Nestled away off of the Natchez Trace in North Mississippi is Woodland Furniture Store, unique in that it is both the largest furniture store in Mississippi, and the unofficial city hall for Woodland. Patti Hill Pettit is the Mayor of Woodland and the owner of the store as the fortunes of both the city and store wax and wane together.
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| Entrance to Woodland Furniture Store |
The story of Woodland Furniture Store began when the town’s school consolidated with the Chickasaw County public schools. The Bullard family bought the empty Woodland school buildings in 1986 to prevent the blight that plagues communities when large buildings become empty. They opened the furniture store six months later.
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| Mayor Patti Watkins in action. The staff takes a nap. |
Upholstered furniture was popular at the time in North Mississippi. Some furniture stores could not afford to buy the required minimum amount of furniture from manufacturers, so her family bought furniture and then sold it to other stores. The Bullards, however, also sold to retail customers as well. Mrs. Pettit said, “We bought 100 sets of coffee tables and end tables to sell. The screws were too short to hold the legs, so we had to go back and get new screws and bolts to hook everything, but we sold every one of them.”
The store grew until it became the largest furniture store in Mississippi at 450,000 square feet. Furniture is sold in five buildings, with each housing a different type. Bedroom, dining, and children's sets are in one building, office furniture is in another, while rugs, coffee table sets, and living room furniture is each housed in their own building. The school cafeteria is now the store's office with furniture served up instead of hamburgers and grilled cheese sandwiches.
There is a method to the madness. Convenience is the key. Customers can look at the same type of furniture in each building instead of hunting and pecking from set to set as is the norm at most furniture stores.
There is a method to the madness. Convenience is the key. Customers can look at the same type of furniture in each building instead of hunting and pecking from set to set as is the norm at most furniture stores.
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| Coffee tables, anyone? |
Woodland Furniture Store is a family affair. Mrs. Pettit said it is family-owned and “family-run.” Her parents opened the store with her. Her brother and sister later joined the company. Her daughter, son, and niece currently work at the store. "We raised our kids and now raise the grand-kids here,”she said.
Mrs. Pettit said normal customers live within a sixty-mile radius of the store, although they also enjoy a robust following in Columbus and Jackson. The store sells furniture made by well-known manufacturers. High-end, low-end, antique, the store doesn’t cater to just one type of customer. “We try to offer something for everyone’s budget. We are a destination store. We try to have great prices and don’t have sales. We even have more baby beds than any store in the Southeast. We have sold furniture to customers in every state in the Continental USA and even two foreign countries. Pretty interesting for a town of 189 people,” Mrs. Pettit said.
Woodland does not advertise, instead relying on the spoken word as in word-of-mouth advertising. No sales commissions are paid to employees. The store has a reputation for offering lower prices, while avoiding bargain-basement quality.
The most interesting aspect of Woodland Furniture Store is that Mrs. Pettit is also Mayor Pettit, serving for over 30 years in that position. Even towns with populations of less than 200 people need a Mayor. Mayor Pettit came into the position because of a wastewater dispute. After she discovered that wastewater from septic tanks was running off into ditches, Mrs. Pettit asked the Mayor to do something about it. The Mayor just said she didn’t want the job anymore, so Mrs. Pettit ran for Mayor with the Mayor's blessing and won. She said she told the Mayor, “I don’t know anything about being Mayor” to which the Mayor replied, “Neither do I.” Would be that more politicians were so honest.
The problem was solved. The Mayor said Three Rivers Planning and Development helped her obtain grants that paid for a wastewater treatment system in her first year in office. Most basic functions such as fire protection and law enforcement are handled by Chickasaw County. The town offers water service through a water works association. The annual budget is around $100,000. There are no city employees and most services are performed by volunteers and inmates. The town has all of five streets- which have been repaved during Mayor Pettit's administration The town even has a Christmas display of nearly 1 million lights and yes, it does have a convenience store.
Mayor Pettit runs city operations out of her office at the furniture store although the town has a little brick building for board of aldermen meetings. There are three aldermen.
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| Mayor Pettit plays with her grandson |
Mrs. Pettit grew up in Montpelier, Mississippi, but moved to Woodland for her senior year of high school. “If you told me that I would be here for 40 years, I would not have believed it” she said. She said she has one child, adopted three more, and has three grandchildren. Her passion is riding her Honda 1800 Gold Wing motorcycle. She just returned from riding over 3,000 miles to New Mexico and back with her husband. The original plan was to ride to Key West, but some tropical weather had other ideas. Even her 81-year-old mother rides, making the outings a truly family affair.
