The catchphrase “home is where the heart is” definitely has special meaning for Dodd’s Furniture and Mattress, Best Furniture Store in the Best of the City survey.
With a lease expiring at Dodd’s old site off old Island Highway and Hammond Bay Road, a new site was built on Uplands Drive, after a detour to a temporary site in the old Island Highway/Wellington Road area. It is a situation that Love Dodd, vice-president, recalls as a nightmare.
“We had a lot of trucks going back and forth … The reason was because our building was delayed,” said Dodd. “So we had to find a temporary location to fit the needs of the time we were going to lose with no business location. Logistically it was very tough to take stuff apart and then set it up again.
“We tried to sell off as much as we could before we got into our brand new building, because everything was going to be pretty well brand new in there.”
Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit and Dodd and company weren’t able to get any new merchandise, which led to movement of merchandise from the old location to the new.
“It was a tough thing because customers didn’t even know we had a temporary location because it takes a little bit of time for awareness out there, through advertising, so we had a tough time for those few months,” said Dodd.
But that is all in the past, as Dodd and company have moved into their new digs in north Nanaimo. It is twice as large as the old location and has been extremely good for the company, he said.
“Now we have a warehouse in the back where we can have customers pick up merchandise and stock right away, where in the past they’d have to wait a week for it to come up from Victoria,” said Dodd. “So that’s made a huge difference in logistics and customer wait time.”
BEST OF THE CITY: This year’s winners
The company is known for humorous TV commercials featuring Dodd’s father and company owner Gordy as characters such as the Incredible Hulk and Indiana Jones. More are on the way.
“We’ve actually hired a new girl who’s going to help us a little bit more with our advertisements,” said Dodd. “My dad’s still going to be in there, but she’s going to be showing a lot more of the products. We’ve got a brand new one coming out just solely on mattresses only.”
Dodd said he’s pleased to win the top prize in the category.
“That really tells us our hard work is paying off and that customers are happy with our service up there,” he said.
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