I grew up in Mayodan, NC… a small textile-mill town about 30 miles from Winston-Salem.  We lived in a small frame house – formerly a “mill” house (owned by the mill and rented to an employee) – that we rented from my mom’s father.  About a mile away in the heart of town was my father’s family home… right across the street from the ball park.  The front porch was high enough off the ground that you could sit on the porch and watch the game from your rocking chair – for free – quite a benefit in the mid-1950’s when every town and/or cotton mill had a baseball team and the rivalries were intense.  My dad “moonlighted” from his day job by playing baseball for the grand sum of $15 per game, pretty good money in an era where many mill hands were lucky to make $40-$50 per week.

Baseball didn’t, of course, provide year-round entertainment – but technology was about to step in and cure that situation.  In 1956, my aunt and uncle bought my grandmother a television set.  I can remember it so well…a tall wooden cabinet with a beautiful finish…and a twelve-inch screen.  With a massive outdoor antenna that looked like something off a battleship, you could get THREE channels…one fairly clear, one so-so, and one that looked pretty much like the North Pole in a blizzard all the time –all three in stunning black- and -white.  If the guy next door was using his ham (shortwave) radio, you could forget seeing ANYTHING.

Grandma’s TV was the talk of the town… there wouldn’t have been much more curiosity if the Martians had landed.  Always one to enjoy company, my grandmother didn’t mind- at first -when “company” began to pile into the living room on Saturday night.  They hadn’t come to visit – they were there to sit with mouths agape and stare at Ed Sullivan or Jack Benny on that tiny, snowy screen.  Grandma soon grumbled that she might start selling tickets… it wasn’t unusual for “visitors” to pull the porch rockers in front of the windows and watch from outside if the living room was full… Imagine it – the living room walls lined with people and faces peering voyeur-like through the front windows.  Eventually the blinds were drawn and admittance to the living room was by invitation only – Grandma had had enough.

Quite a contrast with today, isn’t it?  Many of us don’t even KNOW our neighbors – much less allow them to invade our privacy every weekend night for months and months.  And, of course, we don’t stare at tiny, fuzzy black-and- white images…we watch our shows in vivid color on giant screens with pictures so lifelike it sometimes feels like we’re IN the picture.  That big, heavy TV cabinet is gone as well – but you still have to put that brand-new LCD or plasma on something, and Bowen Town & Country Furniturehas just the thing.  We’re the specialists for home entertainment furniture in Winston-Salem – from simple cabinets for small televisions to complete wall systems that will house the biggest screen you can buy and amazingly comfortable home theater seating – we’re the guys

Come see us today at Bowen Town & Country Furniture. We are located at 1910 Mooney Street, off Stratdford Road…near Hanes Mall.

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I mentioned a 20-year warranty in the previous section.  Let’s talk about warranties for a few minutes. First of all, warranties cover defects in materials and workmanship.  You may find one or two brands out there with a “sleep guarantee” or “comfort guarantee” but they are few and far between.  If you CAN send back and uncomfortable bed, there is likely to be a fee which can be as much as two or three hundred dollars.

Most major brands stick to the “defect” requirement for the warranty to apply and there are strict guidelines as to what comprises a defect.  Loose threads and seams usually aren’t covered.  Bedding with insufficient support from the bed itself is not covered. (Stains invalidate warranties too, so be sure to use a quality mattress cover.)  Broken springs or loose components inside the bed are covered.  The most common complaint about mattresses is the dreaded “body impression.”  Before we go any further, please understand that all mattresses -other than “memory foam” ones – are going to get SOME degree of impression on the sleep surface.

Just as a new pair of shoes conforms to your feet, a new mattress must conform to your body.  Those layers of padding which provide comfort must “settle” with use.  A bed that is too hard to conform to your body cannot give proper support and therefore can’t be comfortable.  Bedding manufacturers recognize that EXCESSIVE body impressions -  permanent ones over an inch and a half deep- do constitute defects.  Want to test your bed?  Stretch a string with weighted ends over your mattress and measure the distance from the string to the surface of the bed, but not in a low spot n in the quilting.  If it’s over 1.5 inches, you may have a warranty claim.

