VALDOSTA —
Tunison Office Furniture, which has been a staple of the 100th block of North Ashley Street, will be closing its doors at the end of the month.
Mary Tunison, who owns the company, plans to retire. She will turn 79 in December.
“I am retiring and going to the house,” Tunison laughed.
Tunison’s retirement will mark the end of a 51-year history of the Tunisons owning businesses in the Downtown Valdosta.
51 Years Ago
“My late husband (Jim) had a business right where the county building is, which used to be Magnolia Street, and that was in 1959,” Tunison said. “From there, he did other things and then we moved to Patterson Street. We were there at Penny Pinchers on Patterson and then we moved to the ’Dosta Theatre and then moved here.”
The Penny Pinchers was a home-improvement store. Next door was a sandwich shop called The Pinchers Porch.
“Then we moved to the ’Dosta and turned it into Tunison Office Furniture,” she said.
The transition from The Penny Pinchers to Tunison Office Furniture was due to the fact that the Tunisons received all of their merchandise from places such as Sears and Montgomery Ward.
“They decided they would open their own stores so they didn’t want to sell to us,” she said. “
That was before anybody came up with discounted stuff. That’s what we were. We were discounted catalog soft goods store. So we didn’t have a source to keep up with that. We had to go to regular retail buying and it was not lucrative that way.”
At that time, a man from New York with used office furniture came to the Tunisons and the couple began buying supplies from him.
Closing Shop
At the end of August, Tunison plans to retire after 51 years of running businesses.
“(I’m) gonna close the store and hopefully sell everything out. I have two employees and I hope to find positions for them so that they’ll have work,” she said.
While Tunison is saying until the end of August, she wants to at least sell everything by Labor Day.
She chose the end of the month for several reasons.
“Everybody in my family is trying to get me to close instead of putting it off, putting it off,” she said. “So once I finally decided I would do it, I just said ‘OK, let’s go now.’”
Tunison is also planning on selling the building the store is located in. To get rid of inventory, the store is having a sale.
“Everything we’ve got I’ve cut way back, drastically,” she said.
While she’s seen an improvement in sales, most of it had it has been generated by ads in the newspaper.
“I’ve had, not a big improvement but improvement, and most of it has been because of the ad I had in the paper,” she said. “I’ve had a good response from Florida, I always have. Florida, the people that live in Live Oak, Lake City, south of the Florida line. It’s amazing how many people we’ve sold to in Florida. So many of them come here to Wal-mart or the mall, which they don’t have, so it’s convenient to come buy from us. We’ve always had a lot of Florida traffic.”
Tunison said the thing she’s going to miss most is the public.
“So many customers look at something and it’s just really what they want,” she said. “That’s interesting. Some people can say, well, yeah, OK. Some customers will come in and want a desk and will see one and will go, ‘That’s exactly what I want,’ and that makes me feel good, when people find something that they really want.”
Retirement
In Tunison’s office is a map of the world dotted with push-pin tacks marking places that she has visited through the years.
“It took 45 years to go to all of these places,” Tunison said. “(I’ve been) around the world twice, for three and a half months. I’ve spent three and a half months on the African continent. I really like traveling.”
After retirement, she hopes to travel more.
“I hope to travel and spend more time with family, grandchildren, that kind of thing,” she said. “I’d like to go to Scotland and back to Belgium. I’ve been to both but I’d like to go back to both.”
Tunison said she has several favorite places that she’s been, including South Africa.
“I love South Africa really well and I love China,” she said. “There’s so many places that I love. It’s hard to say really what (is my favorite). The biggest surprise was probably South Africa. It was just wonderful. We were not expecting it to be that good. I thought China would be good, but it was a lot easier to get around than I thought it would be. We’re very lucky.”
Among the places she hasn’t visited is Alaska.
“My husband and I would say that we would go to Alaska when we were too old to do anything else,” she laughed.
She plans on traveling again if she can talk people into going with her.
Tunison Office Furniture
110 N. Ashley St.
Valdosta, Ga.
Phone: (229) 247-1760
Business
Related Photos
-
Mary Tunison stands in front of Tunison Office Furniture’s location on North Ashley Street. The store will close at the end of the month. Karah-Leigh Hancock
-
Tunison’s Office Furniture owner Mary Tunison stands in front of a sign that is very prominent in the store. Karah-Leigh Hancock
-
Mary Tunison poses with one of the many pieces of office furniture that is available at Tunison’s Office Furniture. Tunison has slashed the prices of the remaining pieces due to the fact that she is closing the store and retiring at the end of the month. Karah-Leigh Hancock
Time to Say Goodbye
Tunison Office Furniture closing doors after decades of business in Valdosta
- Business
-
-
Gayla’s Grits: A Taste of the South
What started as a unique Christmas gift for family and friends has turned into the go-to business for the best grits in town and, possibly, the world.
Gayla’s Grits, owned by husband-and-wife duo Kevin and Gayla Shaw, began in 1997 while grinding naturally grown white corn for personal consumption. -
Graduates heading into the real world
Over the last week or so, thousands of high school students in our area have graduated and are preparing for their next step in life. Some are going straight to college, others are seeking military careers, some are going straight to work, and there are most likely quite a few who have no real plans or idea what to do next.
-
Have A Happy Free Birthday!
The only thing better than a birthday is a free birthday. I would know, because my birthday was on Friday and, yes, I am absolutely using the newspaper as a platform for a free birthday ad because Facebook just doesn’t do it for me anymore.
-
Valdosta Shared Office Space
VALDOSTA — Though Valdosta Shared Office Space is not new to Valdosta, it is newly green. The first and only shared office space in Valdosta owned by Gino Fina, just became the first Downtown Valdosta business to work with the Georgia Cities Foundation’s Green Communities Fund to implement environmentally friendly, energy-efficient improvements, reducing energy consumption upwards of 50 percent. -
Downtown businesses to be mobbed this week
A few years ago, when everyone started talking through social media, flash mobs became the new in thing to do. Primarily in the big cities, although VSU did their own a year or two ago, a designated place and time would be set and masses of people would descend on these sites, sometimes dancing, sometimes singing, sometimes acting obnoxiously.
-
Keep tails wagging when your budget is lagging
I have a problem. Though I am a tight-wad when it comes to spending my money, I cannot resist the calling to buy adorable toys, collars and, yes, even clothes for my three cuter than all get out fur babies.
-
The Valdosta Mall: Revamped and Ready for Business!
VALDOSTA — The Valdosta Mall has made tremendous strides since its rebranding away from Colonial Mall in 2007 and it’s refocus in 2008 when it made a move from serving the community to being a part of the community.
“We had taken for granted our place in the community for a long time,” said Jerry Weller, general manager of the Valdosta Mall. “We don’t do that anymore.” -
Keep your clothes looking fab to avoid looking drab
As I get older, I’m beginning to learn that there are more important things than clothes. Ugh! It pains me to even form that sentence; however, it’s true.
-
Business This Week: Happy Mother’s Day!
Today is the one day a year dedicated to celebrating mothers, although we all use their guidance and wisdom every day. But for this one day, their sacrifices, kindness, love, and advice are recognized, hopefully, by the children they raised or helped to raise. It might not even be those born to them, as most mothers don’t limit their love and it flows over onto their children’s friends, family members, and the children they influence in the classroom, in Sunday school and in volunteer activities.
-
Downtown will have a new beat this week
The Brown Bag Concert Series produced by Valdosta Main Street will begin again on Monday and last all week.
- More Business Headlines
-
