Ramsey says future success of local retail depends on adaptation By TOM SPIGOLON tspigolon@covnews.com
Tony Ramsey has seen 24 years of changes in Covington’s downtown that he said have kept the historic area “alive.” Not every town is so lucky, he said. “It’s turned into an entertainment center instead of a retail center,” Ramsey said of the Covington Square. And though some retail stores are still in the area, the evolution came about because the buying public wanted restaurants more than retailers in the area, he said. The same is true of the retail industry’s future in Newton County — it will have to evolve with the consumer’s preferences or face an uncertain future, he said. “You’ve got to listen to the customer,” Ramsey
said. “You have to pay attention to the trends.” Ramsey left a job selling and servicing printing machines around metro Atlanta in 1997 to help his uncle, Sam Ramsey, operate the family-owned furniture store that had opened in Covington in 1919. He now offers the most popular lines of furniture — Ashley, La-Z-Boy, Benchcraft and more — in 30,000 square feet of space in its main store on Clark Street and some historic buildings nearby. The pandemic, however, did not allow him and other retailers to attend the annual furniture market in High Point, North Carolina, that gives store owners nationwide a view of the latest trends and styles, he said. Ramsey said he works to compete with big-box competitors through personal service. Many of his employees are longtime residents who may know many of the customers entering the store, he said.
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