IT’S ALWAYS BEEN A FAMILY BUSINESS: Benjamin T. Moyer Furniture serving the Valley for 86 years

VALLEY BUSINESSES

BENJAMIN T. MOYER FURNITURE IN SUNBURY. Robert Inglis/The Daily Item

It’s always been a Family Business

Benjamin T. Moyer Furniture serving the Valley for 86 years

Some of our coziest moments happen while snuggling with our favorite people or pets on a comfy couch or sipping peppermint tea curled up on a plush armchair — the kind of pieces Benjamin T. Moyer Furniture has been selling for 86 years. Benjamin Moyer founded the Sunbury store in 1935, only to be hit the next year by a flood that washed through the city. Fortunately, angels were on his shoulder. Paul Crebs, owner of a hauling business in Northumberland, sent moving trucks to save the furniture. “Everybody liked my father,” said David B. Moyer, who entered the business in 1970 and ran it from 1985 to 2014. “There wasn’t a person who didn’t like him. He was the epitome of what you would think of when defining a gentleman.” “Think ʻMr. Rogers,’” added David J. Moyer, David B.’s son and the current owner of the store. It’s clear that at least part of the store’s durability is due to the family members’ esteem for one another. “David is very much like Dad,” David B. said, nodding at his son. “So I’m very proud of David. The store is in wonderful hands.”

CHALLENGES

Benjamin guided the company through the 1936 flood and World War II. Shortly after David B. entered the business, Sunbury was hit by the 1972 Flood. He had the Herculean job of hefting the store’s furniture upstairs. “We emptied this entire first floor. It was awful,” he said with a shudder. “All the bedding and mattresses went to the warehouse. Oh, my gosh, we worked hard.” “We were so thankful the flood wall held and we didn’t have any water in the store,” he added, “but then we had to bring everything back downstairs.” David J. entered the business in 1997,

Story by Cindy O. Herman

DAVID J. AND DAVID B. MOYER Cindy O. Herman/For Inside Pennsylvania

just as reputable manufacturers began delivering shabby furniture made overseas. Moyer’s had to find new suppliers to maintain their standard of quality. “Dad had key vendors, 30 years straight,” David J. said. “And then it just changed.” Dorothy Reichley, of Selinsgrove, worked at Moyer’s for 21 years as a sales associate. She cited two reasons for the store’s longevity. “The staff at the store was always well-educated about the products we were selling. We traveled to factories to learn how products were made and, many times, factory representatives came to the store to teach us about changes or improvements.” Like many others, Reichley also cited superior customer service as an important reason for returning customers. The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, the recession in 2008 and customers turning to online shopping all affected furniture sales. “Buying furniture and having it shipped to your house never works out well,” David J. said. “Stores with lower prices have lower expectations. They’re not going to help you if you have problems.” He has reached out to commercial buyers, and Benjamin T. Moyer furniture can be seen in a number of state venues, churches, colleges and businesses, including Rusty Rail Brewing Company, in Mifflinburg, Bucknell University’s library, in Lewisburg, and the Selinsgrove Inn. The COVID-19 pandemic has been David J.’s biggest challenge, especially closing the store during the government-mandated shutdown. “When we opened up again, we weren’t sure if anyone would come in,” he said, adding, after their first sale, “I was never so happy to sell three barstools.”

GOOD CUSTOMERS

When asked about their success, David B. said, “We have customers who come back (because they) know us. Plus, we treated them the way we wanted to be treated. Something that is said often, but seldom done. If they had a problem, we had a problem.” The Moyers inspect every item, testing drawers and hand-waxing wood. “Most stores open a box on the back of a truck,” David B. said. “Boy, are they delivering a problem.” “There are things we do on a regular basis that other stores don’t do,” David J. added. He recalled “dropping everything” to make a 400-mile roundtrip rush order of one of their highquality, two-sided Shifman mattresses. When asked why, David J. responded, “That’s what that person needed.” Jill and Bruce Reber, of Selinsgrove, are longtime Moyer’s customers. “We liked that we could give them an idea of what we were looking for, and they could always find it in a catalog,” Jill said. “We also liked that they were quality, USA manufacturers.” Though the Moyers are not against buying well-made furniture from other countries, almost 90 percent of their upholstered furniture and 80 percent of their wooden furniture is made in the USA.

Aron Agerton/Inside Pennsylvania A LEATHER SOFA FROM TAFTON IS ON DISPLAY AT BENJAMIN T. MOYER FURNITURE. busiest month, it’s anybody’s guess what will happen this year. “I’ve never seen such a high demand for furniture before,” David J. said. Foreseeing manufacturing and shipping delays, he placed big orders and is hoping he’ll have enough to satisfy customers’ demand for Christmas surprises. “We sell a lot of lamps, especially Tiffany lamps, at Christmas. That’s a nice gift item,” he said. “Recliners are always a big ticket. In 2020, we sold every recliner we had.”

HAPPY WITH EVERYTHING

Moyer’s is not a place people just wander into. Its sales are generally to repeat customers or people who have heard of them through family and friends. “We first went there because we heard good things about them,” Jill ASPHALT PAVING & EXCAVATING Reber said. “We have always been very happy with everything.” Through floods, wars, online competition and even a pandemic, Benjamin T. Moyer Furniture continues to provide top-quality furniture and to treat their customers with the respect they give each other. Gazing around the first floor of their 22,000 square foot showroom, David B. said, “There’s nothing in this store that we would not put in our own home.”