Grand Home Furnishings is a regional chain of furniture stores headquartered in Roanoke, Virginia, in the United States. As of May 2006, Grand operates fourteen retail stores in Virginia, two in Tennessee, and two in West Virginia. Grand recently opened a retail store in the growing Smith Mountain Lake community of Franklin County, Virginia. Grand also has a warehouse furniture outlet in Roanoke. Grand's stores and outlets are supplied by four distribution centers in Virginia and one in Tennessee.
The chain's first location was opened in downtown Roanoke in 1910 under the name Grand Piano Company and specialized in pianos, other musical instruments and related merchandise. During the 1930s the company added furniture, radios, and phonographs. When purchased in 1945 by the Cartledge family, the name was changed to the Grand Piano and Furniture Company. In the 1950s, the chain began to expand outside of Roanoke into Southwest Virginia, the Shenandoah Valley, and eventually other states.
Grand Piano and Furniture continued to sell pianos well after the company's focus had shifted to furniture. Grand eventually stopped selling pianos and assumed its current name, Grand Home Furnishings, in 1998. Many in the Roanoke area still commonly refer to the chain as Grand Piano.
Grand may be best known for offering a cold, eight-ounce bottle of Coca-Cola to customers as they enter the store. The tradition began at a Lynchburg, Virginia store opening in 1953 and was soon adopted by the entire chain. Grand hands out over one million bottles of Coke per year.
Grand built a free standing location at Valley View Mall in 1991. This new store would become the chain's flagship in the Roanoke area after the closure of its landmark downtown Roanoke location in the late 1990s.
Grand has made NASCAR cross promotions a primary focus of its marketing efforts since the 1990s. The company was a sponsor of the Winston Cup Wood Brothers racing team based in Stuart, Virginia until 2004, and its drivers and cars frequently made promotional appearance at the chain's stores. Grand currently sponsors Kevin Wood's No. 20 Grand Home Furnishings Ford in the NASCAR sanctioned Whelen All-American Series.
In December 2005, industry newspaper Furniture Today ranked Grand Home Furnishings as the 58th largest furniture retailer in the US with annual sales of $111 million.
Distributions centers are located in Virginia and Tennessee.
External links
Grand Home Furnishings Part 1 - Anna is live at Grand Home Furnishings in Johnson City, talking with Linda Cleveland about all things furniture and decorating.
- Grand Home Furnishings
