The family-owned, independent furniture and mattress retailer (emphasis on independent) focuses on what keeps customers coming back.
Mainers are known for their independence, their preference for shopping locally and their frugality.
So, it makes sense that the coastal residents of the state have been supporting Dow Furniture, a family-owned retailer in Waldoboro, Maine, for 70 years. The retailer bucks bedding industry trends it doesn’t think make sense and is just as happy to sell a $599 queen mattress as a $5,000 one, if that’s what’s best for the customer.
“I sleep better at night knowing that somebody got a good deal and they’re going to come back. That’s my big thing: making sure the customer is a customer for life,” says Dana Dow, second-generation owner of the company.
Dow Furniture: From Chicken Farm to Maine’s Trusted Bedding & Furniture Store
mattresses, furniture and discounted products, as well as warehousing.
The site of Dow Furniture, which includes a dedicated sleep center, upholstery and furniture showroom, a discount center and warehousing, was once a chicken farm, where the Dow family raised and sold as many as 400,000 birds a year. (The importance of volume remains a family ethos. More on that later.) Wilmot Dow left the chicken business in 1955 and started Dow Furniture to sell used furniture. In 1961, the retailer expanded into new furniture and mattresses. His son, Dana Dow, later joined the company, growing the business to 30,000 square feet of showroom space. Today, Dow Furniture is in the hands of Dana; his wife, Lisa; and their son, Wil, who is general manager.
The Dow retail complex is on the heavily traveled Route 1, set between the state’s two largest cities: Bangor and Portland, drawing customers from all along that stretch of Maine’s coast.
“Maine is a big, not very populous state, so we’re used to driving everywhere to find goods and services. We’ll drive 25 minutes just for groceries,” Wil Dow says. “We draw customers from 40 to 50 miles from our store.”
Maine has one of the oldest average ages of any state, plus picturesque towns that appeal to retirees with summer places, so it’s no surprise that the store’s customers tend to be older. They’re loyal, too.
“We rely a lot on our ‘be back’ customers,” Wil Dow says. “We sell generations of customers. People who bought mattresses back in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s come back today with their families to buy mattresses, and that’s really vital to us.”
About 25% of the company’s sales come from mattresses. The percentage was once as high as 70% but in recent years, Dow Furniture has been putting effort into growing the furniture side. Still, mattresses remain a vital part of the business, and Dana Dow is partial to the bedding category. “They’re easy to handle and the profits are good,” he explains.
What Makes Dow Furniture a Top Choice for Mainers
Mainers may be used to driving long distances for necessities, but Dow Furniture still wants to give them compelling reasons to make the trip to Waldoboro. Those include a huge selection (50 mattresses in the sleep center, plus more in the discount center), competitive pricing and a large number of in-stock mattresses for quick delivery.
“We offer many of the same mattresses (as our competitors) but at a better price and with local service,” Wil Dow says. “People seem to be really appreciative of small businesses and people tend to shop locally if they can.”
In its 5,000-square-foot sleep center, Dow Furniture displays all its mattresses on bed frames that it sells, merchandised along with nightstands, and other bedroom furniture and accessories. “So, it has a very homey feel,” Wil Dow says. Mattresses are organized by comfort and price, with higher-end models at the front of the showroom.
Its brands include Aireloom, Beautyrest, Nectar, Sealy, Stearns & Foster, Tempur-Pedic and Therapedic. Therapedic of New England in Brockton, Massachusetts, produces the retailer’s Dow Value Sleep private-label line.
“I really liked the idea of having a private label so that people know we are still a good value. We have a value line and we’re willing to put our name on it and put it out there,” Wil Dow says.
Prices for queen-size mattresses range from $299 (in the discount center) to $5,000, with an average mattress ticket of $999 to $1,099. Wil Dow says the retailer has seen a recent uptick in sales of higher-end bedding. “We brought in a $5,000 queen mattress from Aireloom (an E.S. Kluft & Co. brand) and it’s one of our bestselling Airelooms,” he says.
The company also carries sleep accessories, such as pillows, protectors and sheets, from Bedgear and Cuddledown, another Maine-based company. “Our customers know the Cuddledown name so we’ll do special promotions during sales: ‘When you buy a queen or king mattress, you can get a free set of Cuddledown pillows,’” Wil Dow says. “It’s all part of the ‘buy local’ thing that Maine consumers like.”
About 10 mattress models in the sleep center are shown on adjustable bases made by Rize Home, and the category is a growing one for the retailer.
Retail sales associates help shoppers select a few pillows to try while rest-testing mattresses but RSAs don’t do a hard sales push on sleep accessories or adjustable bases. “The emphasis is on the mattress,” Wil Dow says. “Once they find something that’s comfortable for them, we can talk about the add-ons.”
