Longtime furniture store Markson’s moves to Henrietta

When Markson’s Furniture & Mattress opened in 2001 at 961 Lyell Ave. in northwest Rochester, the store would catch customers on their evening commutes.

“We used to get a lot of store traffic from Kodak,” said Markson’s president and co-owner David Angarano, whose father, David Angarano Sr., first led the family business and died in 2015. “People used to come through, kind of avoiding the expressway. And they would come down Lyell, going to Gates and going to Spencerport to go home.”

Needless to say, the Kodak traffic is long gone. But in recent years, “The city traffic was definitely way down. It’s dropped considerably,” David Angarano said. “I don’t know if it’s the crime. I don’t know what it is.”

But by June, he and his brother and co-owner, Dan Angarano, decided they needed to make a move and decided to relocate the Lyell Avenue operation to Henrietta.

It opened about a month ago at 3401 Winton Place, near the Brighton town line and behind The Distillery restaurant and bar.

Since 2015, Markson’s also has had a store at 2833 W. Ridge Road in Ridgemont Plaza, Greece.

The Henrietta location is more convenient for east siders and folks from the Southern Tier, said David Angarano, a longtime Greece resident.

Plus, “We liked the building,” he said. “It’s easy to get to. It has its own parking, and it just seemed like the right spot.”

The Henrietta store, run by Dan Angarano, is about the same size as the Greece store, 12,000 square feet.

And it offers the same inventory, which emphasizes American brands – Ashley, HomeStretch (which makes recliners), Bassett Furniture, Tennessee Custom Upholstery and Restonic mattresses – at what David Angarano calls “everyday low prices.”

He conceded it’s a slogan that people may have become numb to.

“But we truly are an everyday low-price store,” he said. “We don’t run sales because we’ll always guarantee the lowest price. If people come in and say, ‘Hey, I saw this on Wayfair,’ we’ll beat it. You know, ‘I saw this on Amazon,’ we’ll beat it. If they’re giving us the chance to earn that business, we appreciate it.”

Both Markson’s stores, which employ a total of 23 people, are open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday; closed on Sunday and major holidays.

Reporter Marcia Greenwood covers general assignments. Send story tips to mgreenwo@rocheste.gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @MarciaGreenwood.