After 72 years, Larmon Furniture serves the faithful descendants of original customers.
By ELIZABETH BETTENDORF
Published October 31, 2003
[Times photo: Jennifer Sens]
Elizabeth and Jimmy Kalamaras run the family business, Larmon Furniture, in the same location where it opened in 1931. Elizabeth's grandfather, Rubel Larmon, opened the store on "furniture alley" after migrating to Tampa during the Depression.
YBOR CITY - When it comes to selling home goods, Jimmy Kalamaras sticks to an old family recipe.
Everything under one roof.
Think of it as sort of a mom-and-pop Sears right on Seventh Avenue.
Cup your hands over the windows and just soak it in: 20,000 square feet of sofas, dinettes, recliners, cocktail tables, appliances, stereos, hope chests, curio cabinets, air conditioners and bunk beds.
Oh, yes, and that glorious smattering of kitsch:
The funky, furry pink boudoir chair with a beaded fringe skirt.
The Bazooka-pink vinyl bar and matching chrome stools.
"Sold it on the phone this afternoon," Kalamaras said, "to a woman who's been looking at it for weeks."
It's all very, well, something.
Retro.
Swell.
Unconsciously nostalgic.
The oldest family-owned retail furniture store in Tampa, Larmon Furniture has stood on the same street corner -- at Seventh Avenue and Avenida Republica de Cuba -- since 1931. A relic from the era when customer and owner knew each other by first name, it remains among only a handful of its breed surviving in Florida.
"We're a dinosaur, the only ones left in Tampa doing what we're doing," said Kalamaras, who, along with his wife, Elizabeth, took over the business when her father, Curtis Larmon, retired in 1992.
Elizabeth's grandfather, Rubel Larmon, the son of a Kentucky farmer, migrated to Tampa during the Depression and set up shop on what was then known as "furniture alley."
Originally called Friday & Larmon, the store has expanded three times over the years from its original 4,000 square feet.
But one thing has never changed: the customer base.
From its beginnings, the store has catered to shoppers from Ybor and surrounding neighborhoods, mostly black or Hispanic or both.
The first customers were cigar factory workers and local laborers. The store offered accounts and sold on credit, the backbone on its business, Curtis Larmon said.
The company employs 22 people, many of whom work the sales floor. Some, like Ernestine Bellamy, 63, have been on the payroll for decades. Bellamy, a part-time housekeeper for 30 years at Larmon, relied on her job to help put three daughters through college.
"I was a single parent, divorced, and I wanted my kids to get an education," Bellamy said. "And I liked working here. I have great memories of it."
Business is brisk on a Friday afternoon in mid-October, the first day of a privately advertised sale. A fresh stack of Florida Sentinel Bulletin newspapers, displayed next to the long row of desks occupied by Larmon salesmen, sells out within an hour.
"We have people on the books who are third-generation customers," Larmon said. "They talk about their grandparents and mothers shopping at the store."
In the 30s, Larmon said, nearly two dozen furniture stores lined the avenue and salesmen hawked wares from delivery trucks that cruised the neighborhoods.
"Back then Ybor was really booming," Larmon said. "There were all kinds of restaurants selling chicken and rice for $1. There were clothing stores, jewelry shops, upholsterers, everything you can think of."
The Larmon family lived in Seminole Heights, "but we never went downtown to do our shopping," he said. "We did it all in Ybor. You could buy anything there."
Over the years through Ybor's rises and slumps, Larmon Furniture remained firmly rooted, like a spectator at a parade.
For the most part, the style of furniture remained the same, though Elizabeth and Jimmy Kalamaras have recently tried to add traditional items in response to customer requests.
They also wanted to extend their appeal to homeowners on Harbour Island and in Hyde Park.
"My friends came over and saw some new furniture I had bought for the house," Elizabeth said. "They said, "Wow, where did you get that?' And I said, "You really need to come check out the store.' "
There's the tasteful -- as in the tweedy couch plumped with down feathers in the middle of the showroom -- and the more offbeat, like the huge, white, wedding cake confections of Victorian and French reproduction furniture that cry out for their own movie set.
Last year, Elizabeth, who still works as the store's part-time bookkeeper, gave the showroom a much-needed facelift. She painted the walls and ripped out the avocado-green shag carpet, which had been there for as long as she could remember.
"When I was in high school my girlfriends and I used to come over here and pile on one of the big round red velvet beds for our yearbook ad," she said with a laugh.
"I don't know what people thought. But it was my Dad's store and it's what my family has always done."
Jimmy and Elizabeth, both 43, met while students at Plant High School. They married in 1984 after Jimmy graduated from the University of Florida, where he played football for four years.
A history major, he culled his business knowledge selling insurance before going to work for his father-in-law in 1986.
The couple lives in Palma Ceia. Jimmy grew up in South Tampa in the parish house of St. John's Greek Orthodox Church, where his father served as priest for many years.
His uncles, John and George Palios, ran South Tampa's most famous fried chicken business. Gregarious, with a linebacker's build, Jimmy traces his people skills to family genes.
"Eighty percent of my customers I know by name," he said. "With a business like ours, it's all about how you treat people. We're not into hard sell."
As a result of years of hawking furniture for a living, he knows lots of people. Elizabeth jokes that her husband is so popular that "whether we're in an airport in California or an obscure country store in North Carolina, someone will recognize him."
Their own children, Nicole, 16, Melissa, 13, and Curtis, 8, have all grown up with the store. The Kalamaras hope the kids have inherited the same zeal for selling furniture.
"There's something really wonderful about a family business," Jimmy said. "It's been really good to us and we feel blessed. Our kids know that there will always be an opportunity here for them and we hope that someday they will want to get involved, too."
[Last modified November 3, 2003, 15:46:58]
