Bustin’s Furniture in Saint John, which opened in 1905, will be closing its doors next month.
Local residents like Mike Haynes were disappointed when they heard the news.
“Everything I’ve ever bought I’m still using,” he says. “It’s been a long time. It’s probably been 25-30 years I’ve been buying furniture here.”
Haynes says the customer service the business provided was hard to find anywhere else.
“I broke a chair probably 20 years ago and I brought it in and it’s repaired, so you can’t find fault with that,” he says.
Chas Bustin and Sam Withers opened the furniture store to Bustins & Withers’ in May of 1905. Shortly after, Bustin became the sole owner of the furniture store on Germain Street.
“He ran it up into the 20, then his health started to fail,” says President Robert Bustin. “He gave my Grandfather, Paul, who was working in Boston at the time and kind of shamed him into coming up and taking over the family business.”
The building was bought last year by Historica Developments. Robert Bustin says the decision to sell the business wasn’t easy.
“Once we did the deal with Historica, who were great to work with, we started looking for another location and actually prior to that we were somewhat looking for a location and we’ve never been able to come up with the perfect place,” he says.
Generations of Bustin’s have worked at the store. Seven employees will be out of work after the closure.
“It’s a family business,” says the president. “It’s kind of hard to give it up, but anyway, it is time.”
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Ashley Blackford.
