White Furniture

In 1946, Sam Olstein opened his furniture store on Biddle Avenue south of Eureka and he wanted the store to stand out. Since he was a one-man operation and couldn't afford the fancy neon lights that that lit up many of the businesses along Biddle, he decided to outline his store's front windows with fluorescent lights. He threw the switch and walked across the street to a doughnut shop to get a cup of coffee. He came outside and was sipping his coffee and admiring his work and a drunk stumbled by and said, 'Boy, is that white.' That's how my dad decided upon the name White Furniture." Jeff Olstein joined the company full time in 1971 and worked with his father until Sam retired in 1980. The biggest lesson he learned from his father was to under promise and over deliver. Jeff took over full ownership from his father in 1980 and began to increase the quality level of the products White Furniture carried and upgrade the look of the store. Keeping a store such as ours fresh is a never-ending process.