Cater’s furniture owner knew customers’ tastes
This is part two of a guest column by business reporter Susan Salisbury, whose family owned Cater’s Furniture store in West Palm Beach. Read part 1 here.
It was fun to see new furniture that had arrived from North Carolina, where my Dad went each fall to see the new lines and determine what to order.
Prior to the North Carolina market’s existence, he went to the Chicago Merchandise Mart, and I remember seeing him off at the tiny Palm Beach International Airport as he carried a heavy overcoat and the type of formal hat men wore with suits then.
My dad had a knack for buying items that would sell well, even if they were not his personal taste. He somehow knew that the blue floral sofa he secretly did not like was destined to be a best seller. Or that a certain coffee table would be a hit.
People didn’t constantly buy new furniture. When they did, they wanted it to last. There were no credit cards, just Cater’s credit. Of course, computers did not exist. Each item in inventory was on an index card that had its number and its location at the warehouse or one of the three stores.
A highlight of a trip downtown was walking across the alley behind Cater’s to McCrory’s or Woolworth’s for an ice cream soda, Coke or maybe a grilled cheese sandwich.
The pace was slower. Downtown workers took morning and afternoon breaks at lunch counters where they drank lots of coffee from clattering, clinking white china and ate doughnuts, pies and other treats made from scratch. Cater’s closed its downtown location in the early ’80s after building a new store on Military Trail. The lot at 333 Datura St. where most of the furniture store stood is empty. The former fire station, which Cater’s also occupied, is now Datura Station. It’s important to note that two merchants that were on Datura back then are still there. They are Halsey & Griffith, an office supply store founded in 1921, and Bechtel Jewelers , in business since 1930 on the ground floor of the historic Harvey Building.
Cater’s Furniture in downtown Lake Worth, looking eastward from Dixie Highway, was one of the store’s three locations. (Palm Beach Post file photo)
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It is wonderful to have this web site so us WPB natives can reflect on the beauty of this beautiful town we called home. My father went to Halseys constantly to chat and look at camera’s. We bought furniture from Caters and I went to School with Becky Bechtel. These are just a few a the cherished memories I recall living in WPB…Thanks for the good memories!!!