Baker's Main Street Furniture, which its owners describe as a third-generation family retailer rooted in a 1923 Wylie hardware store, has started its final liquidation and will close permanently, according to an Aug. 7 company announcement. The store is outside Gainesville and Cooke County, but its closing is a nearby North Texas example of a Main Street retailer ending after three generations under one family.
The Baker announcement gives David Baker's planned retirement and the family's decision to close the retail business as the reason. David Baker said in the announcement that customers' trust and loyalty had supported the Baker family and the store for more than a century. The company said the building at 524 Main St. in Downtown Garland is for sale as the liquidation proceeds.
According to the company's chronology, August Marvin A.M. Baker started the business in Wylie before moving it to Garland nine years later and adding furniture to the operation. The chronology says A.M. Baker's son, F.K. Baker, took ownership in 1946, F.K. Baker's son James Baker became the next owner in 1980, and James Baker's brothers, David and John Baker, received ownership in 2009.
David and John Baker also discussed the store's closing in a recorded public segment about Baker's Main Street Furniture ending its 103-year run.
Visit Garland lists Baker's Main Street Furniture at 524 Main St. and describes it as a Garland-based furniture and home accents store. Census Bureau records show Garland is a large retail market, with about a quarter-million residents in the 2020 Census and more than $3.6 billion in retail sales in 2022.
Garland has also been putting public money into its downtown. The city's official bond project page lists the Downtown Square Design and Construction project as complete, and a city announcement from October 2023 says the council approved buying the century-old Jones Hardware building for redevelopment as a mixed-use community space with dining and entertainment uses. A city project page says the former hardware and furniture property at 519 W. State St. was bought for redevelopment through TIF #1 financing.
The Baker family did not cite national market conditions as the reason for closing. Separate public data provide context for furniture retail: the Census Bureau's July report showed furniture and home furnishings store sales lower than a year earlier and lower year-to-date, while BLS employment data for those stores slipped from May to July. BLS price data showed furniture and bedding prices almost flat over the year. Housing reports were also soft in July, with Census and HUD reporting a drop in housing starts and the National Association of Realtors reporting a monthly decline in existing-home sales.
In North Texas, Baker's closing follows another furniture wind-down. Weir's Furniture announced in March that it was closing all four store locations and promoting closing-sale discounts of up to 30%, according to the company's Facebook post.
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