{"version":"1.0","provider_name":"The News Journal","provider_url":"https:\/\/qa.thenewsjournal.net","title":"Faulkner and Taylor Furniture closing after 75 years &ndash; The News Journal","type":"rich","width":600,"height":338,"html":"<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"q8F0Pe8jrM\"><a href=\"https:\/\/qa.thenewsjournal.net\/faulkner-taylor-furniture-closing-75-years\/\">Faulkner and Taylor Furniture closing after 75 years<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" src=\"https:\/\/qa.thenewsjournal.net\/faulkner-taylor-furniture-closing-75-years\/embed\/#?secret=q8F0Pe8jrM\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" title=\"&#8220;Faulkner and Taylor Furniture closing after 75 years&#8221; &#8212; The News Journal\" data-secret=\"q8F0Pe8jrM\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\"><\/iframe><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n\/* <![CDATA[ *\/\n\/*! This file is auto-generated *\/\n!function(d,l){\"use strict\";l.querySelector&&d.addEventListener&&\"undefined\"!=typeof URL&&(d.wp=d.wp||{},d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage||(d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage=function(e){var t=e.data;if((t||t.secret||t.message||t.value)&&!\/[^a-zA-Z0-9]\/.test(t.secret)){for(var s,r,n,a=l.querySelectorAll('iframe[data-secret=\"'+t.secret+'\"]'),o=l.querySelectorAll('blockquote[data-secret=\"'+t.secret+'\"]'),c=new RegExp(\"^https?:$\",\"i\"),i=0;i<o.length;i++)o[i].style.display=\"none\";for(i=0;i<a.length;i++)s=a[i],e.source===s.contentWindow&&(s.removeAttribute(\"style\"),\"height\"===t.message?(1e3<(r=parseInt(t.value,10))?r=1e3:~~r<200&&(r=200),s.height=r):\"link\"===t.message&&(r=new URL(s.getAttribute(\"src\")),n=new URL(t.value),c.test(n.protocol))&&n.host===r.host&&l.activeElement===s&&(d.top.location.href=t.value))}},d.addEventListener(\"message\",d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage,!1),l.addEventListener(\"DOMContentLoaded\",function(){for(var e,t,s=l.querySelectorAll(\"iframe.wp-embedded-content\"),r=0;r<s.length;r++)(t=(e=s[r]).getAttribute(\"data-secret\"))||(t=Math.random().toString(36).substring(2,12),e.src+=\"#?secret=\"+t,e.setAttribute(\"data-secret\",t)),e.contentWindow.postMessage({message:\"ready\",secret:t},\"*\")},!1)))}(window,document);\n\/* ]]> *\/\n<\/script>\n","thumbnail_url":"https:\/\/qa.thenewsjournal.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/4-col-Faulkner-and-Taylor-owners-in-front-of-store.jpg","thumbnail_width":480,"thumbnail_height":261,"description":"What is the secret to staying in business for 75 years? \u201cI think the secret is having a loyal customer base,\u201d said Linda Faulkner Shelby, who is the third and final generation of her family to run Faulkner and Taylor Furniture in Williamsburg. \u201cA lot of the other retail businesses like we are have gone by the way, but I have said for years we have the best customers in the country. They are just good people. If they tell you they are going to do something, they will do it. If you treat them right, then they are loyal to you. I think that is what has kept us here all of these years.\u201d After 75 years in business the store is closing its doors in a few short weeks. Linda Shelby said that she and her husband, Bryan, started making preparations to close the store about a year ago, but the official \u201cgoing out of business\u201d sale started on Jan. 26. She anticipates the store will be ready to close by late February or early March. \u201cWe are just ready to be full-time grandparents, available grand parents. We are just ready to start a different chapter in our lives,\u201d said Linda Shelby. \u201cThis has been very good, and it is sad to leave especially going back with all this history. There is a part of me that thinks, \u2018Oh, no!\u2019 but we are ready. We are just ready. It is time.