Heilig-Meyers

Heilig-Meyers

Industry	Retail
Fate	Bankruptcy
Founded	1913
Defunct	2000
Headquarters	Richmond, Virginia
Products	Furniture, bedding, small appliances, consumer electronics, jewelry, and seasonal goods.
Website	None

Heilig-Meyers was a retail furniture store chain founded in Goldsboro, North Carolina, in 1913 by two Lithuanian immigrants, H. A. Heilig and J. M. Meyers. Its corporate headquarters was in Richmond, Virginia. The chain grew to become the largest furniture retailer in the United States in the 1990s, ultimately having over 1,000 stores nationwide (including Puerto Rico).

Its over-expansion—by purchasing over 100 McMahan's Furniture Stores based in Carlsbad, California in 1993, as well as other stores and chains in the West—contributed to its failure. The company also bought the L. Fish furniture chain in the Chicago, Illinois area.

Heilig-Meyers filed for bankruptcy in August 2000.^[1] The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported in 2000 that the company failed when its large expansion did not succeed in creating sufficient revenue and when customers who'd previously used the company's inhouse credit began using credit cards instead. The company's credit customers had grown increasingly of lower quality.^[2]

The company, which had sponsored NASCAR drivers Bobby Hillin, Jr., Dick Trickle and Mike Wallace, was one of the last furniture companies to finance its own accounts. The last CEO/President was Bill DeRusha

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