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Fire doesn’t extinguish entrepreneur’s passion
By Rachel Pleasant
Staff Writer
Describe Tim Christopherson as “undaunted” and he will shrug his shoulders.
In November, weeks after Christopherson opened The Closeout Co., a furniture store on Savannah Highway, a fire caused about $100,000 in damage and forced Christopherson to close for several weeks.
For all the damage and inconvenience it created, the fire did nothing to break Christopherson’s determination to be successful in the Charleston area.
“There’s no other way to look at it,” Christopherson said. “What else can you do?”
In November, Charleston County Sheriff’s officers arrested Bryan Edward Burnett and charged him with setting fire to dumpsters and breaking windows at The Closeout Co. He allegedly used paper and a lighter to set fire to the store.
The fire destroyed three pieces of furniture, a display table and 500 silk plants and created the need for new carpet and an interior paint job.
The store has since reopened, and Christopherson, who owns The Closeout Co. with his wife, Tammi, is getting back to business.
The Closeout Co. sells first-quality closeout furniture at 40% to 80% less than full price.
The idea for the business evolved out of an initial interest in selling children’s clothing. Over time, the Christophersons became disappointed with the quality of the clothing products and were intrigued by the idea of selling close-out furniture.
They opened their first furniture store in Columbia six years ago.
The business buys closeout furniture from companies, though Tim Christopherson declined to name any companies specifically, at “pennies on the dollar.”
“These are first-quality closeouts in their original packaging,” said Tim Christopherson, who worked for Merrill Lynch and in the wholesale mortgage industry before becoming an entrepreneur. “Every season companies send out new catalogs, and they have to refresh their inventories.”
Since the Christophersons buy the furniture for significantly reduced prices, they are able to sell at deeply discounted rates.
A solid mahogany armoire, for instance, sells at The Closeout Co. for $600 but would go for about $1,500 in a traditional retail location.
The Closeout Co. receives about
100 pieces of furniture a month and is open to customers on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, giving employees time to completely rearrange the store to make way for regular shipments of furniture and home accessories.
The Columbia location has proven so successful, Tim Christopherson said, that it is not unusual to see hundreds of customers waiting in line to snatch up a bookshelf or chest of drawers.
Customers also flock to the company’s Web site, www.charlestoncloseouts.com, to preview incoming pieces.
The Closeout Co. gives customers two weeks to pick up pieces they have purchased or have them delivered by a third-party company.
The success of the Columbia venture led them to open a second location on Savannah Highway in September. Since then, Tim Christopherson said, sales at the Charleston location have matched or beat sales in Columbia. Four employees have been hired in Charleston; there are five in Columbia.
The Christophersons said they hope to open another location in Mount Pleasant next year.
Rachel Pleasant is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail her at rpleasant@charlestonbusiness.com.
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