Jordan's ends Moody St. run: Furniture store closes longtime Waltham locale

WALTHAM -- Back in 1974, when Ron Sickels started working at Waltham's Jordan's Furniture, Barry and Eliot Tatelman had not made a single TV commercial.

Even then, Jordan's Furniture had a unique marketing mix that customers enjoyed until the Waltham store finally closed its doors at 6 p.m. yesterday.

"When I started, Barry and Eliot's father, Mr. Eddie, ran the store, and, Barry and Eliot were doing radio commercials -- 'Take Main Street to Moody Street,' and 'Jordan's Furniture, not to be confused with Jordan Marsh,'" Sickles said yesterday afternoon as customers browsed showroom floors for pieces half off Jordan's typical "underprices."

The radio ads were innovative -- to that point, Jordan's mainly advertised in local newspapers. But that was not the only form of advertising at Jordan's.

"When I started, Barry and Eliot's grandfather (Samuel), the original owner, would come into the store in the morning and sit in a rocking chair in the window on the street-level floor. He'd greet customers as they came in the door and get them to a salesperson like me," Sickles said. "Customers really liked the closeness the owners showed."

Jordan's has been a presence in Waltham since 1918. Jordan's moved into the current location, the former Parke Snow building, in 1973.

In 1974, Waltham was the only Jordan's location and had a staff of 22 employees. Today, the size of Jordan's staff -- its J-Team -- has grown to 1,600, working at stores in Nashua, N.H., Avon, Natick, and the newest store in Reading, where 80 percent of the Waltham sales staff will work in the future.

The Reading store, which opened this fall, is the largest Jordan's, with approximately 150,000 square feet of floor space, five times as much as the Waltham store. Lack of showroom space was a big reason Jordan's closed the Moody Street store.

"We try and show the best of what we have, but people would ask us, 'Is that all you have?' because they needed to see more options in order to make a decision," Sickels said. "We don't have that problem in Reading or any of our other stores -- Avon has 85,000 square feet and Natick has about 100,000 (square feet)."

In the 1970s and early 1980s at the Waltham store, Barry and Eliot Tatelman identified two concepts central to what Jordan's was and would always be -- the fun factor and establishing long-term customer satisfaction.

What is the "fun factor?" It depends on which Jordan's store you enter. For instance, at the Waltham store, clowns greeted customers at each entry, providing balloons and coloring books to kids while their parents munched on free snacks and shopped.

"Making customers feel at home, feel relaxed, is important, because these are big ticket items here, and making that type of purchase can be stressful, so the 'Sweet Station,' where we have cookies baking, coffee soda and popcorn available, is the fun factor," said Sickels, as Bob MacKenzie, Waltham sales manager, assisted a customer.

"You're not just selling a piece of furniture -- you're establishing a relationship," said MacKenzie of Jordan's, now part of the portfolio of Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett, but still a store with a Mom and Pop feel and approach. "Customer service, the way you handle and treat a customer, is crucial. No pressure sales. Be helpful."

Steve Casavant, Waltham J-Teamer for 16 years, will miss working at the Moody Street store, as will others who called the Jordan's in Waltham home, like Joanne Burdick, Donna Duprez, and Ken Thompson.

"This store has a great hometown feel. We always felt part of the Moody Street and Waltham community," said Casavant, a floor manager, who spoke fondly of the earlier era on Moody Street with Grover Cronin's and other local shops, as well as the current Moody Street, with its cornucopia of restaurants and eateries.

"I'll miss not being able to go to Tata's Sub Shop across the street for lunch anymore."

At 5:45 p.m. yesterday, Marc Beckerman, a Waltham J-Teamer, offered to transport Marie Hippolyte's new purchases to her Waltham home.

"Up until the last moment, the Waltham staff are providing extraordinary service," Hippolyte said. "This could be a gloomy day for these people, the day their store closes. Yet they are still helping customers."

That is the latest advertsiement touting Jordan's Furniture.