A Budget-Friendly Approach to Selling Mattresses and Furniture
The sleep center is staffed by three RSAs who focus on mattresses, although they are cross-trained to sell furniture, too. Two RSAs, who sell both bedding and furniture, staff the discount center.
“We greet every customer and ask them what they’re looking for because nine times out of 10, people who are driving to a rural retail store are here for a reason. So, we want to figure out what that is quickly and help them to find it,” Wil Dow says. “We don’t consider ourselves salespeople as much as we are retail sales associates who are here to assist them in finding a mattress that’s comfortable to them and within their budget.”
RSAs explain mattress features and benefits in plain language and then give shoppers space and privacy to rest-test beds and make decisions.
Dana Dow emphasizes that the retailer’s RSAs specifically ask shoppers about their budgets. “That’s supposed to be a big sales no-no,” he says. “But we don’t do what everybody else does and that’s what makes us successful.”
Some of Dow Furniture’s vendors tell the retailer that its unit pricing “is a little below average,” Dana Dow says. “But this is coastal Maine. There’s a lot of second homes, camps and cottages and not everyone is buying high-end mattresses. … We’re not going to oversell you anything you don’t need.”
“People come back because we’re honest with them. We don’t sell them something they don’t want, and we don’t try to stick them with a big payment,” he adds. Because of that, the retailer offers financing through the Furniture First buying group and TD Bank but RSAs only explain the plan if shoppers ask about financing.
“I’d rather make a profit through volume than I would overselling on each individual piece,” Dana Dow says.
The retailer recently built a
second warehouse specifically for its discount center to keep more mattresses and furniture in stock. The retailer offers both premium and curbside delivery within 35 miles for $79. But given Mainers’ cost-conscious nature, many shoppers prefer to pick up items themselves, Wil Dow says.
A Successful Marketing Mix for a Local Maine Market
When it comes to marketing, Dow Furniture takes a “more is more” approach: direct mail, broadcast and cable TV, emails and texts, Google, Facebook and more.
“We’re invested in a lot of different technologies and channels,” says Wil Dow, who has a passion for the marketing and merchandising sides of the business. “We even still do radio. We invest in those older channels because they work, but we’re also invested in the newer channels, as well. Through them all, we try to have a good mix of branding and promotion. … I love trying things and seeing what gets people to walk through the door.”
The retailer recently remade a successful TV ad in which young kids take over the store, investigating reclining chairs, adjustable beds and other furniture and then making their picks for their favorite piece.
“That was a huge hit for us and people come in asking about the kids all the time,” Wil Dow says. “It’s just a fun branding ad. It doesn’t talk about sales or pricing or anything. It just tells people what we’re known for and where we’re located.”
Dow Furniture is celebrating its 70th anniversary in 2025 with a commemorative logo and special promotions and sales all year long.
In a typical year, its sales and holiday events are tied to fundraising for local nonprofits or partnerships with nearby businesses. For instance, over Memorial Day, a sales event raised $3,000 for the Travis Mills Foundation, a nearby retreat for post-9/11 veterans and their families. Food pantries and organizations that provide heating oil also benefit from the retailer’s — and its customers’ — philanthropy.
“We like to be part of the community,” Dana Dow says. “It means quite a bit to us — and to our customers.”
Each New Year’s Day, the retailer hosts a breakfast sale catered by a local restaurant. And in a regular promotion, Dow Furniture gives customers a coupon for nearby Moody’s Diner that they can use for a slice of pie and a cup of coffee.
“Believe it or not, that seals the deal for a lot of sales,” Wil Dow says. “Moody’s make dozens of pies — chocolate cream, strawberry rhubarb, even whoopie pies — fresh every morning, and people love it.”
Balancing In-Store and Online Sales for a Seamless Customer Experience
Dow Furniture believes in the value of rest-testing mattresses — and in the expertise and guidance that its RSAs can provide shoppers trying to choose a mattress from the multitude the retailer offers.
Because of that, the retailer has primarily used its website as a vehicle to entice consumers, connect them with an RSA and then funnel them to the store. It’s beginning to sell directly online, starting with an increasingly successful test of some Ashley furniture pieces. As a next step, the retailer will offer some of its most popular mattresses online.
“If a customer does buy something from our website, one of our retail sales associates reaches out to them that day or the next day to talk about what they bought, tell them if it’s in stock or not, and explain what their lead time will be,” Wil Dow says. “So, the transaction happened online, but it’s kind of like a lead for the sales associate. That way the customer is still getting an experience of customer service that they’re not getting on Amazon or other online websites.”
