Uncle Ed’s Furniture closing after 40 years in Saskatoon

Watch the video above: after 40 year, an iconic Saskatoon business is closing its doors

SASKATOON – Uncle Ed’s Furniture Centre has been a staple in Saskatoon for the past four decades and like all businesses it’s had its ups and downs.

Uncle Ed’s has a long history dating back to 1974. It started off as a clearance furniture store fashioned after Honest Ed’s, a successful business in Toronto.

But after 40 years Uncle Ed’s is closing.

“We’re 62, the property is worth some money now and there was some interest in it so we put it all together and it just seemed like the right time to move,” said co-owner Bernie Stachniak.

Uncle Ed’s hasn’t always been at this location.

For the first 22 years of business it was in a six-story building, three blocks down from its current location.

But on Oct. 8, 1996, Bernie Stachniak remembers getting a call that smoke was coming from the building.

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“It slowly got worse and worse and worse to the point where we lost the building right into the basement, we didn’t save a paper clip, we had nothing left when it was done,” Stachniak said.

“There’s just no way to describe that, to be honest with you when I think back the odd time about it I don’t even know how we got through it, I think our backs were against the wall and we had nowhere to go,” said co-owner Manfred Arnold.

The building’s destruction didn’t hold the partners back from relocating.

“We’re selling fourth generation now. When we started we sold to grandparents and then their children, then people our age and now the kids,” Stachniak said.

“We just had the other day a family who bought their set 30 years ago and all their kids buy their stuff here now, they said where are we going to go and it’s amazing how many times we heard that in the last couple of days,” Arnold said.

Stachniak and Arnold haven’t thought about what retirement will bring.

Starting Wednesday, Uncle Ed’s will begin its closing out sale but the doors won’t officially close until the last remaining items are sold.