RC Willey Home Furnishings (RC Willey) is an American home furnishings company with stores in

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyomi ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...

and

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. Founded in 1932 by Rufus Call Willey in Syracuse, Utah, RC, as he was known to friends, began selling

Hotpoint Hotpoint is a British brand of domestic appliances. Ownership of the brand is split between American company Whirlpool, which has the rights in Europe, and Chinese company Haier, which has the rights in the Americas through its purchase of GE ...

-brand appliances door-to-door out of the back of his red pickup truck. RC Willey currently has 10 locations across the

Western United States The Western United States (also called the American West, the Far West, and the West) is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term ''the We ...

and specializes in furniture,

electronics The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification ...

home appliances A home appliance, also referred to as a domestic appliance, an electric appliance or a household appliance, is a machine which assists in household functions such as cooking, cleaning and food preservation. Appliances are divided into three ...

mattresses A mattress is a large, usually rectangular pad for supporting a lying person. It is designed to be used as a bed, or on a bed frame as part of a bed. Mattresses may consist of a quilted or similarly fastened case, usually of heavy cloth, contain ...

, and

flooring Flooring is the general term for a permanent covering of a floor, or for the work of installing such a floor covering. Floor covering is a term to generically describe any finish material applied over a floor structure to provide a walking surface ...

. In 1995, the holding company

Berkshire Hathaway Berkshire Hathaway Inc. () is an American multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. Its main business and source of capital is insurance, from which it invests the float (the retained premiu ...

bought RC Willey in a deal with

Warren Buffett Warren Edward Buffett ( ; born August 30, 1930) is an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is currently the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. He is one of the most successful investors in the world and has a net ...

History

RC Willey was founded in 1932 in Syracuse, Utah, then a

farming Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled peopl ...

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, ...

. In 1932 Rufus Call Willey began selling

Brand appliances door-to-door in Syracuse, Utah. Employed by the local electric company, he first started selling appliances from the back of his red

pick-up truck A pickup truck or pickup is a light-duty truck that has an enclosed cabin, and a back end made up of a cargo bed that is enclosed by three low walls with no roof (this cargo bed back end sometimes consists of a tailgate and removable covering) ...

on the side as he made his rounds. To guarantee

customer satisfaction Customer satisfaction (often abbreviated as CSAT) is a term frequently used in marketing. It is a measure of how products and services supplied by a company meet or surpass customer expectation. Customer satisfaction is defined as "the number of ...

, Willey would lend out appliances for a week so that people could try them out. He also let them finance the purchases in installments over a three-year period, payable at harvest time. In 1950 he built his first store next door to his home in Syracuse. In 1954, Willey left the company due to

terminal cancer Terminal illness or end-stage disease is a disease that cannot be cured or adequately treated and is expected to result in the death of the patient. This term is more commonly used for progressive diseases such as cancer, dementia or advanced ...

. William H. Child, who had married Willey's daughter Darlene three years earlier, took over the business. William Child is credited with adding furniture to the company's appliance offerings and risking personal funds to finance additions and new stores. His policies of honesty, hard work and frugality brought success to the company. Many family members and friends worked hard in the business: Sheldon (Bill’s brother), Fay Hansen, Fay child (Bills father), and even Helen W. Barber (R. C. Willey’s widow) came in daily to count money. Multiple stores were built along the Wasatch Front, and RC Willey became one of the best known Home Furnishings retailer in the state of Utah. Berkshire Hathaway, Inc., the holding company led by billionaire investor

, acquired RC Willey on May 24, 1995. In 1998, RC Willey's South Salt Lake location became the site of a "List of Whaling Walls, Whaling Wall" mural by the famous marine artist Robert Wyland, Wyland. Chief financial officer Scott L. Hymas, who had been with the company since 1987, succeeded Bill Child as CEO in February 2001. Child remained chairman. At the same time, Bill Child's nephew, Jeffrey S. Child, became the company's President (corporate title), president. Today, RC Willey is still family operated, and has 5 stores located in Utah, with additional stores in Idaho, Nevada and California. The company is known for its furniture, electronics, appliances, mattresses, and flooring. It also has in-store credit and own brand credit cards. It is closed on Sundays and most major National Holidays. RC Willey Credit cards are accepted at some other retailers, Including the Larry H. Miller, Larry H Miller Automotive Group, The Mark Miller Automotive Group, and Big O Tires.

Timeline

Operations

RC Willey owns its own local distribution warehousesRocklin Distribution Center in Utah, Nevada, and California.

References

External links

RC Willey Home FurnishingsBook Review: The R.C. Willey Story by Ravi Nagarajan
{{DEFAULTSORT:Willey, RC Home Furnishings Berkshire Hathaway Companies based in Salt Lake City Retail companies established in 1932 Furniture retailers of the United States 1932 establishments in Utah 1995 mergers and acquisitions