JOHNSTON’S HOME CENTER

Appliance store keeps community humming

Johnston’s Home Center has offered sewing machine sales and service to Benton and the surrounding areas since 1979.

After working in a Singer sewingmachine store in Magnolia for a few years, owner Joe Johnston and his wife, Kristin, saw an opportunity when Benton’s Singer store went up for sale. The couple bought the business and have expanded to include home appliances as Johnston’s Home Center, but the sewing-machine side of the business is going strong.

“In our sewing department, we have one of the largest displays of software and machines of any store, probably, in the state,” Kristin said.

Joe and Kristin’s daughter, Billie Jo Crocker, manages the sewing department. The store stocks sewing machines, embroidery machines and quilting machines, as well as software for the latest models.

Kristin said the store’s staff has worked hard to keep up with changes in the sewing industry and in computerized sewing machines. The store carries sewing-machine models from Brother, Baby Lock and Juki.

“The machines have gone to where you do a lot of your work on the computer and then take it to the machine to stitch it out,” she said. “The technology has just grown with the computer age.”

The store carries appliances in Maytag, GE, Samsung and Frigidaire brands along with Serta bedding, Samsung and Sony electronics, Miele, Riccar and Oreck vacuums and it now has Husqvarna and Dixie Chopper lawnmowers including zero-turn and push mowers. The shop services all makes and models of lawn equipment.

In addition to sales, the store offers several classes during the week on sewing machines, techniques and software. The store also has three sewing-machine technicians to perform repairs.

Johnston’s Home Center is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.