Woodhaven — Gardner White is pushing ahead with plans to expand its retail footprint by nearly 50% this year, never mind stubborn inflation and shaky consumer confidence.
Starting this spring, the Warren-based furniture seller will open nine stores — including its first Ohio location — which will bring its number of home and mattress outlets to 30. CEO Rachel Stewart acknowledges the size and stakes of the move but says there’s no sense in thinking small: “If your ambitions don’t scare you, they aren’t big enough.”
The company, she said, is taking advantage of an opening provided by last year’s bankruptcy filing of American Signature Inc. that led to the closure of its Value City Furniture stores. Gardner White is taking over several of the discount chain’s former storefronts.
“We’re really focused on the experiential retail future,” Stewart said. “We’re really going to try to get them open quickly. We really want to do this the right way as we’re innovating in our current stores. We’re learning how to come forward in the right way.”
The new stores will start opening in the spring. The move adds to Gardner White’s footprint across western, northern and mid-Michigan, with stores opening in Grand Rapids, Traverse City, Lansing, Portage and Flint, while growing its presence in southeast Michigan with a new location in Chesterfield Township and its first outlets in Novi and Clinton Township. The expansion also stretches south into Holland, Ohio, just west of Toledo.
Gardner White’s expansion comes as the broader furniture industry scales back and the number of brick-and-mortar stores has declined nationally. Yet, certain retailers are also growing in Michigan. Manchester, Connecticut–based Bob’s Discount Furniture opened two new stores in 2025, in Roseville and Troy, while Monroe-based La-Z-Boy Inc. has expanded its Michigan presence in recent years by acquiring stores in Portage and Lansing and opening a new store in Ann Arbor.
The expansion by an older company, like the 113-year-old Gardner White, is unusual in today’s furniture market, said Jason Miller, professor of supply chain management at Michigan State University.
“They are different than most of their peers in that case, because we can actually see from Census Bureau data the number of physical stores operated by old furniture and home furnishing stores, and that has been steadily declining,” he said. “So they are essentially reversing that trend in their own little way. Though their expansion will be in no way, shape or form enough to offset that broader trend that we observe.”
Furniture stores that had been in existence before 1977 operated 12,906 locations in 2018. By 2023, that number had fallen to 9,964, Miller said, citing U.S. Census Bureau data.
Offering ‘a breadth of selection’
Gardner White’s nine-store expansion follows new stores in 2025, including Cadillac, Gaylord, Midland and Mount Pleasant, as well as the GW Home concept in downtown Detroit. The company also launched in 2025 a dedicated mattress store, with the first one opening in Brighton in August, followed by a second location in Woodhaven that opened in January.
Gardner White is repurposing several large former Value City Furniture locations, ranging from 50,000 to 100,000 square feet, to display its full range of furniture and bedding.
“It’s large enough to show a breadth of selection,” Stewart said, adding that customers are looking for furniture that combines style and function with comfort, including features like lumbar support, hidden charging ports and performance fabrics.
In addition to Value City Furniture’s closure, other chains have pulled back from Michigan in recent years. Art Van Furniture closed its doors in 2020 after more than 60 years in business, followed by the short-lived presence of Loves Furniture tied to Texas-based private-equity firm US Assets Inc. The company attempted to replace some of the Art Van locations, but shut down the following year. Value City Furniture also tried to fill parts of the void left by those departures before its own bankruptcy and store closures.
Furniture demand was unusually high during the COVID-19 pandemic, fueled by a surge in home renovations, remote work and record-low interest rates, Miller said. From mid-2020 through early 2022, retailers saw months of exceptionally high sales, as consumers invested in home offices and upgraded living spaces. That boom was followed by a sharp slowdown.
Housing turnover is one of the strongest leading indicators for furniture demand, Miller said. He noted that, according to the National Association of Realtors, home sales in January hit their lowest level on a seasonally adjusted basis since 2001, while U.S. Census Bureau data show domestic furniture production fell 4.8% last year, highlighting soft consumer demand.
In addition to softer demand, tariffs have also affected the furniture industry in recent years. About 50% of the furniture Gardner White carries is made in the United States, while 100% of the bedding is U.S.-made, Stewart said.
“We maintain strong insight into both domestic and international supply options so we can stay nimble and adapt as the global landscape evolves,” she said. “This allows us to duck and weave when needed, ensuring consistency in quality, availability and price regardless of market shifts.”
