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Loves gets Levin stores

WARREN — The former Levin Furniture stores in the Mahoning and Shenango valleys that closed in bankruptcy will reopen under the Michigan-based Loves Furniture and Mattresses brand.

The stores in Niles, Boardman and Hermitage, Pa., are expected to open sometime in the next week with new technology, and investments “to really give an updated, refreshed look and feel,” said Loves’ CEO Matt Damiani.

Opening dates will be announced closer to the actual date.

“From our perspective, we’ve got three really strong stores that we were able to acquire here over the last couple of months and for us, we’re excited to bring the Loves Furniture and Mattresses brand to the customers in that greater Youngstown area,” Damiani said.

In May, Love’s Furniture in Royal Oak, Mich, a suburb of Detroit, and its affiliate, Dallas-based US Assets Inc., acquired the inventory and assets of 27 former Art Van Furniture, Levin Furniture and Wolf Furniture stores from Art Van Furniture LLC with plans to rebrand them Loves Furniture.

The three local stores weren’t part of the deal, worth about $7 million, but later acquired by Loves. Loves now has 31 stores.

Art Van closed in March with plans to restructure the company under Chapter 11 bankruptcy, but converted to Chapter 7 liquidation under stress of of stay-at-home orders and the closure of nonessential businesses brought on by the viral pandemic.

Damiani said the Loves’ business model is built on feedback from customers wanting good product at an affordable price sold by knowledgeable staff who help the customer, not just push product.

A concierge will greet customers at the door asking how do they want to shop, Damiani said.

“If you want to shop and have guided assistance, we can absolutely do that. If you say, ‘Hey, I just want to shop at my own pace,’ we’ll let you do that, too,” he said. “We’re not going to be hounding you around the store making it a high-pressure sale. We want it to be low-pressure. We want to take that on and really listen to you and understand what you are looking for and connect you to our products and services.”

The stores will feature new technology, Loves sleep finder, a diagnostic tool to help shoppers find their ideal mattress and pillow combination using sleep patter and weight distribution information. The stores will also have much of the same former staff, Damiani said. The company plans to hire 50 associates in the Youngstown market.

The stores are the former Golsteins Furniture stores. They were acquired by Levin Furniture in 2018, which by then Levin was part of Art Van Furniture LLC, also based in Michigan.

rselak@tribtoday.com

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