Unique, modern and trendy are some words that come to mind when walking through one of Oxford’s finest furniture stores.
Stash Furniture first opened in the heart of Oxford right on the Square almost four years ago in 2011. Ever since, it has been considered to be one of the most successful furniture stores in town.
Stash is located in four different locations: Oxford, Tupelo, Memphis and recently, St. Louis, Missouri. The birth of Stash occurred through the Dufrsene Spencer Group, a combined company in Canada who owns and operates roughly 36 Ashley Furniture home stores. Thanks to the success of those stores, Stash was created as an affiliate of the famous Ashley Furniture and is now a million dollar company itself with all of the stores combined.
The Oxford store is managed by Rebecca Jaquess, who is in charge of the sales associates, customer service, inventory and the store’s profitable progress each and every day.
Focusing on their motto, “life moments matter”, Stash employees work to provide customers with furniture and decorations that give each home a special and individual background.
“When people come in the store and buy a sofa, they aren’t just buying a sofa, it becomes the background of your life and one of the things that makes Stash so unique is that we can go in and help customers with that also as a free decorating service,” Jaquess said. “Employees not only help customers find the right prices, but then they can actually go into a home, take measurements for them and help them put everything in the right place”.
As far as prices, Jaquess explained that Stash carries pieces with high prices to pieces that start at 10 dollars, but no matter what customers are buying, it is all of great value and quality.
Stash carries name brands such as Ashley Furniture, Lombardy, Synergy, Bern Hardt and more. One of their top selling items is their Lombardy sofa. It comes with a high price, but from experience, Jaquess believes that is well worth it.
“We call it [the Lombardy sofa] the ‘sit at your own risk’ couch because a lot of times people sit in it and then they cant get up! It is so comfortable and definitely of high quality,” she said.
While staying up to date with the next big styles, Stash makes sure to provide customers with items that fit the home for each season. Stash brings in new furniture pieces and a wide array of home décor that provide homes with appropriate color schemes for the cold months of winter to the blazing hot days of summer. Not only that, but the store also aims to carry styles that soot everyone’s tastes.
“I think it’s important, especially down here [in Oxford] to make changes throughout the store. Right now, coming into spring, I’m trying to pull down some more colorful pieces and we just got in a bunch of new pillows that reflect that,” Jaquess said.
So where does all of this stuff come from and how does Stash keep up? Their inventory is housed in distribution centers and the main center is located in Memphis, where all of the “stock’ pieces are held. Whenever a customer sees a piece on the floor, attached they will see a sign that explains exactly what it is. The signs are included on particular pieces to make customers aware that the item is carried in the warehouse at any given time, depending on how many are left.
With the distribution center being in such a convenient location for Oxford’s Stash, Jaquess and store employees are able to keep a piece on the floor that a customer wants to buy and have the item shipped to them brand new. When it comes to deliveries, they work as quickly as possible so that the customer can enjoy their new item without spending too much time anticipating its arrival.
“We have a guest care team that is solely dedicated to taking care of the guests and making sure the deliveries are successfully sent. Also they are there to fix any issues that may happen with the furniture during delivery,” Jaquess said.Delivery starts at 99 dollars and fluctuates depending on how many pieces a customer buys and the location that the delivery will be sent to. Deliveries go all the way down to Jackson, Mississippi as well as several places in Tennessee and Arkansas.
Delivery starts at $99 and fluctuates depending on how many pieces a customer buys and the location that the delivery will be sent to. Deliveries go all the way down to Jackson, Mississippi as well as several places in Tennessee and Arkansas.
While Stash works hard to stay in tune with the trends and colors of the seasons, the business works just as hard, if not harder to stay in tune with their customers as well.
Sales associate Lauren Laffler has been working at Stash for almost a year now. She is in charge of helping customers find items that fall in their desired price range and are fitting to their specific tastes.
Following the Stash mission statement is one of Laffler’s most important tasks. The mission statement reads, “to achieve excellence as we provide products and services in a way that honors God and blesses our customers and employees”. This gives employees an understanding of exactly what is expected of them any time they are in the store working with customers.
Laffler explains that the job has given her the opportunity to be a full-time student, while working towards her future career outside of the classroom. Through Stash, she has been able to meet many of Oxford’s local residence and help people create a background that works for each individual customer.
“There have been a couple places on the Square that I’ve been able to go and help people decorate an entire living room and that has been a lot of fun,” Laffler said. “This is what I want I want to do after college, interior design, so working at such a successful business has been a great opportunity for me.”
Jana Rosenberg is a HottyToddy.com staff reporter and can be reached at jmrosen1@go.olemiss.edu.
Recent Comments