SOUTH OGDEN — This just in: The Knight’s Mattress & Furniture store on Riverdale Road is going out of business.The store is actually closing. This may come as a surprise to those who’ve been watching over the past eight months or so. Knight’s seems to have been going out of business for nearly as long as anyone can remember, and it’s become something of a joke among those who’ve seen the company’s going-out-of-business signs in far-flung parts of the county. Although some residents have complained about the eternal nature of the store’s closing at 4020 Riverdale Road, the city has seen no need to step in. “We haven’t had any problems with them,” said South Ogden City Manager Matthew Dixon. “But I do know that they seem to be perpetually going out of business.” Nate Knight, co-owner of the Lehi-based Knight’s Mattress & Furniture, admits this “going-out-of-business” business at his South Ogden location has dragged on a bit too long for his tastes.
“It’s been freakin’ long,” he told the Standard-Examiner on Tuesday. Knight says he’s been running a “high-impact promotion for eight months,” but he insists these “store closing” announcements aren’t just an advertising ploy. “It’s a legitimate going-out-of-business sale,” he said. “We really are closing.” And Knight insists the process of closing hasn’t lasted as long as people think. Rather, it’s been a sort of optical illusion. About three years ago, a Knight’s franchise at that same location did close — following a high-profile, drawn-out “going-out-of-business” sale. Then, once that franchise closed, Nate Knight said the building owner contacted him and asked him to open another furniture store in there until he could sell the building. So Knight’s opened a corporate-owned store a few months later, more as a favor to the building owner, according to Knight. And now, Knight says, they really are closing up shop.
The store’s final day has been pushed back a couple of times, but plans now call for the end of February. He’ll then have until the end of March to vacate the building. “I’ve taken some flak over this,” Knight says. “And it frustrates me that this would tarnish our reputation in any way. We’ve been in business 22 years now.” Knight said that, in hindsight, he would have opened a furniture liquidators store three years ago and not used the Knight’s name, repeating that he’s only stayed open as a favor to the building owner. “I am absolutely, genuinely going to leave,” Knight said. “That store is costing me money every month. But I’ll make up for it over the next three years, because I’m getting a sweetheart lease from the building owner” in Utah County. Knight’s has additional store locations in Lehi and Orem. Jennifer Bolton, spokeswoman for the Utah Division of Consumer Protection, said the Utah Consumer Sales Practices Act prohibits a business from using false claims in advertising.
This includes the deceptive use of the terms “going out of business,” “bankruptcy sale,” “lost our lease,” “building coming down,” “forced out of business,” “final days,” “liquidation sale,” “fire sale,” “quitting business,” or any similar expression. A Standard-Examiner records request showed that the Utah Department of Commerce has taken no administrative action against Knight’s Mattress & Furniture. However, it has moved against another company that was using deceptive going-out-of-business tactics. In 2012, Consumer Protection issued an administrative citation against a South Salt Lake business called Civilizzation “for advertising a ‘going out of business’ sale when in fact (they) were not going out of business.” Civilizzation was initially investigated in February 2010, and the company then modified its advertisements from “going out of business” to “going out for business.” But in November 2011, it was back to advertising going-out-of-business sales.
In the end, Civilizzation was fined $7,500 — $5,000 of which would be suspended if the company paid the initial $2,500 fine and agreed to stop using deceptive marketing advertising. Consumer Protection’s Jennifer Bolton says some municipalities regulate companies that say they are going out of business. “It is our understanding that some cities require businesses to obtain a local permit to advertise that they are ‘going out of business,’” she said. Pauline Miller, Ogden’s business license coordinator, says her city has no such requirement. However, if a business wanted to host a liquidation sale, it would need a permit for that. “And if they want to put up a big banner, we require them to come in and get a permit for the sign,” Miller said. Mike Eggett, community development director for Riverdale, said his city has no ordinance to regulate “going out of business” advertising, either. However, considering the number and size of the “store closing” and “going out of business” signs and banners at Knight’s, Eggett said if the store were in Riverdale, he’d take issue with that.
“They would come under scrutiny from us for overage of signage,” he said. “Beyond that, if they want to promote that they’re going out of business for two years, I guess that wouldn’t be a problem.” Eggett said Riverdale has its own example of a serial store-closer. “We do have one business in the city that does that, although not to the extent of Knight’s — Crown Bedrooms,” he said. Eggett said Crown will occasionally change up its inventory, so it stops selling a particular kind of merchandise. “So, technically, they’re going out of business for that type of business,” he says. Nate Knight is quick to point out that Weber County hasn’t seen the last of Knight’s Mattress & Furniture. “We will be back in that area,” he said. “We’ll slowly move up that way again, and be back in two or three years.” Knight admits that while he fears the Knight name has been hurt with the protracted store closing in South Ogden, he wouldn’t name the future store anything else.