By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
For more than six decades, the Wells family has sold quality furniture to area buyers. Now the family business is closing its doors. Wells Sit-n-Sleep, the final rendition of the furniture store, is liquidating its stock this weekend after 10 years of business.
"We're just having a hard time getting our upholstery or the cased goods," said Donna Wells, who co-owns Sit-and-Sleep with her husband, Brett. "We don't have as much trouble with the mattresses because we use the company from Haven. We can get that pretty timely. If someone wants to order a recliner, we can't even give them a time when we can have it in. Last time it was about 10 months."
The first Wells store opened in 1958. Brett's grandfather, Rene Wells, worked as a mortician and store manager at Garland Furniture in Garden City. He rolled the dice and decided to open his own business, moving to Great Bend and opening Well-Thompson Furniture in 1958. That store sold carpet and appliances, in addition to furniture, before Ed Thompson moved on to his own business venture in 1972.
Wells Furniture thrived at its location on north Main Street in Great Bend until 2009 when Brett and Donna decided to close those doors, in part because of the recession hitting the country at that time, and in part because their building was falling apart. Three years later, the couple opened Wells Sit-n-Sleep on 10th Street, with an emphasis on mattresses.
"We decided to come back with this on a smaller scale," said Donna. "After Brett had left the industry for a while, he discovered he really missed it because he liked the people. That's how we came up with this, because it was really the bread and butter of our furniture store."
The store survived an increase in mail-order mattresses and other advances in home shopping. Then COVID-19 hit in 2020. In-store sales slowed and, even three years later, material availability is unpredictable.
Then came the winds of Dec. 15, 2021. Some locations in Kansas saw gusts in excess of 100 miles per hour, kicking up a dust storm and shutting down businesses and schools across the state.
"December is one of our best months," Donna said. "The roof from the hotel over here came off, hit the side of our store, hit the truck, and it caused a vortex-like and shattered our front glass doors. They shattered into the store. Luckily Brett and Bryce were in the back. Before they could go get something to cover the doors up, it was 95-mile-an-hour wind, dirt blowing in all over our store. We were closed for a month trying to get all that cleaned up. That killed us. That kind of put the final nail in the coffin."
The Wells expect most of their inventory to be gone over the weekend, but the store will remain open until all items are sold.
"It's been a real pleasure serving Great Bend and the surrounding area," said Donna. "They've been really good to us through all these years."
Wells Sit-n-Sleep will remain open from noon to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.