Okay…you’ve checked your bed and it doesn’t have a “covered” impression.  You don’t rest well, you toss and turn, your back hurts in the morning.  Time for a new one…but where do you go?  The guys selling them out of a truck on the side of the road are a bad bet…you’ll get what you paid for – a cheap bed -and they’ll be long gone when it caves in.  The big boxes have brand names at good prices, but you won’t get any help with the selection and you’ll have to figure out how to get it home…and get rid of the old one.

Your best bet for the right mattress is a reputable retailer – one who carries good merchandise and stands behind it after the sale.  Odds are that you’ll find qualified, trained sales associates who can help you make the right choice.  Read the warranty card before you buy so there are no surprises later. You don’t have to pay a fortune, but money spent on the right mattress and foundation is an investment in your health.  There is very little more important to our well-being than a good night’s sleep.

A good merchant will not only help you select the right sleep surface; normally they will provide delivery and setup for free or at a reasonable price.  They’ll usually carry away the old bedding for you – and in the course of the delivery they can check your bed to be sure it provides sufficient support for your new bedding.  Pleasant dreams!

Come see us today at Bowen Town & Country Furniture. We are located at 1910 Mooney Street, off Stratdford Road…near Hanes Mall.

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By: Keith Joyce
VP of Operations

My grandfather used to joke that the Civil War isn’t really over… that the Confederacy is just taking a break.  Well, we all know that isn’t the case… and while we may kid around about it, we also know that the North had the moral high ground in that war.  Forget all the romanticism about the Lost Cause… the war was the worst the US has ever been involved in and we should all be glad it turned out like it did.

If granddad was still around, I could tease him that the Yankees are coming back today… not dressed in blue and led by General Sherman, but led by some of the finest furniture I’ve seen in my 31+ years in this industry.  We got notice yesterday that our order of casual dining furniture from Palettes by Winesburg will arrive in our warehouses in the next week, straight from Ohio.  I wrote briefly about Winesburg a while back, but my writing abilities aren’t equal to the task of describing this fine American-made furniture.  Crafted from solid cherry, maple and oak, the quality has to be seen to be appreciated.

We’ll have it on display around mid-January… and we can’t wait to show it to you!

Come see us today at Bowen Town & Country Furniture. We are located at 1910 Mooney Street, off Stratdford Road…near Hanes Mall.

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By: Keith Joyce

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about Ekornes’ Charity Promotion… the annual opportunity to save $200 off the minimum retail price of a Stressless chair and ottoman in return for a $50 donation to Hospice and Palliative Care Center here in Winston-Salem.

The Charity Promotion is the “best deal” in my opinion of all the quarterly promotions they offer… you get to keep real cash in your pocket rather than getting an accessory item that you may or may not want or need.  It’s not going to last much longer, though… the last day to take advantage of this promotion is January 16, 2012.

Now for the kicker… Ekornes is having a price increase February 1.  The increase will probably be $50 to $100 per chair, so that $200 savings could actually be as much as $300 over the price a few weeks from now.  If you’ve been thinking about one of these great Norwegian recliners, now’s the time.  They will never be cheaper than they are right now!

Come in today and pick out YOUR ideal chair!  We’ll be happy to advise you. We are located at 1910 Mooney Street, off Stratdford Road…near Hanes Mall.

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By: Keith Joyce
VP of Operations
Bowen Town & Country Furniture

Something interesting happened the other day…a customer commented that they knew there wasn’t any solid wood or traditional furniture made anymore because a salesperson at one of the big national chain furniture stores told them so.  Well, there are lots of jokes about lying salespeople but I prefer to think that this guy was just brainwashed because his company doesn’t offer any.

The truth is that there is PLENTY of solid wood furniture to be had, and while traditional furniture isn’t as common as it once was, there’s plenty of it out there as well.  Bowen Town & Country Furniture is proud to offer an excellent selection of solid wood furniture from outstanding companies like Kincaid, Bucks County, Keystone Collection, Gat Creek, Leisters Furniture and more.

