One family has owned the Etna Furniture Store for three generations

loading...

ETNA — Westbound on Route 2, you could also miss the furniture store tucked beneath the hilltop. Eastbound, you’ve got a few extra seconds before you buzz past either driveway entrance.

The Etna Furniture Store, owned by Dale and Virginia “Ginny” Hopkins, has sold furniture almost a half century. Yet some people know little more about the family-run business than its ads promoting Moosehead furniture. However, the Hopkins sell furniture statewide — and often out of state, too.

Ginny’s parents, George and Edith Bubar, established Etna Furniture almost 50 years ago. After Edith died in September 1987, Dale and Ginny took over the day-to-day operations. They’re assisted by a daughter, Faith Thompson, and her husband, Darrell, and by Marilyn McCourt, a long-time employee.

Etna Furniture has two stores:

The flagship store on Route 2 in Etna, just a few yards past the Carmel-Etna town line and perhaps a half mile east of the intersection of Routes 2 and 143. This store has five showrooms spread over 10,000 square feet, plus three warehouses;

A 6,000-square-foot store at the Westgate Mall in Bangor. “We’ve been in Bangor for many years,” Ginny said, recalling that their business “opened first in the Sunbury Mall. We moved to the Westgate Mall when space became available there.”

Etna Furniture carries various furniture brand names, including:

Moosehead, the quality wood furniture produced by Moosehead Manufacturing Co. and available as bedroom sets, dining-room sets, occasional tables, chinas, desks, and entertainment centers;

Bassett (bedroom sets, living-room and dining-room sets, occasional tables, and entertainment centers);

Hooker. “We carry mostly entertainment centers and desks in their line, but we do have their bedroom sets,” Ginny said;

Berkline (recliners and living-room sets);

Barcalounger (recliners and living-room sets);

Pulaski (curios and gun cabinets);

Winners Only (rolltop desks and clawfoot tables and chairs);

England Corsair, a Tennessee-based company that manufactures living-room sets. Delivery routinely takes only four weeks, vs. the industry standard of six-to-eight weeks, Ginny stressed;

Eclipse (mattresses and box springs);

Serta (mattresses and box springs);

Gold Bond, which produces a latex-foam mattress “that’s the real foam,” Ginny said. “It’s not this cheap stuff”;

Athol, a Massachusetts company that manufactures ash dining-room sets with an oak finish;

Temple Stuart (dining-room and bedroom sets in oak, maple, and cherry finishes);

Ridgeway grandfather clocks, either floor- or wall-mounted;

Amesbury, another Massachusetts company that has oak-finish tables.

What’s popular among the customers? “Country, of course, is always good,” Ginny replied, “as is Traditional,” a style that emphasizes (among its other features) “straight skirts” on sofas and easy chairs.

The styles known as Early American or Colonial have evolved into Country, a high-demand style that stresses a rural, rustic, yet traditional appearance. As national surveys indicate, women especially find Country appealing — and women often make the final decision as to what furniture to buy.

Among the individual furniture styles grouped under Colonial is Shaker. The style reflects the simple, elegant lines affected by the Shaker sect, which has a small community at Sabbathday Lake near Auburn.

Having two stores, albeit about 17 miles apart, has helped business, Ginny said. She explained that “some people who live in town don’t want to drive to Etna, so they will shop our Bangor location. Some people who live out here in the country don’t want to drive to Bangor, so they will shop our store here.

“We do give personalized service,” she said. “We try to take care of our customers.”

With their business almost a half century old, Ginny has noticed that “we’re seeing the children of children whose parents brought them in here years ago shopping at our store now. That’s grandparents, parents, and grandchildren: I think that says something about our business. We’ve been here a long time.”

According to Ginny, Etna Furniture “will deliver wherever.” The service area encompasses Maine from Eastport to Aroostook County and southern Maine. A local delivery’s made free of charge; Etna Furniture may charge for deliveries farther away, “depending on how much we are taking with us,” Ginny said.

The company ships furniture by common carrier to out-of-state customers. We have sold furniture to people living in Missouri, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and elsewhere, Ginny noted. She even recalled when “my parents packed a truckload of furniture and drove it to a customer in Pennsylvania.”