Good Question: Is Ruby Gordon in Henrietta closing permanently?

HENRIETTA, N.Y. — If you’ve been to Ruby Gordon’s Henrietta store recently, it’s hard to miss all of the neon colored signs saying everything must go.

The owners say between 30% and 40% of all independently owned furniture retailers either closed or were sold off to bigger companies during the pandemic. What are the owners plans for the future as signs say “drastic discounts”, “prices slashed”, and “nothing held back”.

Brian writes: “Is Ruby Gordon going out of business or not? They have vehicles with signs saying going out of business sales.”

The store is not closing permanently. It is closing temporarily.

“This is our biggest attempt to stay with the Rochester community,” said Janetta Ruby, president of Ruby Gordon. “We do not want to be the 30-40% as an independent that has to end up closing because times got really hard.”

The reason for the temporary shut down? Supply chain and shipping issues that have built up since COVID-19 arrived. Challenges with trucking deliveries and overseas shipments have caused longer wait times for customers, sometimes up to six months.

Janetta Ruby, president: “With everything that happened, we realized that customers are tired of waiting. And they want product now. So what we’re doing is we’re meeting with a lot of different manufacturers, a lot of new manufacturers, and finding out which ones more align with what we’re trying to do for our customers.”

Aaron Ruby, CEO: “We were trying to do it piece by piece over the last three years and it just hasn’t been working. So, we realized that if we really want to make this change, we need to just hard reset, everything.”

That reset means there will be more furniture in-stock in the warehouse and less waiting for items to be shipped in.

Ruby Gordon has two locations. One at the mall at Greece Ridge and one here on West Henrietta Road. The difference between the two locations is that, during their temporary shut-down, customers won’t be able to walk in to the Henrietta location. Customers will still be able to walk in to the Greece location

“Our landlord unfortunately wouldn’t let us close our doors in Greece, so we are keeping those doors open,” Janetta Ruby said.

The owners are hoping to clear our their existing inventory, so customers will be able to negotiate prices during the store’s temporary closing sale.

“90% of third generation businesses close. I’m third generation so that’s up there,” Aaron Ruby said. “We’d like something to pass on to our kids, the fourth generation. The way things have been as Janetta said, we don’t want to become a statistic.”

The store is not going out of business. It is closing temporarily to overhaul its inventory. The owners plan to close up right after Labor Day and open back up again in late September.

If you have a question you’d like answered, send us an email to GoodQuestion@whec.com.