Art Lundstrom to retire after 39 years

After 39 years of furnishing you and your neighbor's homes, Art Lundstrom is retiring and handing the keys of Art's Furniture and Flooring over to his his daughter, Julie Snellman and her husband, Jason.

Art and his wife, Mary, bought what was then McKoy's Furniture from Jim and Ruth McKoy in 1977 following the suggestion to do so from Art's grandfather, Elmer Feigel, when he heard the business was up for sale.

"Grandma was madder than a hornet," Art said of Walter's wife, Clara. "She said 'they shouldn't be doing that'."

"It was his idea and it was good advice," Mary added. "We were 26 years old and wanted our own business."

Art and Mary were friends in high school – they both graduating from Malta High School in 1968 -- and though they attended the junior/senior prom together, romance didn't blossom at that point. After starting their college educations at different schools, the two both ended up attending Montana State University Northern in Havre, Mary studying to become a teacher and Art focusing on Agriculture Business. It was at MSU Northern that the two became a couple and eventually married in June of 1971.

The Lundstroms bought what was McCoy's Furniture and Music in Malta in April of 1977 before holding their grand opening on Saturday, October 15, of the same year. The store was renamed Art's Furniture and Music Store and an announcement in the Phillips County News that week stated "Art's carries a complete furniture line, and also has a large music department which includes musical supplies, instruments and accessories ... the Lundstroms also resumed rental of the freezer locker spaces in the basement and the apartments upstairs."

"Years ago people used those freezers if they butchered a beef and didn't have enough room to store it," said Mary.

"Leonard Leader processed meat down there until he moved out to where it is at now," Art added.

Mary said that those first years of owning the furniture store, money was tight and to help make ends meet, the couple would butcher antelope for $15 per head (though Art thought it was $25 per head) at night.

As far as the upstairs apartments in the building, Art and Mary were not only landlords, but residents as they lived in the building while the young couple got their financial feet beneath them for that first year. Though the apartments above Art's are no-longer occupied, in those early years of being in business, the Lundstroms rented as many as 17 flats.

"It was amazing how full we kept them," Art said.

But Art's Furniture almost never was. McKoy's Furniture nearly changed from a furniture store and into a sporting goods store, a move Art and Mary considered but thought better of then and are happy about today.

"I think this was a good a choice," Mary said.

The music portion of the store featured instruments for sale and rent, stereos and televisions – to name just a few items in the inventory. Art's also sold LP and 45' records, but Art admitted he didn't know much about popular music at that time and relied on the Billboard Top 100 and salesmen to keep his shelves full of the hot tunes of the day.

"The salesmen would come around, almost too much in those times, but it was a good thing they did because we didn't know what was popular," Art said.

"We didn't know the music business," Mary said. "People would come in and say they want to buy something and we would say what is that? They would point and say 'that one'."

Art said the music portion of the store went away near the beginning on 1980, mostly because he "didn't like it," though he was happy to have it while he did.

"That basically helped us stay in business," he said. Of all the things the Lundstroms no longer do at their building on Central Ave., Art said the apartment rentals, freezers and butchering and all the music items kept the family business afloat in those first years, allowing Art's Furniture to become the successful business it is today.

Art and Mary, in business in Malta for almost 40 years, have seen many businesses come and go in their four decades and Art said the nature of businesses has shifted toward bigger conglomerates and less family-owned stores.

"It's not due to the people wanting to get out of business, it's the big businesses wanting to pull out of Malta," Art said. "That's the problem."

"The chain-stores don't want small town America anymore," Mary agreed.

Art said the reason Art's Furniture has survived when others have folded is partly luck, but more so the support of the community and the dedication of employees over the years.

"We sell luxury items," he said. "Furniture and carpet, the things we sell in here, are luxury items and the community and the surrounding area have been great. They are the reason we are here."

As far as dedicated employees, Art and Mary stressed how important Greg Sjostrom has been to them for the past three decades. Greg, who started at Art's Furniture at the age of 14 and has worked there continually besides a few hiatuses while attending college, has been a go-to guy for the Lundstroms over the years.

"I don't know if we can give him enough praise for what he has done for us through the years," Art said. "His mother, Doris, about three or four months after we opened up, said if we ever need anybody to come in for a couple of hours a day, give me a call. I called her a day or two later and she then worked every day for the next 22 years. She was our first employee."

In nearly 40 years of furniture sales in Phillips County, Art has been in a lot of homes in the community. Charity Hebert, a customer of Art's Furniture, said she went into the store recently to purchase a dresser for her daughter's room. Hebert said she picked out the dresser she wanted, showed it to Art and Art told her he wasn't sure that the dresser would fit up the stairs to her daughter's room without removing the piece of furniture's feet. Turns out, Art knew more about Hebert's house than the new homeowner did.

"We run into that a lot after nearly 40 years of being in business," Mary said. "People say, 'gosh, my whole living room is from you. We are buying carpet for the third time (at Art's.)'."

"I've been in a lot of houses," Art admits.

On Thursday, October 13, Art will officially retire and is inviting the public down for cake and coffee to help him celebrate from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the store (Mary retired from teaching in 2012 after 28 years as an educator, the last part at Malta Elementary.) Two weeks earlier, when Art and Mary sat down for this interview, the couple passed the keys of the store off to Julie and Jason who will now run the show. The couple has the full support of her parents in the business venture and Art and Mary are both confident and proud that Julie and Jason are taking over.

"I think they will do great," Art said. "I just hope everybody will give them the support they have given us."

"Already people are coming in and saying 'hello Art, is Julie here?" Mary added.

Art said, without a doubt, the thing he will miss most about the day-to-day operation of Art's is the people (Mary adding that she might miss having the house to herself each day.) Art said he isn't sure of anything he will absolutely not miss and probably won't figure that out, if anything, until he is further into his retirement. As for the future, Art said he has no clue what he will do with his newly found free time.

"I will play it as comes I guess," he said.