One Stop Milestone: Camas furniture store celebrates 70th anniversary

There are some days when even Dave Fletcher can’t believe the family business his grandparents opened in the mid-1950s has come so far.

“I’m happy and delighted, but some days I’m surprised we’re still here after 70 years,” Fletcher, the owner of One Stop Home Furnishings, said of his business’ milestone anniversary. “I’m grateful to my parents and grandparents and, obviously, to our customers.”

Located at 2140 S.E. Eighth Ave., in Camas, near the Highway 14 roundabout, One Stop Home Furnishings offers the latest furniture — living and dining room sets, armchairs, tables, mattresses, beds and more, plus a dazzling array of fabric and customization options — arranged inside a nearly 20,000-square-foot, two-story retail space.

This month, One Stop Home Furnishings is celebrating its 70th year in business. And what started in 1954 with Fletcher’s grandparents, Mickey and Hazel Schwary, opening their shop the One Stop Shopping Center in Camas, alongside a grocery store, hardware store, shoe store and former Camas mayor Nan Henriksen’s family’s drug store, has morphed into the longest running independent furniture store in Clark County.

Fletcher, 68, a 1974 Camas High School graduate, moved to Seattle after high school and graduated from the University of Washington in 1978. He worked at a radio station for a short time before joining the family business and working under the tutelage of his parents, Winn and Joanne Fletcher.

“We’ve been here for so long, and I think that when you do the right thing and be honest with people, they trust you,” Dave said. “And when they’re seeing the same faces for years, it builds up trust.”

And while many other independent furniture stores have struggled to survive in a world filled with big-box stores and online retailers, One Stop Home Furnishings has been able to maintain a loyal customer base and weather seven decades of economic ups and downs.

“I think back to the 1970s, at a time when the paper mill was one of, if not the major employers, in the county, and 70 to 80 percent of our customers worked at the mill,” Dave recalled. “There was a 10-month-strike at the mill and it was brutal, but we learned from that. Then, in the 1980s, there was inflation. The recession in 2008 — from 2008 to 2011 was bad and scary.

“And then there was the (COVID) pandemic,” Dave said. “We run a pretty tight ship, so we can be more flexible, and we had some folks who had been with us for quite a while who were going to retire at the time, which made it a bit easier.”

Through the bad times, Dave and Molly relied on their customers’ loyalty as well as the savings they receive being a part of a West Coast furniture buying group of 65 independent furniture stores.

“We’re so far away from each other that we don’t mind sharing information,” Dave said of the buying group members. “And you get a little bit of buying power when you can group together.”

And, of course, there are the more visceral aspects of running a furniture store that makes having a physical, brick-and-mortar location so valuable.

“You can go online and buy a book or some other commodity, but I would never buy a mattress if I couldn’t lie on it. Or a recliner chair if I couldn’t sit on it,” Dave said.

The business also has its own delivery trucks and can offer more affordable, flat-rate delivery service — something that helps keep the cost lower for customers who might be tempted to buy furniture tax-free in Oregon or even online but then have to pay higher costs for delivery or shipping.

“We just concentrate on what we do best,” Dave said. “We’re not trying to set the world on fire, just do the best that we can in our market area.”

Dave and Molly also try to stay up on the latest furniture trends as well as what will appeal to their mostly Camas-Washougal area customers. They attend trade shows a few times a year to see the latest styles, fabrics and color options.

“We’re seeing more demand for contemporary products,” Dave said. “And we are trying to stay up on the new trends and bring in new colors.”

The shop’s customer demographics have changed throughout the years, Dave added.

“The income in Camas was good because of the mill, but it’s really good now. And we have a wider group of incomes and tastes, so we have to listen to our customers and look at our past history. Having the buying group and all of these other stores also helps us cut down on bad buying decisions.”

Although Dave and Molly do not have children to pass the store on to, Dave said he still enjoys running the family business and coming into work every day.

“A lot of our friends have retired, but it’s still fun,” Dave said. “I feel privileged, frankly, I went to school here in Camas and being able to see classmates … reinforces the feeling of being a part of a community.”