Furniture store approaching 90 years of sales, service

Cheryl Hentz

Contributor

November 4, 2024

LUXEMBURG – Second-generation Owner Jeff Rueckl said over the past nearly 90 years, McMahon’s Furniture of Luxemburg has become a cornerstone of the community.

Nestled in the heart of the village’s downtown, Rueckl said the family-owned store has become more than just a place to shop – it’s a cherished institution and a testament to the unwavering dedication of those who have kept its doors open.

For 89 years, Rueckl said McMahon’s showroom has boasted a variety of furniture items from hand-carved dining tables and upholstered armchairs to any kind of bed and the largest selection of recliners around.

And though the store’s owners and merchandise have changed in the past nine decades, Rueckl said its focus on personalized, honest service has remained steadfast.

Founded by a pioneer woman

Rueckl said McMahon’s has had three sets of owners during its nearly 90 years in business – with the second generation currently at the helm.

The hometown furniture store got its start in 1935 by Murcile and Edward “Ed” McMahon, who Rueckl said were trailblazers in practically every sense of the word. 

And it wasn’t just the furniture store the pair started.

Rueckl said Murcile and Ed also founded McMahon Funeral Home, another business considered to be a cornerstone of the Luxemburg community.

Murcile, he said, was actually the first licensed female mortician in the State of Wisconsin. 

Rueckl said Murcile was never afraid of working hard to build the businesses she wanted, based on core values and principles, including a foundation of honesty, fair pricing, small-town personalized service, fair treatment of customers and going above and beyond, when necessary, to help customers.

In fact, Rueckl said she did much of the work at both the furniture store and the funeral home because Ed had many health problems and sadly died quite young. 

Rueckl said Murcile – who also served as a role model for women-owned businesses, something that was virtually unheard of in the ’30s – had a vision and was undaunted by the fact that she was a woman in “a man’s world.”

Over the years, he said she passed those core values and principles down to her employees, which remain in place today.

Rueckl said customers walking into the store today receive the same welcoming and personalized services Murcile and her staff gave back in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. 

It’s that reputation, he said, that has supported the business’s success for the past 89 years.

Two generations

In 1972, Rueckl said Murcile decided to retire from both the furniture store and the funeral home, however, wanting to make sure the store continued to run with the same standards she and Ed had put in place, she sold it to three longtime employees: Tom Rueckl, Don Heim and Jerry Cravillion.

“They had started working in the business right out of high school and learned the business from the bottom up,” Jeff Rueckl said.

Rueckl is Tom’s son and one of the second-generation owners today.

“When it came time for Murcile to retire, they bought it and made it into the corporation that it is today,” he said.

Rueckl said the three men successfully ran the business together, and when their three sons – him, Mark Heim and Jon Cravillion – became old enough, they, too, started working in the store. Just like their fathers, Rueckl said they learned the business from the bottom up – and in 2005 the three sons bought it from their fathers and became the current owners. 

Though a variety of things have changed with the furniture store over the years, Rueckl said the number of employees has remained relatively small.

At its highest point, he said, the store had 12 people on the payroll – that was in the early years. Today, Rueckl said they have just six employees, one of whom has been with the company for 56 years.

“She’s been here since shortly after she graduated high school,” he said. “Today, she’s 75 or 76 years old and is still working here full-time.”

Thriving all these years

Rueckl said he credits the store’s longevity to the sales and service they provide, despite a shift in consumer buying habits, with many people buying online.

“We usually get them the second time around,” he said. “If they don’t like the comforter they bought, they find they can’t send it back as easily as they thought. A lot of people come in and (tell us about their bad experiences).”

Rueckl said the store’s longstanding free delivery has also stood the test of time.

“A lot of places will deliver it just to the garage or your driveway, and if you want it in the house, it’s another charge, and if you want it set up there’s another charge,” he said. “We don’t charge for any of that. We deliver the furniture and set it up. We take away the old stuff if they want us to. Our guys go above and beyond what a lot of other companies would do.”

And if there’s a problem, Rueckl said they have another layer of people to work through that.

“People know us and they trust us,” he said. “Some generations of families have been coming here for decades. Some people have even told us they bought things so long ago that they bought something from Murcile.”

Rueckl said the immediate areas McMahon’s serves are Door, Kewaunee, Manitowoc and Brown counties, as well as part of the Fox Valley.

The fact that McMahon’s offers well-known lines that have been around for years, Rueckl said, has also helped them stay in business this long.

“La-Z-Boy, for instance, is a huge name,” he said. “If you took a poll and asked people what kinds of recliners there are, La-Z-Boy is going to be the top one they name. Flexsteel is another big name. So, when you talk about our longevity, I think it’s a combination of the lines, the people we have working here and the service we provide.”

Clearing the hurdles

It’s unlikely for a business to last 90 years without facing some challenges.

For McMahon’s, Rueckl said the biggest ones have been fluctuations in the economy and having reliable employees.

“When the economy tightens up, you just have to watch what and how much you order,” he said. “You also have to make sure you don’t have a lot of overstock and things like that. If you normally are ordering 25 recliners a week, you cut that back to maybe six or a dozen. We try to show at least 100 recliners on the floor, plus our backups in the warehouse. But, during those tight times, or when times are a little tougher, we might only show 80 on the floor.”

As with many other businesses, Rueckl said finding reliable employees has been a struggle.

The COVID-19 pandemic, he said, was a challenge for them, but not in the same way it affected other businesses.

“We had some trouble getting product,” he said. “If we had it, it was great, because people were buying. But if we didn’t, and we had to special order, it could have taken eight to 16 months to get it. Typically, special orders are a two-month turnaround time, give or take.”

Rueckl said McMahon’s didn’t have to shut down during the pandemic like some furniture stores, because it sells flooring.

“Home builders didn’t have to shut down and flooring was part of building or construction, so we were part of that,” he said.

Semis filled with merchandise, Rueckl said, also continued coming during the pandemic.

“So we had people in the warehouse packing and delivering,” he said. “Our guys were delivering to anyone who would take the stuff that was already ordered. Some people wanted the deliveries in their homes, others wanted the stuff delivered into the garage, and they got it inside themselves. It was a little bit of everything, at least in the early days of COVID.”

Humble and down-to-earth

Rueckl said there has been a large amount of humility among all those who have owned and operated McMahon Furniture over the years. 

“As a matter of fact, my dad told me that on the 25th anniversary of the store, they wrapped the store in tin foil for the silver anniversary and had all the TV stations and whatever in Green Bay come out,” he said. “As soon as all the cameras were gone, Murcile made them go up and take everything down (so as to not attract any more attention).”

At the end of the day, Rueckl said “we’re just down-to-earth people who live simply, and who love what we do and we love to earn people’s trust and business.”

McMahon’s of Luxemburg – located at 706 Main St. – is open Monday through Saturday.

For more, visit mcmahonsofluxemburg.com.