Local mellows into furniture business

By Sam Harvey
Staff Reporter

	Coastal Point • SAM HARVEY Rich Holt, flanked by Manager Melanie Killen, left, and General Manager Janet Fisher.

However, things seem to be smoothing out for Holt these days, personally and professionally. On the personal side, he noted his considerably improved health of late (thanks to some serious dieting), and on the business side, demand for home furnishings seems to just keep increasing.

He opened his third Payless Furniture location last month, on Route 113 in Millsboro.

Holt started out in Dagsboro in 1995, and launched a second operation in 2000 (Lewes). “Every five years, it’s time to open a new store,” he grinned.

Obviously, he must be doing something right. However, Holt traveled a winding road to successful entrepreneurship.

Born north of Millville (literally — doctors still made house calls in those days), Holt graduated the Lord Baltimore School in 1956.

He’d already started exploring a few possible career paths by that time, and enjoyed early success as a saxophonist (mostly tenor) with dance band, Rich Holt’s Slick Chicks.

The group did quite well, booking gigs at local schools, VFWs and the like. They had a pianist and a female vocalist, and played early rock and roll for the most part, Holt recalled — Elvis, Bill Haley — and also some crooners, like Bobby Darin and Paul Anka.

That was weekend work. During the week, Holt competed on the boat racing circuit. He said he’d had a boat of his own (a rowboat, anyway) from the time he was 4 years old, and grew up hunting ducks. He won his first outboard ever at a VFW Children’s Day event.

In his teenage years, motivated by the need for speed, Holt turned to the 11-foot, 40 horsepower “D” Hydro boats. He flipped a few times (nearly 30 times, actually) and sustained some minor injuries, but he also had a second-place finish at the national championships, and won the Orange Bowl Regatta (Miami Beach) in 1955.

Holt remembered some of his adventures from those days, like the time he bet a fellow patron at the Indian River Hotel (Oak Orchard) he could run his boat back to Millsboro faster than the other fellow could drive it in his car.

He won the $20 bet.

	Coastal Point • SAM HARVEY Payless offers a variety of furniture at competitive prices.

Meanwhile, his father, Wes Holt, wasn’t doing as well in the chicken business.

According to Holt, he was working with about a dozen other growers, but finding it difficult to make ends meet. With debts mounting, Holt’s father sold the nearly 100-acre farm in 1956 (those lands make up approximately half of the present-day Holt’s Landing State Park).

Father and son moved to Seaford, and went into the boat business together.

Holt said he’d had saved enough money from his music gigs to come in as a full partner, and many people — “from Florida to Massachusetts” — knew him from the competitive racing circuit. “That helped us out a lot,” he said.

They ran that operation for a while, and Holt eventually moved to buy his father’s share and take over the whole operation.

More by accident than design, he said he’d transitioned out of the boat business and into furniture. He sold down the boat inventory, and started manufacturing bunk beds at the Seaford location.

“A friend called me, asked if I might be interested — I told him, ‘I can’t even read a rule,’” Holt recalled. Nonetheless, they set up a factory-style assembly line and started turning out the product.

Holt built, and sold the beds for a while, up and down the seaboard, as far south as Norfolk, Va.

“Then, I realized I could buy them cheaper than I could make them,” he pointed out. So, he returned to his old stomping grounds and set Payless Furniture in Dagsboro, with his apartment upstairs.

That was 10 years ago, and he had one fulltime, and one part-time, employee. Today, Holt’s three Payless Furniture locations employ approximately 40 people.

Despite his valid claim to a lifelong connection with Sussex County, Holt didn’t promote himself based on that connection. Payless Furniture isn’t exactly a family business, he said (although his daughter, Audrey, does occasionally drive over from Salisbury to lend a hand).

And, as Holt pointed out, “My customers aren’t necessarily the locals, and my furniture isn’t necessarily for the local people — a lot of it’s for the beach.”

As visitors will find, the new location echoes the other two, with a specialization in “beachy” items for seasonal rentals and second homes.

However, according to Store Manager Melanie Killen, the Millsboro store offers quite a wide variety. “Not everyone wants rattan or wicker at their permanent residence,” she pointed out.

Killen noted solid wood and leather selections at the new Payless Furniture location as well.

Regardless of which style customers may be looking for, General Manager Janet Fisher (Killen’smother, incidentally) said she always focused her buying with two priorities in mind — (1) price point, with quality, and (2) companies that offer quick shipping.

“We try to be very accommodating when it comes to deliveries,” said Fisher. “You’d be surprised, Memorial Day weekend, how many people didn’t realize they needed a bed.

“And of course, we keep our prices competitive and try to offer different looks that you don’t see at every other store in the area,” she pointed out.

Anyone in the market for a new dining room, bedroom, sectional or recliner, or just a new accessory or two, will likely find something signature at Rich Holt’s Payless Furniture.

They’re celebrating the grand opening of the new store (Route 113, Millsboro, next to Millsboro Ford) this weekend.

According to Killen, neighbors Rommel’s Ace Home Center will be running specials over the weekend as well, and setting up a “bounce house,” and radio station WGMD will be on hand to broadcast a live remote.

VFW members will be on hand to serve hot dogs, popcorn, etc., free of charge (but donations welcomed), and Payless Furniture will give away three $500 gift certificates (drawing at the close of business Sunday, April 24).

For more information about the new Millsboro location, call (302) 934-1665.