Pamela and James Allara were both born in the Bronx and
lived in New York City before relocating to Arizona.
Pamela’s Grandfather restored furniture for some of the largest
estates in New York, giving her an early understanding of quality furniture
& timeless design. She went to School of Visual Art and studied fine art
and advertising graduating with a BFA.
James spent his earlier years working for various furniture
stores, including one of the country’s largest furniture retailers. The one
thing that all the stores had in common was how much they marked up the
furniture. Most stores are working at a 100%-400% mark up.
James knew he could offer the public many of the same items
for considerably less money, based on the principle that profits could be
generated by volume instead by individual sales.
His idea was to offer the public quality home furnishings
and accessories for $99 or less. Assuming they could sell more product in the
same time frame as the larger competitors. After all, if they sell 20 bedroom
sets a week, at a 25% mark up, as opposed to 5 bedroom sets a week at 100% mark
up, the profits should be similar.
James and Pamela Allara spent 5 years researching & planning
to open “The 99 Dollar Furniture Store”. In October 2003 the first store was
opened in Mesa, Arizona. The store was a huge success as foreseen by James and
Pamela.
The store has grown from 1000 items to over 1500 items for
$99 or less, and to 2 locations in just a few years. They plan to open several
more locations in the State of Arizona, before franchising locations throughout
the entire United States.
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