A beloved Bronx mom-and-pop furniture store known for its catchy jingle is closing after more than five decades in business.<\/p>\n
Corner Furniture, founded 53 years ago, will shut its doors as the family behind the business prepares for its next chapter. <\/p>\n
Current owner Eric Stechler says the decision comes as the store struggles to compete with online retailers, rising tariffs and changing customer habits.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have online retailers that we have to compete with. Rising costs in tariffs. Changing customer habits \u2014 it’s just getting harder and harder,\u201d Stechler said.<\/p>\n
Stechler isn\u2019t the man from the store\u2019s iconic commercial, but he grew up in the business. <\/p>\n
He recalls sending his father \u2014 the original owner \u2014 a joke rap video in college, which unexpectedly inspired the commercial that became a local classic.<\/p>\n
His father, born and raised in the Bronx, built the business from the ground up. <\/p>\n
After earning his GED in the Army, he started selling sewing machines and mattresses door to door before eventually opening the store.<\/p>\n
Since announcing the closure, Stechler says longtime customers have shared memories of visiting the store with grandparents. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe generational thing \u2014 you don\u2019t see that as much in retail anymore,\u201d Stechler said.<\/p>\n
While the store saw a surge of customers during the pandemic, sales have declined in recent years. <\/p>\n
Stechler says the family decided it was time to close on their own terms.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think that I would get back into furniture retail just because of how challenging it is,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
As for what comes next, Stechler says he isn\u2019t sure yet, but he\u2019s looking forward to the future.<\/p>\n
The building is now up for sale. Everything inside must go, and the family says the store\u2019s final day will come when the last piece of furniture leaves the showroom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A beloved Bronx mom-and-pop furniture store known for its catchy jingle is closing after more than five decades…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38860,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,22681,22682,22684,9,24,63,22683,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-38859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-business-closing","tag-closing","tag-corner-furniture","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-store-closing","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}