When one door closes, another door opens.
Or the reverse if you’re talking about Dunk & Bright Furniture.
On the heels of opening welcoming customers to the retailer’s first Rochester-area store on April 9, owner Joe Bright announced April 24 on Facebook that Dunk & Bright’s original location in the city of Syracuse will be shuttered after 99 years.
“While we will be closing the doors at this store soon, I want to make one thing very clear: Dunk & Bright is NOT going out of business,” he wrote in a post.
The move, he wrote, is a strategic one to consolidate Syracuse-area operations at the Dunk & Bright store that opened in 2022 in a former Macy’s in the town of Clay, about 13 miles north of the city.
Why is Dunk & Bright Furniture closing its Syracuse store?
Reached by phone, Bright said he had been looking to reduce the operation’s fixed expenses. To achieve that, about six months ago, he decided to close the Syracuse store at 2648 S. Salina St.
There is no need to have two 90,000-square-foot stores so close to each other, he said.
He waited to announce the closing because he thought it would be a distraction from the store opening here in South Town Plaza, 3333 West Henrietta Road, Henrietta.
Like Henrietta, Clay is a growing suburb. It also is the future site of a $100 billion Micron Technology semiconductor manufacturing complex, which Bright said factored into his decision.
What does Dunk & Bright’s Syracuse store closing mean for Rochester?
The only impact on the 72,000-square-foot Henrietta store will be a positive one, he said. If a shopper there sees something they like and it’s available as a floor model at the Syracuse store, they will be able to buy the floor model at a discount.
Bright also said he isn’t letting go of any employees and that his Syracuse workers will have jobs at the Clay store.
However, closing the Syracuse store is bittersweet because it’s where his family’s nearly century-old business began.
The company was founded by Bright’s great-grandfather, William Bright, in 1927. Joe Bright bought the business from his father, Jim Bright, in 2020.
In conversations with customers and employees, “I realized it’s more than just a building,” Joe Bright said, “it’s people’s lives and their careers. But for us, it’s an evolution for the next chapter so we can be around for the next 100 years.”
Reporter Marcia Greenwood covers the grocery business and consumer-focused grocery news, as well as retail development, openings and closings. Send story tips to mgreenwo@rocheste.gannett.com. Follow her on X @MarciaGreenwood.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Dunk & Bright closes Syracuse store after 99 years
Reporting by Marcia Greenwood, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle / Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