\u201d Shelby said that the customers \u2013 many of whom are friends \u2013 are what she will miss most about the business. Shelby said some people have been customers for the entire 43 years she and her husband have been involved in the business. Just as she is the third generation of her family to run the business, Shelby said that some of the store\u2019s customers are the third generation of their family to regularly shop at the store. \u201cTheir parents and grandparents brought them here. They remember. It has been very rewarding,\u201d Shelby said. Linda Shelby said that when her grandfather started the store in 1942, she doesn\u2019t think he ever envisioned it would still be open 75 years later. \u201cHe had run several stores out in the county. Then he would buy another one and do that. I am sure he just thought he would do that again,\u201d she said. \u201cIn fact, he didn\u2019t stay in it the whole time.\u201d Store\u2019s roots The store actually traces it roots back to the late 1800\u2019s. In 1890, the store was founded as Perkins Brothers, which was owned by John Wesley Perkins and Pleasant Wade (P.W.) Perkins. In 1942, Shelby\u2019s grandfather, Joe Faulkner, and his brother, Harold Faulkner, bought the store from the Perkins Brothers and changed the name to Faulkner Brothers. In 1948, Walter Taylor and Raymond Faulkner bought the store from Harold and Joe Faulkner. It wasn\u2019t long until Shelby\u2019s uncle, Vernon Faulkner, returned from the service and bought an interest in the store. Joe Faulkner, her grandfather, also bought back his share of the store. Shelby said that Joe Faulkner and three of his sons then ran the store for several years. Linda Shelby\u2019s father, Harold Faulkner, and her uncle, Vernon Faulkner, bought out Joe and Clyde Faulkner&#8217;s interest in the store in 1967. Linda and Bryan were living in Atlanta when they decided to move back to Williamsburg in 1974 and take over a portion of the business. \u201cWe decided that we really didn\u2019t want to raise a family in Atlanta,\u201d she said. \u201cThere was an opening here. Uncle Vernon had come to Atlanta to visit and he said, \u2018Why don\u2019t you all just come back and go to the store?\u2019 We did and it has been good. My dad was a partner in the store then too.\u201d In 1994, Linda and Bryan bought Vernon Faulkner\u2019s remaining interest in the store and have run it since then. Linda said that her daughter and son-in-law, who is a minister, have no interest into getting into the business. \u201cMy nieces and nephews all have different career plans. The sad part is I wish there was somebody else we could leave it to, but there isn\u2019t. They are all going different directions,\u201d she added. Linda Shelby said she appreciates all the people that have kept the store in business all these years. \u201cIt isn\u2019t any one thing that any one generation has done. It is a cumulative effort and a cumulative patronage that has kept us working way beyond the years of what it should have done,\u201d she added. \u201cThis sort of business, you don\u2019t see many more left. We really and truly appreciate all the customers and people, who have kept us here.\u201d Will be missed Williamsburg Mayor Roddy Harrison said that he was saddened to hear the news that Faulkner &amp; Taylor was closing. \u201cIt is a business that has been on Main Street for 75 years,\u201d Harrison said. \u201cIt is kind of like Merry\u2019s Flowers. It is just something that was always downtown and you always knew it. While I am saddened, I understand that things change. How many businesses go past 75 years?\u201d Harrison said that while he is saddened to hear about the store closing, he is happy for Bryan and Linda to \u201cgo do what they want to do while they have a lot of life left. I am going to miss them tremendously. It is going to leave a void in Williamsburg.\u201d Leaving a void Harrison said that the city has to pick up and move on after the store closes. \u201cI have already started making phone calls trying to get people in their building,\u201d he added. Linda Shelby said that the building is owned by several people and they are open to either selling it or leasing it. Harrison said that one thing the town will have to overcome with the closure of Faulkner &amp; Taylor, and Merry\u2019s Flower Shop, which was in business for 40 years, is that from [&hellip;]"}