Godwin's Furniture to open new store in Kawkawlin

Godwin’s Furniture and Mattresses is expanding its presence in the area with a new Kawkawlin location. John Ehlke | The Bay City TimesTyler Kramer of Bay City, left, and Justin Godwin of Saginaw work on a cabinet at the new Godwins Furniture store, 925 S. Huron, in Linwood Wednesday morning. The store is set to open in about two weeks. Bob White, vice president of Godwin’s, said the new store, 925 S. Huron, formally Rivard’s Home Furnishings, should be open around Oct. 20, with an official grand opening on Nov. 6.

“We are pulling everything together,” said White of the soon-to-be sixth location of the store.

There are two Godwin’s stores in Saginaw, 6410 Bay and 6225 State, one in Midland, 4906 N. Saginaw, with locations also in Owosso and Mount Pleasant.

The Godwin’s business was started in 1948 by brothers Gethin and George Godwin when they purchased a small grocery store at the State Street store location in Saginaw. White said the store evolved from its beginning as a grocery store to later carry carpet and then furniture and mattresses. Today, the six stores are still family owned and operated by 14 family members, said White, who is a member of the Godwin family through marriage.

With about 70 employees at the five existing locations, White said the addition of the new location will create about six new jobs.

One of those new jobs belongs to Amy Blair of Pinconning, who will serve as store manager.

Blair has eight years of experience in furniture sales and said it has been exciting seeing the new store come together.

“We can really offer customers everything that they need,” Blair said. “Things don’t have to be expensive to look good.”

And, while White said the economy has affected the store slightly, he said they purposely gear their selections of merchandise to what people can afford.

“We’ve noticed that people are not spending $30,000 on a car and they are not taking expensive vacations but they do have money to fix up their homes in order to be comfortable,” White said. “And, because of that, we assure people get good, quality furniture at low prices.”

The store will carry home furnishings such as sofas, tables, recliners, beds, dressers and mattresses, to name a few, and brands such as Lay-Z-Boy, Sealy, Simmons, and many others.

Godwin’s president Tom Godwin said the business was not aggressively looking to expand when the Rivard’s building went on the market, but, Godwin said he knew it would be a good fit.

“We always have our eyes open for opportunity,” Godwin said. “It will give us a northern presence that we didn’t really have before.”

Despite the Kawkawlin location being smaller than the other Godwin’s stores, Godwin said he still expects to do a lot of business.

“We’ve already had a lot of interest,” Godwin said. “We’ve been in business for 60 years and we have a good foundation of customers.”