How long is long enough on a comfy couch? Mount Maunganui's furniture connoisseur and retail icon Barry Muir has decided it's time.

He's occupied his Maunganui Rd building for around 30 years, starting out with business partner Kevin Long who passed away about 10 years ago.

'The decision to retire was really because the lease on the building had run out,” says Barry. 'I didn't want to renew it, thought it was time that I called it a day.”

Barry's overshot the usual retirement age of 65 by nearly 20 years. He's 82, and two of his long-term employees Bill Strang and Marie Peck – 'our curtain lady” – have already retired.

'I didn't feel one little minute that it was time to retire. I was enjoying myself too much and the business had been very good to us. We'd been on a couple of cruises. We've been overseas many times.”

His lease finished at the end of October, but Barry wants to make sure all outstanding orders are filled, and plans to finally shut the doors in the first week of January.

'My landlord Hayden Wall has been very good. He's been a wonderful person to deal with all these years.”

He's previously considered selling Barry Muir's Furniture Gallery.

'A year or two ago we had a couple of likely people who may have purchased the business but it didn't turn out to be the right thing at that stage.”

The name Barry Muir is of course synonymous with quality furniture, which could be a disadvantage if someone without the same standards of business took the business name on into the future.

Barry's parents
When Barry's parents arrived in Tauranga in 1948, they were unable to find a state house, so his father built their home in Greerton.

'I went to Tauranga Boys' College, and for an after-school and holiday job I worked for Greerton Furnishing,” says Barry. 'The original owners were John and George Sherwin and Ray Stratford.”

He became fully employed with them in 1957.

‘Ray said to me: ‘I want you to remember Aloysius Chumley's Chipwhistle'. That stands for Ask, Choose and Concentrate'. And that's how I was taught to be a salesman.

'You ask, you choose and you concentrate on what that person may be interested in.

'Ray taught me that when it comes to the closing of the sale, if the customer is looking at a lounge suite, he would say to them: ‘Would you like it in green?' and then shut up.

'The next person to talk has got to be the customer. They will say: ‘No, I don't want it in green' and then you're straight in because you know they're ready to buy.”

Barry Muir enjoying one of his recliners. Photo: Rosalie Liddle Crawford.

Barry says none of his children are interested in coming into the business.

'One lives in Sydney...the other one married a farmer in North Canterbury and I have a son in Oropi who has an engineering business,” says Barry, who also has five grandchildren.

Many changes

He's noticed many changes during 30 years in retail.

'Designs have changed. About six years ago Lazy Boy took the agency from us, which was a real blow. We were quite big with Lazy Boy, and they opened their own stores here.

'But that gave us the opportunity to go to China and find more styles of chairs to compete with Lazy Boy. We were very lucky as we were able to get a range from Zedea that fitted the bill really well. We directly imported our own kind of recliner and lounge suits in from China.”

He enjoyed the opportunity to choose new styles.

China
'China was fantastic. Shanghai – a beautiful city. It was just unbelievable the selection of furniture. The furniture fair they had there would have been three football fields in size. And the quality – we've been to two or three factories and found the quality to be very good.”

The last few months Barry has been busy filling final orders.

'There's only a small container still to come but I should be able to fulfil all orders by the end of December, maybe first week in January.”

He's not accepting any more forward orders but one of his employees, Shaun Reed, will be opening a furniture shop at the same location.

'Shaun has been with me for 17 years. He's been with me to China twice. He's been a loyal employee, he's almost part of the family. He could change the name on the front and keep rolling.”

Meanwhile Barry and wife Trisha plan to sell their house and head to a retirement village for a suite life.

With maybe a comfy recliner or two.