By BENNETT HALL
Faced with contracting consumer spending and

aggressive competition from warehouse-style retailers, Corvallis Furniture & Sleep Shop is going out of business.

The company closed its two Goodnight Sleep Shop mattress stores in Corvallis and Lebanon about two weeks ago, laying off four employees. Now it’s begun selling off all remaining inventory from its main store at 1925 N.W. Ninth St., with plans to close the doors for good by the end of February.

Owner John C. Meyer compared his company’s fate to that of Parrott’s Home Furnishings, which is closing out its three mid-valley stores.

“It’s not something we want to do,” Meyer said. “We just have to.”

Meyer said local shoppers just don’t seem to have as much money to spend on furniture as they once did.

“We’re not seeing as much business as we used to,” Meyer said. “I don’t know if it’s the continued decline at Hewlett-Packard or just a decline in general.”

Meyer also cited the rise of box-store competitors such as Costco, which recently began selling furniture alongside its pallets of toilet paper and other consumer staples, and Ashley Home Store, a warehouse outlet operated by one of Corvallis Furniture’s own suppliers.

“Even though we beat their prices, we don’t have as much money to put into advertising as they do,” he said.

The business was founded in 1987 as a waterbed factory and retail store by Meyer’s father, John Meyer, who expanded into a full-line furniture and mattress store when he moved into the Ninth Street location around 1990. The younger Meyer started working at the business five years ago and bought the enterprise two and a half years ago when his father retired.

Meyer said he had expected to keep operating Corvallis Furniture & Sleep Shop until his own retirement, possibly passing the business on to one of his sons, Chris, 20, or Dan, 15. But the downturn in business made that impossible.

He said he would miss his customers and being engaged with the community as a sponsor of youth sports at the Boys & Girls Club, the Best Seat in the House promotion with Oregon State athletics and the annual giving tree at the Children’s Farm Home.

“We’ve been around a long time and would prefer to stay around, but it’s just not feasible,” Meyer said.

“It’s been a difficult decision, but right now it’s a decision we had to make.”

Corvallis Furniture & Sleep Shop currently has seven employees, all of whom are now looking for other jobs, Meyer said.

As for his own future, the 40-year-old Meyer’s not sure what’s next.

“I’m exploring my options,” he said.

Bennett Hall is the business editor for the Gazette-Times. He can be reached at 758-9529 or bennett.hall@lee.net.