Many of our suppliers offer extensive collections of traditionally-styled furniture as well.  Carriage House by Kincaid is a perfect example of 18th Century designs executed in solid cherry…and handcrafted in Hudson, NC.  If you aren’t interested in contemporary or transitional styles, come and see us.  While we do have offerings in those categories, traditional furniture IS a tradition at Bowen Town & Country Furniture.  From rustic hand-build reproductions in tiger maple, cherry, and pine by Bucks County to the sophisticated formal look of Kincaid’s Carriage House, we are THE source for traditional furniture in Winston-Salem.

Come see us today!  We’ll show you that quality, style, and solid wood values are alive and well at Bowen Town & Country Furniture. We are located at 1910 Mooney Street, off Stratdford Road…near Hanes Mall.

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Winston-Salem Christmas Parade, 1965. Photograph shows a parade float
and a car on West Fourth Street, looking east.

By: Keith H. Joyce
Vice President / Operations
Bowen Town & Country Furniture Co.

When I was a small child, my parents and I lived less than a mile from
Bowen Town and Country Furniture’s original location off Reynolda Road
in the Old Town section of Winston-Salem.

Bowen had sort of a “country store” feel to it back then…it was normal
for folks just to stop by to visit and maybe drink an ice-cold 6-oz.
Coke out of our machine…the bottles had city names stamped on the
bottoms and you could always get a few of the salesmen to wager a
quarter on whose bottle came from furthest away.

Christmas was an incredibly busy time…trucks would leave the
warehouses at 7AM on Christmas Eve laden with so many recliners that
we’d have to take the backs off the chairs to fit them on the truck.
Years later, I worked in the warehouse when I was on Christmas vacation
from school and delivered many a Christmas recliner to a father or
grandfather.

Sometime in the mid-sixties, I guess it was…our founder, Raymond
Bowen, attended a trade show in New York.  He came back with Christmas
decorations and soon the showroom windows were festooned with mechanized
elves, a Santa Claus, and a mechanized sleigh complete with reindeer
(scaled down, of course).  The keystone of the display was a silver foil
Christmas tree which changed colors due to a rotating light being shined
on it.

As my parents and I drove past the store at night, the parking lot would
be full of cars long after closing time…filled with people simply
sitting there and watching the tree change colors, Santa and the sleigh
gliding back and forth, and the elves going up and down behind a log.
People drove from the other side of town to see the decorations!

We still decorate the entire store every year…the decorations are
beautifully done and reminiscent of something you’d see in a magazine.
Live poinsettias are placed throughout the store and Christmas lights
abound.   We get hundreds of compliments, but some days I still kind of
miss those elves…

Please come by and see us. We’re in the Christmas spirit and we carry the finest furniture and mattresses in Winston-Salem.  And…we’re celebrating more than 54 years of service to the community

We are located at 1910 Mooney Street, right off Stratdford Road…near Hanes Mall.

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By: Keith Joyce

If you have read any of my other posts, you probably know that November 1 marked my 31st anniversary at Bowen Town & Country Furniture.  Over those 3 decades I’ve compiled a lot of great memories… mostly good, some bad, many hilarious, some sad.

I’ve shared a few of these memories with you in the past… and today I’m going to tell you about the scariest thing that ever happened to me in the furniture business.  There are no ghosts, poltergeists, apparitions or the like in this story, just a “sweet little old lady” who had been a customer of mine for years.

She walked into the store one bright Saturday morning (no dark and stormy night, rattling chains or creaking doors either) and asked me to show her a new mattress set.  I began asking her questions about her needs and – here it comes – she looked me dead in the eye and said “Keith, I want you to tell me which mattress will make my back stop hurting!”

She went on to explain that she had three fused vertebrae and a handful of screws in her spine and was in constant pain.  I was speechless…  Finally I managed to tell her that due to her physical condition, no mattress could “cure” her aching back; if it was aggravated by sleeping on a worn out or poor quality bed, a new one could possibly lessen her discomfort… but that a bed couldn’t cure what surgery couldn’t.

We spent a good deal of time in the bedding gallery and finally chose a bed that we thought might help.  Thankfully, it did allow her to sleep better… but her pain will always be there.  Fortunately for me, I –like the rest of the staff at Bowen Town & Country – had the training and years of experience that helped me assist her in selecting the best bed for her needs.

