Buehler Furniture celebrates 35 years of quality service

For 35 years, Buehler Furniture & Upholstery Inc. in downtown Sheboygan Falls has been well known for delivering a top-notch, customer-friendly, personalized style of sales, service and repair.

The Buehler family founded the business in 1974, with a commitment to offering high quality products at a reasonable price.

Four decades later, that devotion to customer satisfaction remains as the centerpiece of the business.

From humble beginnings in 1974, Buehler Furniture & Upholstery quickly developed into a cornerstone of the historic downtown district, from its prime location at the intersection of Broadway and Monroe streets.

The origin of the current Buehler Furniture building dates back to the 1840s, when it was known as Lyman’s General Store.

The building remained as a grocery store with various owners throughout the years, until Jim Buehler purchased the building 35 years ago.

“My brother Jim started the business in 1974,” co-owner John Buehler said. “His main focus was reupholstery, which he had already been doing on his own for two years.

“Along with the upholstery business in the back of the store, he also had some pieces of furniture in the front of the store, to attract customers,” he said.

According to John, the early years of Buehler Furniture provided some unexpected challenges.

“Jim had trouble at that time, because people kept coming into the store to visit,” John said. “When you are in business, you always want customers coming into your store.

“But it was hard for Jim at that time, because he really prided himself on the upholstery work, and he wasn’t able to focus on it as much as he wanted to,” he said.

In 1976, Jim and John’s parents, Derwin and Ruth Buehler bought into the business and handled the dayto day operations of the store for the next 20 years.

John said the business thrived under the direction of his parents, Derwin and Ruth.

“My mom and dad basically built the business from scratch,” John said. “My dad had a very dynamic personality.

“He was good with people, and that is part of why the business became a success,” he said.

In 1983, Jim moved his upholstery business to Three Lakes, where he stayed for the next 17 years, before coming back in 2000.

In Jim’s absence, John and his wife Connie came on board to help run the store. John and Connie assumed additional duties, when Ruth retired in 1987, and Derwin followed in 1996.

“When Jim left for those years, I started doing the upholstery work,” John said. “I helped to keep that part of the business going, until Jim came back home in 2000.”

The business is committed to selling quality recliners and sofas with top-flight frames, springs and fabrics.

“When my mom and dad assumed the daily operation of the business, they brought in La-Z-Boy furniture,” John said. “Since then, we have been committed to selling only quality pieces.”

Buehler Furniture specializes solely on living-room furniture.

“We offer a full line of recliners, sofas, love seats and sleepers for living rooms,” John said. “La-Z-Boy recliners are probably our most popular item.”

In addition to standard living-room furniture, such as recliners and sofas, Buehler Furniture has the largest selection of lift chairs in Sheboygan County

The Buehler’s lift-chair offerings include a wide variety of Action Lift and La-Z-Boy lift chairs.

“We got into selling lift chairs, because no other place in the area wanted to repair them,” John said. “Because it is such a specialty item and no other place does repairs, I have done some lift chair repairs for other stores through the years.”

A willingness to provide quick service for all lift chair emergency repairs has set Buehler Furniture apart from the furniture-store pack.

“We stock all the needed repair parts in our store, so we can usually respond to calls the next day,” John said.

Personalized service is something Buehler is proud to offer.

“Our service is personalized as much as possible,” John said. “Ninety-nine percent of the time our customers are working with one of the owners of the store,” he said. “You just don’t see that at other places. It’s pretty unique.

“We sell it, repair it and delivery it ourselves,” he said. “We have seen it all and done it all, when it comes to furniture and upholstery repair.”

John said Buehler Furniture strives to carry as many American-made furniture pieces as possible.

“We are committed to American-made furniture, with brands like A.A. Laun, Leick, La-Z-Boy and Marshfield,” he said. “We also have Daniel lamps and Howard Miller clocks. I believe the American companies make the best furniture out there.

Although they might not have the selection of the larger stores, the Buehlers are generally able to offer lower prices than their competitors.

“Being small, we have much less overhead than most larger stores,” John said. “Nine times out of 10 we can beat the competition on price.

“We do have two floors of furniture, with another floor upstairs” he said. “A lot of people don’t know that.”

All deliveries are free in Sheboygan County and trade-ins are welcome.

“We still take trade-ins,” she said. “John’s dad started that 30 years ago, and we have kept that alive.”

“Other stores don’t have delivery people with enough experience to appraise a piece of furniture,” John said. “When we deliver a piece of furniture, we have the know-how to take trade-ins.”

According to Connie, if a customer does not see a certain color or style at the store, it can be special ordered.

“We offer a large range of colors and styles,” Connie said. “If we don’t have it in stock, we will make special orders at no additional cost.”

The Buehlers are well aware that the number of small specialty businesses has declined greatly in recent years.

“There are certainly not very many small stores like ours anymore,” John said. “Despite that, our La-ZBoy sales increased 21 percent since last year.

“We are holding in quite well,” he said.

To mark the 35th anniversary of the business, Jim’s wife Lynn of Sweet Spot Design, has designed a new Web site at www.buehlerfurniture.com.

“Lynn is also a part owner in the business, along with Connie, Jim and myself,” John said. “She designed a great looking Web site for us through her business.

For more information, call 467-3061.