'The home furnishings industry is a fashion business' says City Furniture's Andrew Koenig

Independent furniture retailers often get a bad rap. The stereotyped image of a big store out on the highway with bad lighting, boxes of furniture lined up like tombstones and rows of recliners—it's a hard image to shake. Make no mistake, those kind of stores still exist, but then there's City Furniture. Started as a waterbed outlet in the 70s, the company shifted focus in the 1990s and is now the largest independent furniture retailer in Florida, with more than 3,000 employees and 35 locations. On this episode of Retail Watch, president Andrew Koenig (he's the son of the founder) tells host Warren Shoulberg about what it's like to  run a family-owned retailer, the challenges and opportunities of COVID, and why home furnishings is a fashion business.

This episode of the podcast is sponsored by Square.