their forecast.
So to summarize, today we have three retail campuses and one fulfillment campus totaling approximately 145,000’. For those keeping track, that is nearly a 30X growth multiple in square footage, over a time frame that as of September 2021 will have been 30 years of history! As of the time of writing this history, Larry serves as our special projects coordinator, specifically in managing construction and real estate acquisition. Beth is incredibly active in the business, primarily serving as President and advisory type role as she continues to offload some of her day to day responsibilities. Both Jessica and Justin serve as Vice Presidents in the company, each overseeing areas consistent with their strengths and experience.They accept the privilege of leadership alongside a highly competent team of Directors and leaders whose contributions are too numerous to list, and without whom we would not be where we are today.
In closing, you may have noticed from our company’s history that we are not “typical” retailers. At the Transformative Retail Group, we transform lives by transforming homes.While typical retailers think they are delivering or selling a product, we believe we deliver and sell transformation.While typical retailers think they sell a sofa, we believe we offer a transformative connection for families when they gather in that space.
While typical retailers deliver mattresses, we deliver transformative sleep, health and wellness. Most importantly, while typical retailers treat their internal customers (employees) like a means to an end, we believe we have a responsibility to offer a transformative experience to each and every internal customer.
We see furniture and our organization as a transformative tool for life change. Both the external and internal customer will receive a transformative experience when shopping or serving in our organization. Our history has shaped our people centric identity, and from this, we shall not waiver.
Welcome to the family.