Harres Home Furnishings and Appliances Keeps it in the Family

Columbia-Harres Home Furnishings and Appliances is a great example of one of Monroe County’s strengths: home-grown entrepreneurs.

They are also bucking a trend that many small towns in America are facing: the loss of youth to larger communities. Harres truly is a family business that started with owner Joel Harres’ father and continues with his son, Scott.

A fixture in Columbia for 25 years, before becoming Harres Home Furnishings and Appliances, they served the community as Weilbacher’s, which was run by Joel’s father, Harold, for 30 years.

Joel bought the business in 1985 and in 2001 moved it from Main Street in Columbia to its current location at 900 Admiral Weinel Blvd., along IL Route 3 in Columbia. They will celebrate their 25-year anniversary this fall, and in celebration, Harres Appliance will be upgrading their live kitchen to do cooking shows and classes with guest chefs from the metro-St. Louis region. Plus, customers can come into the store to register to win six prizes in six days the week of Sept. 20 - 25.

Harres Home Furnishings and Appliances is a full-service furniture, appliance and home accessories store. The have a factory-trained appliance service staff, and they install all appliances themselves. They carry most major appliance brands including Whirlpool, Maytag, KitchenAid, Samsung and Frigidaire. Beyond that they also offer in-home design consultations with Joel’s wife, Linda, and luncheons or dinners with a design class. A home-staging service is also available. You can find a wide variety of furniture brands at Harres like Flexsteel, Lane, Best Chairs, Winners Only, Hooker and Ashley.

For Joel, the decision to leave the agriculture lender industry and purchase the store was one based on the knowledge that his home county would support the business.
“I was born and raised here, and I love the area. I knew we would have a good, stable customer base,” said Joel.

For his part, Joel has also supported the community as many small businesses do through contributions to local non-profit organizations. He is also a member of the Columbia Chamber of Commerce, and a member of the Think Monroe County First shop/spend local subcommittee of the Monroe County Economic Development Council.

“Monroe County is our lifeblood, and on a personal level we live it. It benefits everyone when we support each other,” he said.

As mentioned before, Harres Home Furnishings and Appliances is a family operation. Joel is the general manager, who does “all and anything from sweeping floors, servicing appliances, selling and ordering, etc…” Linda Harres is a certified in-home design consultant and handles the advertising, customer service issues and sales. Son Scott, “does a little bit of everything” including sales, service and handling the businesses’ social media.

“It’s been pretty exciting getting more involved in the family business,” said Scott. “When I took my first economics class at college, it was quite eye-opening and I realized just how hard Dad had worked to support our family. I’ve come to recognize that hands-on experience is the only way to go when it comes to retail sales and service, so I’ve just sort of jumped in. I’m trying to really become well-rounded and learn everything I can from Dad on how to run the business. The Facebook and newsletter stuff is just fun and a great way to keep people interested.”

Linda, too, is somewhat of a new contributor to the family business. Once her youngest daughter, Stephanie, went away to school in 2006, she stepped into an important full-time role at Harres.

“It’s been absolutely wonderful since I’ve come on board full time,” said Linda. “I’ve really been able to use interior design as a creative outlet and it’s just a great way to always have something on my plate.”

You can find Harres Home Furnishings and Appliances on Facebook where they do a weekly “Freebie Friday” giveaway. Giveaways include items from the store or gift cards to other local businesses.

You can also find Harres Home Furnishings and Appliances, 900 Admiral Weinel Blvd., Columbia, at www.Harres.com or contact them at jharres@htc.net, 618-281-4747 or on Twitter at Harres Home Furnishings.

Hours of operation: Monday-8 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Tuesday-Thursday-8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Friday-8 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Saturday-9 a.m. to 4 p.m.