A family-owned furniture store that began in downtown Joliet is celebrating 140 years of customer service-focused business.

Michael Turk, owner and president of Turk Furniture, said the company’s goal hasn’t changed since Joseph Turk founded it in 1885: Offer quality, affordable furniture.

Many Turk Furniture customers become longtime customers, Turk said.

Turk Furniture not only features a wide array of furniture, but it also can help customers with home design and decorating, according to its website.

Still, Turk recalled a time in the 1980s when Turk Furniture definitely felt some worrisome heat from local competitors.

“I never thought we’d survive in the long run,” he said.

Turk estimated that only a small percentage of small and mid-sized furniture stores have survived the internet age.

“I never thought we’d be one of them,” he said.

And why did they?

“We pay attention to details,” Turk said.

Those details include offering price guarantees; running “pretty tight operations;” remembering to give credit on returns; and carefully tracking all merchandise, “which takes quite a bit of work,” Turk said.

“We’ve got about 4,000 items,” he said.

The venerable business has weathered some tough years, with 2017 and 2018 being particularly challenging.

“We’ve had some tough roads from time to time,” Turk said. ”But we survived it. And we’re doing much better today."

Origins and family ties

Turk Furniture sold furniture and men’s clothing during its early years, and delivered furniture by horse and wagon. During the Great Depression, Turk Furniture offered “lenient payment plans,” according to the website.

Turk Furniture was located in downtown Joliet until 2001, when that store moved to its current location at 2901 Ring Road in Joliet behind the Louis Joliet Mall.

Turk Furniture also has locations in Bradley (the current corporate headquarters), La Salle and Ottawa. Former locations include Bolingbrook, Danville and Naperville, Turk said.

“We opened a Kankakee store in 1934,” Turk said. “And the La Salle and Ottawa stores came onboard in the 1970s.”

The business has retained a family presence, with Michael Turk’s brothers, Frank and Steve, serving as vice president and secretary, respectively. Michael Turk’s son, Austin Turk, is manager of the Joliet store.

Although Michael Turk occasionally worked the family business during high school and college summers, he never officially joined the business until late 1981.

At that point, Michael Turk’s father, Frank Turk Jr., was owner, and Turk’s grandfather, Frank Turk Sr., “was still somewhat active” in the business, Michael said.

He said he was planning to pursue an accounting career and move out West with a friend. Instead, the friend moved out West, and Michael Turk joined the family business.

“Accounting didn’t even sound that exciting,” Michael Turk said. “I dealt with numbers fairly well. But I just didn’t want to end up in it. With [the] retail business, you could move from store to store and responsibility to responsibility, whether it was purchasing or operations or sales management.”

While accounting is a stable industry and he knew he could “make a good living with it,” Michael Turk said he is glad he didn’t stay in that line of work.

Still an in-person business

“I love the furniture industry,” Michael Turk said. “I think it’s pretty unique. It’s still backwards; there’s not a lot of technology in it. But it gets into your blood after a few years. It certainly happened to me.”

Although Turk Furniture offers a comprehensive listing on its website of merchandise to furnish a wide variety of rooms and spaces, furniture really “is not the easiest thing to sell on the internet,” Michael Turk said.

It’s difficult for the consumer to judge the dimensions, drawer depth, the recline and the “feel” of the upholstery without experiencing the pieces in person, Michael Turk said.

“Customers get a chance to sit in it, to feel the comfort of it,” he added.

For more information, visit turkfurniture.com.