The company’s long history and Michigan focus give it practical advantages in the market, Miller said: “You have an established brand, you have operating routines, you have established supplier relationships,” he said. “You have likely very good relationships with banks and different sources of financing that makes things easier than, let’s say, if you were a young, three-year-old firm trying to do something like this.”
Rapid growth does come with its challenges.
“Newly opened stores, on average, are not as profitable as your existing network,” he said. “You have to identify new customers, get the facility up and running, get it to scale and train people. Rapid expansion is often very challenging.”
Diversification strategy
Gardner White is diversifying its offerings with outlets in Novi and Clinton Township and its smaller-footprint GW Home concept that opened in June 2025 in downtown Detroit. It’s also focusing on one segment of its inventory with standalone mattress stores.
“Mattress and bedding is something we do very well,” Stewart said. “We punch above our weight class. We commit to it in square footage, train teams in it. That’s something really truly best in class.”
One recent weekday morning, Carlene Schaaf, 76, of Riverview, stopped by the Gardner White Mattress Store in Woodhaven to shop for a Tempur-Pedic mattress. She said she was surprised to see the store appear in her web search.
“It popped up when I asked for Gardner White …” she said. “It said that this store had it, and I didn’t know the store was even here.”
The Woodhaven store features brands including Sealy, Serta, Beautyrest and Sterns and Foster. Because of the store’s size and specialized focus, Schaaf said: “I feel like I could spend more time than the big store.”
Schaaf received help from store manager Troy Tidwell, sharing with him her desire for a mattress that would help ease pain. He touted the benefits of Tempur-Pedic and how it differs from an innerspring mattress.
“With the foam styles, it is a little different feel, but they are phenomenal,” he said.
After trying a few mattresses, Schaff decided she needed more time before making a purchase. She said she appreciated the convenience of local, specialized stores.
“It’s great that they have different locations for convenience,” she said.
The La-Z-Boy connection
Gardner White’s expansion is expected to create about 300 new jobs as it staffs up across its new locations. The growth also means increased orders for the company’s longstanding vendor partners, Stewart said. The buying power means stable prices for customers, she said.
“We have a lot of supplier relationships,” she said. “The more important you are, the more you. … It’s a significant increase for us. It helps us bring better deals for everyone. More and more exclusive product you can find nowhere else.”
Stewart said the company works closely with its vendors through its shop-in-shop concepts and dedicated brand galleries inside its stores. One of those partnerships is with La-Z-Boy Inc., a Monroe-based company founded in 1927 and known for its recliners.
Michigan remains central to La-Z-Boy’s retail and brand strategy, said Melinda Whittington, board chair, president and chief executive officer. The state represents one of the company’s largest retail markets, leading written sales across its brick-and-mortar business. In recent years, La-Z-Boy has expanded in Michigan with acquisitions in Portage and Lansing, a new store in Ann Arbor and remodeling efforts, including updates to its Canton location.
Whittington said partnering with Gardner White since 2023 has allowed the company to deepen its presence in Michigan and connect with customers through an established regional retailer, and even more so with the upcoming expansion.
“This expansion supports our Century Vision strategy by continuing to grow our brand reach,” Whittington wrote in an email. “Our partnership with Gardner White provides more opportunities to delight and inspire consumers, allowing them to shop and experience the comfort and quality that define the La-Z-Boy brand.”
La-Z-Boy said it is seeing two types of customers these days. Some are taking advantage of the company’s free in-home design services and going for more customized, higher-end pieces, while others are focused on getting good value with lower starting prices.
“Overall demand in the Midwest has been steady to start the calendar year, and we continue to see positive trends,” Whittington said.
Whittington said for the last several years, factors like home affordability, limited inventory and higher mortgage rates have resulted in slowed housing activity and, ultimately, a significant impact on furniture industry demand.
La-Z-Boy has also navigated the evolving tariff environment in part because of its domestic manufacturing footprint. Approximately 90% of its upholstered units sold in North America are produced in the United States across five major manufacturing sites, Whittington said, giving the company flexibility amid global trade shifts.
“When conditions improve,” she said, “we expect that pent-up demand will come to the surface and the industry will eventually return to historic growth rates.”
cwilliams@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Gardner White thinks big — and smaller — as furniture seller expands
Reporting by Candice Williams, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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