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| Classes of Woodland High look down on furniture for sale |
Opinions come easily to Mrs. Pettit and she doesn’t mind sharing them. Internet retail sales are internet obviously a subject of concern to her. She said they are going to “kill small-town USA and by small-town, I mean towns such as Madison, Jackson, and Brandon. People are not going to local stores to buy anymore. Many of those stores are family-run and they support their communities. No one on the is going to give your football team a donation or buy their meals on a Friday night.” She said internet sales are not yet affecting the furniture industry as it has the clothing industry but it’s coming. “Our children are not going to have the luxuries of having parks and playgrounds,” she said.
She bristled when asked about the collection of internet sales taxes by the Department of Revenue. “We get a share of sales taxes paid in stores. We are fortunate because we have a furniture store, mobile home dealer, and a Dollar General. However, you get into small towns with only one or two stores, you send all of those internet sales out and it kills them. If the state would be as money-conscious as the small towns and working people in Mississippi have to be with their budgets, we might not be in the financial mess that we are in," said Mayor Pettit. She said because DOR considers Amazon to be a “use” tax, the cities get no share of that revenue. Then there is the matter of how the state gives goodies to corporations in the name of economic development.
“Bullcrap” was the Mayor's description of sales tax rebate programs such as those provided to Renaissance and Outlets of Mississippi. “We get someone coming in here to supposedly put people to work, I know we have to give them something, but we give them the state,” she said although she doesn't have a problem with helping established manufacturers such as Toyota. However, she continued “You come to Woodland, they have not given us anything, that includes every furniture store in the state. We are employers, we support the communities. Some of these employers say they will employ 50 people, they employ 5, and they are gone. Let’s look at bio-diesel fuel, we threw $75 million at that and now have nothing.
Directions from Jackson: Take I-55N to Winona. Get on Highway 82 East. Go north on the Natchez Trace Parkway. Get off at Highway 15 N. Woodland Furniture is five minutes from the parkway. Turn at the giant Woodland Furniture billboard (There is only one way to turn.). The drive is two hours whether traveling via this route or the Natchez Trace Parkway from Jackson.
Delivery: Woodland Furniture Store delivers at a rate of $2 per mile within Mississippi. It delivers to other areas, but different charges may apply.
Store Hours: Monday-Saturday, 9 AM – 6 PM.
Website: Woodlandfurniture.net
Pet-friendly: Yes.
Phone number: 662-456-4315
Email: info@woodlandfurniture.net
Phone number: 662-456-4315
Email: info@woodlandfurniture.net
9 comments:
Great place to buy furniture.
50-70% off right out the gate. Same stuff you have at Miskellys.
2.5 drive,but well worth it if your buying or about to buy.
Cash is king too..cash and you'll be able to bargain.
Interesting. Never heard of the place. Had an aunt and uncle in Tupelo for nearly 50 years and never hear them mention it, even though my uncle was one of the most frugal people I ever knew... then again I don't know that they EVER bought any new furniture in the time I knew them given his frugality. Duh.
Thanks for stretching out a bit and turning up this hidden gem. Great comments from the Mayor!
I have an idea for Jackson: We could turn it into a huge truck stop, with drone connections as well. We could eventually add port facilities, once the sea levels have risen sufficiently.
We furnished our entire cabin at our camp from this store. Great people and they will deal with you. They also have a few private individuals on stand by that will deliver (you have to negotiate with these private individuals). We had a young father and son deliver and set up for us, it was a win-win for everyone.
Thanks, Kingfish!
I expected a bumpkinesque 'Solid Knotti-pine Paul Bunyan' type inventory. But the website shows some great stuff.
I may be buying the 'Curator Rectangular Dining Table', which is Modern (and not the soon-to-be passe 'Mid-Century Modern'), and adaptable (office layout space, library table, dining table...).
But I'm not worried about ALL brick & mortar retail going belly-up. Shopping is about all there is to do, in most of small-town America. And plenty of us are wary of buying online, because we don't like being TRACKED. We keep our names and addresses out of as many databases as we can. And, considering all the recent hacks, we use our credit cards as little as we can, too. Yes, you can go and buy Visa Vanilla cards for paying online. But while we're out buying Vanilla cards, why not stop into actual stores? Seems easier...
Cool Story and good write up... Wondering why I had not heard of this place previously.... Thanks, KF!!!!
Shop local. Go to Miskelly’s.
I've been there several times. Great place to buy furniture. I bought a desk for $625.00 there that was priced at $2150.00 at Miskelly. Same brand, model, SKU number, etc.
Great success story. Good family & business. I live in Ridgeland and have driven there and bought several items overs the years. Much larger selection to choose from and they will cut you a deal..
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