In our family, furniture started with a heritage. My parents, Harold and Betty Miller, were born on Amish farms in Hutchinson, Kansas. Both of their families left the Amish 6 years later to charter a Mennonite church. Later still, my parents moved to Ohio in 1976 with their three young children.

On a meager budget, in 1994, my parents converted a small mechanic shop into our first store in Plain City, Ohio. We scrubbed greasy walls, cleaned out the oil pit, and hired painters to spray paint the walls and ceilings an egg-shell white. On opening day, Mom showed customers our newly acquired furniture while I created price tags in Excel. Dad and I delivered the furniture on weekends when he had time off from his regular job, and I made a run once every two weeks to pick up furniture for customers. Although we lacked experience, people purchased our furniture due to its exceptional quality and great value.

As time passed, the family business grew and expanded prompting my parents to construct a new store and warehouse directly across the road from the old mechanic shop. That old mechanic shop eventually burned down. My sister, Luceeta, after years of working at the Plain City store, along with her husband, Terry, started three additional stores under the Miller’s Furniture name.

After 20 years outside of the US working first in poverty alleviation and later in coffee retail, my wife, Rhoda, and I rejoined my parents, Harold and Betty, in Plain City.  Since then, my parents have transitioned the Plain City store to us.  Together with our four sons, we are starting a new chapter by rebranding the Plain City store as Millwest Furniture. One of the benefits of this rebranding enables us to improve our service to online customers.