Visit us at Bowen Town & Country Furniture in Winston-Salem, NC. We are located at 1910 Mooney Street, right off Stratdford Road…near Hanes Mall.

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If you’re a native Southerner and have spent much time around people from “up north,” you’ve probably been teased about your Southern drawl or the way you pronounce certain words.  I certainly have been…

Okay… I admit it; some words seem to be a little harder for Southerners to say than others, especially foreign ones.  Take “Ekornes” for example… it looks like it ought to be pronounced “eee-KORNS,” right?  Does to me, too…but it’s actually “ECK-or-ness.”  It’s Norwegian… I could never learn that language… had enough trouble with English (and still do).

Now that we know how to say it, the question becomes “What the heck IS it?”  Well, that’s easy.  Stressless chairs by Ekornes are the world’s finest reclining chairs… and the ONLY chair endorsed by the American Chiropractic Association.  Distinctive in design and innovative in engineering, Stressless chairs are unlike any traditional recliner you have ever seen.

I could sit here and type for hours, but even my very best description would not do this product justice.  Every chair comes in two or three sizes, dozens of leathers and fabrics, and several wood finishes.  Sleek and Scandinavian in appearance, the Stressless chair can only be fully appreciated by sitting in one.  You have NEVER before had this kind of support from a recliner.

Bowen Town & Countryhas a fully-stocked Ekornes Zone.  Come by and let us show you how this unique chair provides unmatched comfort and support.  To sweeten the deal, you can save $200 on any Stressless chair when you give us a $50 check payable to Hospice and Palliative Care Center between now and Jan. 16, 2012.  You’ll save $200 on a great chair and at the same time help support a great institution.

Visit us at Bowen Town & Country Furniture in Winston-Salem, NC. We are located at 1910 Mooney Street, right off Stratdford Road…near Hanes Mall.

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I’d have been wrong (a not-infrequent occurrence, according to my wife) if I had said that.  There IS furniture being made in America… and the amount being built here is going UP instead of down.  Let’s take a look at why the trend has reversed…

• Labor costs in China have risen drastically over the last few years.  The average Chinese worker is no longer willing to work for pennies a day, and he or she prefers to work in a nice clean electronics plant with air conditioning and heat.  Higher wages, better working conditions, a drastically reduced chance of losing fingers – or worse – to a lathe or saw… who wouldn’t want to make that change?

• Transportation costs have skyrocketed with the price of fuel.  A few years ago it cost roughly $2,200 to send a 40-foot shipping container across the Pacific… I’m told that figure has risen to $5,000 or more today.

• Environmental issues have come into play as well.  The Chinese government has finally realized that they must take steps to clean up their air and water.  Remember when they had to close all the factories around Beijing months before the Olympics to clear the air?  Did you know that 7 of the 9 most polluted rivers in the world are in China?  The cleanup will cost billions – and those billions will come from increased prices on Chinese products.

While all this was going on, many American furniture companies – especially upholstery companies and smaller wood furniture companies – stuck to their knitting and did what they do best – produce a high-quality product that consumers can trust and use for years.  These companies hung on through thick and thin – tightening belts to survive – and they’re with us today.

Visit us at Bowen Town & Country Furniture in Winston-Salem, NC. We are located at 1910 Mooney Street, right off Stratdford Road…near Hanes Mall.

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It’s not too often that you can do something that directly benefits yourself and helps others at the same time, but for a limited time at Bowen Town & Country, you can treat yourself AND do a good deed for a wonderful institution right here in Winston-Salem.

Between now and January 16, you can treat yourself to the world’s best reclining chair – the Stressless Chair by Ekornes – and save $200 off the minimum retail price.  How?  Just write a check for $50 to the Hospice and Palliative Care Center.

We’ll forward your check directly to Hospice where it will help them continue to provide their invaluable services to people- and their families -who are terminally ill.

If you’ve ever considered the purchase of an Ekornes Stressless chair, I urge you to take advantage of this opportunity.  You’ll rest well knowing that you have helped make your community a better place.

Visit us at Bowen Town & Country Furniture in Winston-Salem, NC. We are located at 1910 Mooney Street, right off Stratdford Road…near Hanes Mall.

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