Seaman's Furniture was an American
chain
A chain is a serial assembly of connected pieces, called links, typically made of metal, with an overall character similar to that of a rope in that it is flexible and curved in compression but linear, rigid, and load-bearing in tension. A ...
of
furniture
Furniture refers to objects intended to support various human activities such as seating (e.g., Stool (seat), stools, chairs, and sofas), eating (table (furniture), tables), storing items, working, and sleeping (e.g., beds and hammocks). Furnitur ...
stores based in
Woodbury, New York. The chain was known for its slogan, "See Seaman's First".
History
Julius Seaman opened his first store in 1933 in
Brooklyn, New York
Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...
. His enterprise gradually increased to an annual $150,000 in sales and allowed him to send his two sons to the
Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
The Wharton School ( ) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia. Established in 1881 through a donation from Joseph Wharton, a co-founder of Bethlehem Steel, the Wharton ...
. "His big
estgoal in life was that his boys would follow him and build up his business," Morton Seaman told ''
Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...
''. Julius Seaman died at the age of 48 of a heart attack. He left Morton, the elder son and college graduate, to help his mother save for the business, while Carl, still in school, worked at weekends and during vacations.
In 1955, they spent $1,000 on the store's first ad. It was a full-page spread in a local paper. When sales tripled, the same week the ad was published, Morton decided to open a second store to reduce the cost of advertisement per unit. By 1971 there were seven Seaman stores.
In 1988, Seaman's Furniture was taken over in a buyout by
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. Jeffrey Seaman, son of Morton Seaman, was 28 at the time, but he shouldered a large portion of the buying duties for the company. He and his father developed an overseas program during Seaman's restructuring phase.
On February 8, 1990, Seaman's Furniture announced that Morton and Jeffrey Seaman would leave the company; it was later succeeded by Matthew D. Serra, former president and chief executive of
G. Fox.
In 2005, after being in business for more than 70 years, Seaman's merged with
Levitz.
In popular culture
Seaman's Furniture is mentioned in a song by
hip hop
Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...
group A Tribe Called Quest. In the song "Electric Relaxation" on their third album, "Midnight Marauders," Phife Dawg utters the ribald lyric: "Let me hit it from the back, girl/I won't catch a hernia/Bust off on your couch/Now you got Seaman's furniture."
See also
* Levitz Furniture
* Rooms To Go
References
External links
Seamans Furniture Corporate History
Defunct retail companies of the United States
Retail companies established in 1933
Retail companies disestablished in 2005
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