Retirement might look a bit different than one might imagine for Scott and Lisa Duburg.
The Oakdale couple recently began their latest adventure as the owners of Oakdale Furniture Gallery. The family run business at 1449 E. F St., Oakdale is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
“We retired and needed something to do after the fact,” Lisa Duburg said. “We wanted something to leave our kids and grandkids. This is completely family owned and operated.”
Located to the south of SaveMart supermarket, the furniture store currently occupies two of the suites which were vacant. An expansion is currently underway and is expected to be complete in early 2020. Duburg noted while the couple is thrilled to have opened its doors in October with the limited space, she’s equally excited to be able to expand the business and create true vignettes once construction is complete.
Drawing on Scott’s 40 years in the furniture business and her 30 years in the heating and air business, the couple’s business partnership is proving to be beneficial in creating a well-rounded retail experience for its customers.
In Scott’s 40 years in the business he spent a number of years with his own furniture repair business, as well as working for the well-known Restoration Hardware. Experiences which make him a true asset to the business, as well as being able to work with customer requests.
Lisa Duburg describes the team as Scott being the “creative doer” and herself as the numbers person.
The newly opened furniture store offers a fresh shopping experience to the east side of Oakdale. The space offers furnishings described as rustic, industrial, but very, very comfy.
“I’m not real modern,” she said of her personal style. “That’s not my style. I have to keep in mind other people’s style and taste. If it was all my style and taste it would be rustic homey, farmhouse kind of look. I love that. That is my style.”
While the space offers a stylish variety of furnishing pieces, the couple also offers a progressive feature to the business by way of retail kiosk. It’s an in store digital tool which offers customers access to two warehouse spaces in Los Angeles and the Bay Area and thousands of additional pieces of inventory.
“If you see it on our digital kiosk it’s in stock,” Duburg said. “Once you see it if you like it you can purchase it and it comes out of the inventory immediately. It changes daily, several times a day actually. So as inventory comes and goes, that digital kiosk is updated.”
In addition to this unique shopping opportunity, Oakdale Furniture Gallery is also a membership based store. While customers need not be members to shop in the retail space, it is a service which can pay for itself in one quick shopping trip.
“What that gives you is 20 percent off of furniture or anything in our store for life,” she said of the membership business model. Duburg also shared for the month of November they are offering free membership. “So after November it will be a $99 fee.”
“It’s a different concept,” she noted. “We needed a little niche, a little something different.”
As the Duburgs get settled into the current space during the construction in the adjacent suites, Lisa shared she’s enjoying the business, as well as location and partnership with her husband thus far. Once the additional space is open however, she is excited to bring in more home accessories for their customers.
“That’s my passion, that’s my love,” she said. “Furniture is his love and he knows everything there is to know about furniture. It’s just kind of blending the two together.”
She also feels comfortable in the environment.
“I’m a people person, I love to talk to people,” she continued, sharing that the customers are her favorite part of the job. “No high pressure sales or anything like that. This is a family store. You walk through these doors, you might as well be coming into my home.”
