Local business to close its doors after 45 years
The Total Home, located at 62579 U.S. 93 in Ronan, is closing its doors in the coming months. In the spring the Boys and Girls Club will move in, offering opportunities to youths from the county. (Ashley Fox/Lake County Leader)
Gordon and Audrey Granley have owned Total Home, a furniture store in Ronan, for the last 45 years. The couple received an offer from the Boys and Girls Club, allowing them to consider retirement. (Photo courtesy Kelsey Lane Photography)
Following 45 years of work, one Ronan couple is taking an offer that will allow them to play.
Gordon and Audrey Granley, owners of The Total Home on Highway 93, are closing the business’s doors after 45 yeas of serving the community.
“We’ve been available for the concept of retirement for a while,” Gordon said, adding that the Boys and Girls Club contacted the couple “out of the blue” in late spring.
He said that the club presented the couple with an opportunity to “partner with them” in a transaction, which would allow the Granleys to retire.
“We thought that’s better than any idea we’ve had on our own,” Gordon said.
He said that the building that sprawls out at about 19,000 square feet, was “eyeballed” for a while but board members with the Boys and Girls Club did not realize that it was an option to approach the Granleys, Gordon said.
The Boys and Girls Club wants to remodel and work on the space over the winter so that it is ready for next spring, Gordon added.
He also divulged that the Montana Department of Transportation will add a traffic light where the old highway and new highway intersect.
Aric Cooksley, executive director of the Boys and Girls Club of the Flathead Reservation and Lake County, said that while club officials were working on one project that eventually “got put on the shelf” during the spring, the idea to sit with the Granleys was thought up.
“At that point, we started talking with the Granleys about being able to work out a deal that would help them accomplish their goals and provide a long-lasting home for the club,” Cooksley said.
The repurposed area will serve hundreds of students a day, Cooksley said.
Currently, about 95 percent of the students served by the Boys and Girls Club are 6th graders, Cooksley said.
“Our capacity to serve and impact older kids… There is little room for them,” he said.
The opportunity will allow the club to offer “life preparedness” though college or career-goaled paths, as well as other avenues “where healthy choices are the goal in” an after-school setting.
“It’s so opportunities are available across the board,” Cooksley said.
Total Home got its beginning on the corner of Third Street and Main Street in Ronan in 1972 and stayed at that location until May of 1993, after the Granleys built the current location.
Gordon explained that Audrey comes from a businesses-oriented family from Ronan while his family came from South Dakota in the winter of 1956.
His family owned a gamble store, which sold “a little bit of everything.”
Some home furnishings were offered, and Gordon said his father added floor coverings.
After college, Gordon and Audrey “joined the family business” and took over the home furnishings part of the business, he said.
Audrey said that The Total Home was built at its current Ronan location “because of the people.”
“This is home. Why would we want to go anywhere else?” Gordon said.
The couple said that over the years, hundreds of people have asked if their store is a franchise store because the “feel” of how miniature homes are presented,
Audrey said that the business has been in the magazine Parade of Homes, garnering “many awards” including Best of Show.
“We’ve done a lot of things to promote the community,” Audrey said.
Working on creating a display for the magazine caused Audrey to work long hours, so her family got her a cell phone for Christmas one year.
“They (family members) didn’t want me to be out, not being able to be contacted,” she said, laughing.
As sales associates sell what’s left of the merchandise, Audrey walks around, dusting and fixing each piece of furniture as Gordon has helped with the deliveries.
“Nothing’s better for me than to come out on this floor and make it look beautiful so that when people come in, they can say, can see that in my home,” Audrey said.
Gordon said that the last day is when there is no more merchandise to sell, but the closing date is soon approaching.
Once The Total Home closes its doors, the Granleys are going to spend their time seeing family and Montana.
“We’re going to travel and visit and enjoy, and learn about Montana,” Gordon said.
He added that the couple doesn’t plan to relocate, either, because they don’t have a desire to go “try to figure out how to fit in” in another community.
Audrey echoed the idea of enjoying Ronan, saying that they have been active community members and will continue to be active upon retirement.
Gordon said they have assisted “the most wonderful bunch of people,” stressing that they know the community has supported them for years,
“You hear about stores who live in a more metro area and the atmosphere is a little more confrontational and-or hard-nosed deals,” he said.
Customers of The Total Home are the exact opposite, he note.
“It’s called being friends with your customers and trying your hardest to satisfy their needs,” Audrey said.