Smith's Furniture closing two stores

Smith’s Furniture, a household fixture in the Louisville area since 1960, is closing two of its locations, said Jack Kabazie, executive vice president.

Closeout sales are under way at its stores at 2929 Preston Highway and 1020 Veterans Parkway in Clarksville. The stores will stay open until all of the inventory is sold, Kabazie said.

A third store, at 4310 Shelbyville Road in St. Matthews, will remain open.

Kabazie declined to disclose company financial information, but he said business overall is down.

“It’s just a real tough situation in our industry because discretionary income is hit very hard” in this recession, he said. “We’re adjusting to the economy.”

Smith’s inventory includes office and home furniture. The company has operated a store in Southern Indiana for more than 30 years and had relocated from New Albany to Clarksville in 2006. The Preston store has been in business for 35 or 40 years, Kabazie said.

Earlier this year, Smith’s closed a fourth store on Dixie Highway, hoping that its Preston store would pick up the business. But Kabazie said that many customers who live in southern Louisville now go to the Shelbyville Road store.

The Clarksville and Preston stores occupy about 50,000 square feet combined, Kabazie said. The Shelbyville Road store has about 37,000 square feet, and the company occupies about 50,000 square feet of office and warehouse space in a location on National Turnpike.

Smith’s has about 40 employees, with an average of about eight employees at each of its stores, Kabazie said. He expects some employees from the closing stores to be given jobs at the Shelbyville Road store.

“I’m sure we can’t retain everyone, but we will try to retain as many as we can,” he said.

Opening another store is not out of the question once the economy bounces back, he said.

“At some point, when things get a little bit better, we’ll entertain the thought of opening another store if necessary,” he said.