ALTON – Over the past 38 years, New Frontiers Home Furnishings of Alton has been a fixture of the River Bend community.
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Despite numerous battles with historic flooding, the constantly fluctuating real estate marketplace and an ever evolving business scope, owner Ed Benz has remained optimistic while operating his business for nearly 40 years.
After Benz, a welder for a steel shop, began this business venture in 1978 by creating a line of outdoor garden furniture on their previous location on the 500 block of Broadway downtown, currently known as Shakers Nightclub.
As their business began to grow in popularity, customers came to New Frontiers for all of their furniture needs.
“For a long time, we would take people outside and point them down the street to other furniture stores,” Benz said. “Finally, we thought that we should start handling some unfinished tables and chairs and things like that.”
From there, the business flourished into one of the largest furniture showrooms in town. In the late 1980’s, New Frontiers moved into their current location at 101 W. Third Street downtown.
“This was a large expansion for us,” Benz said. “We thought we would never fill this store, you know? We filled it, then turned the basement into a lower level showroom. It’s been rewarding, but it’s had its fair share of challenges. “
The historic Flood of ’93 threw Benz and his store through a loop, causing the store to relocate to the Eastgate Plaza in East Alton for six months while clean-up efforts were underway.
The flooding this past December also caused some difficulty for New Frontiers, forcing all-hands-on-deck to evacuate the lower level showroom and everything on the showroom floor upstairs. Benz used this clean slate to do some renovations of sorts to the showroom, lifting up the old carpet and resurfacing the concrete floor.
After all the hard work was done, Benz is excited to keep his business going for years to come.
“It’s fun to help people pick out the right piece,” Benz said. “Whether they get into doing a lot of remodeling, they’re redoing the house that they bought 20-something years ago or a new couple buying a house for the first time, it’s fun!
“I’ve got a lot of talented ladies here to help them pick out just the right piece, to enjoy picking out the fabrics on the sofas and enjoying finding that right piece for the people. That’s the fun part of the business,” he said.
According to Benz, New Frontiers would be nothing without its friendly and loyal customers.
“The community has been good to us. Without them, we wouldn’t be here, that’s for sure!”
In honor of their 38th Anniversary, New Frontiers Home Furnishings is celebrating by passing down their happiness to their local customers with 20-percent off all in-stock furniture, including dining tables, bedroom sets, sofas, entertainment centers, accessories and much more. They are also offering 12 months free financing to qualified buyers and 10 to 20-percent off special orders.
For more information about New Frontiers Home Furnishings, please visit their website at www.frontierfurnishings.com, call 618-465-8858 or visit their showroom On Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 9 to 5 p.m., Wednesday and Friday from 9 to 7 p.m., and on Saturday from 9 to 4 p.m.
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