By Susan Gordanier

The Argus
The story behind JR Furniture intertwines with the personal history of its president, Roop Rai.

Although new to Hillsboro – the store at 6101 SE Tualatin Valley Highway opened over Memorial Day weekend – its parent company has a long history in the Northwest: The first furniture store under that name opened in 1975 in Surrey, British Columbia.


When Rai tells the story, he goes even further back, starting with 1970 when his family emigrated to Canada from the Punjab region of northern India where they had farmed.

Rai spent five years working in a Canadian lumberyard, then, after losing that job in a layoff, drove a delivery truck for a furniture dealer. “The boss was a gambler. He took all the money to the horse track,” Rai recalled. After the business failed, he found himself unemployed again, but the brief association pointed to the career that, step by step, would bring him success.

Rai’s first store, in Surrey, was small, and, he said, it didn’t do well at first, selling only $3,000 worth of furniture in its first month.

“I didn’t know what to do,” he said, but he determined to turn the business around, personally driving at night to Washington state to pick up orders and following that with 12-hour shifts in the store.

Within four years, he’d opened a second store in Richmond, British Columbia, with the help of his family, especially his older brother Nick, who contributed financially.

Other stores followed, and Rai also opened two furniture factories, the first in 1988 and second in 1991, to supply custom orders to his Canadian customers.

In 2000, Rai opened the first JR Furniture store in the United States, in Lynnwood, Wash., near Seattle. It was followed by others: in Tukwila and Bellingham, Wash., and Gresham, as Oregon’s first JR Furniture store. Family members manage many of the stores, and Rai travels a circuit, spending a week at each store and staying with his relatives.

Pure chance led to the opening of the Hillsboro site: While visiting in Gresham, Rai had a flat tire. After using the telephone in a nearby office to call for help, someone there told him about the 40,000 square-foot space on TV Highway, newly vacated by Showcase Furniture, which Rai has now leased long-term.

Rai plans to continue the company’s West Coast expansion, a way to continue honoring his father, who died in 1974 and whose initials form the company name. “Every time I say the store’s name, I think of my father,” he said.

JR Furniture offers a full line of household furnishings: everything from sofas, chairs, tables and beds to rugs, mattresses and accessories – famous brands including the complete Ashley Furniture line.

Visit JR Furniture 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., weekdays; 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturdays, and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sundays. For more information, call 503-591-8898.