Enterprise encore
‘A Different Kind of Customer’
Vandenberg Furniture survives and thrives in a big-box world by
Adam Rayes
Cal Vandenberg has been a part of the furniture business for
Right: Cal Vandenberg sits in the showroom of his family’s furniture store which celebrates 90 years in business this year. Below and opposite page: Vandenberg Furniture’s store has nearly tripled in size since moving to its location on U.S.131.
26 | Encore AUGUST 2017
Brian Powers
most of his life. The 68-year-old owner of Vandenberg and Sons Furniture Inc., a store at 12000 North U.S. 131 in Schoolcraft that is celebrating its 90th anniversary this year, went from working for his father, Anthony Vandenberg, pulling weeds and building furniture with his six siblings, to taking over the family’s furniture store 45 years ago. It seems as if the family business runs in the younger Vandenberg’s veins. But it wasn’t always that way. Right out of high school Vandenberg joined the U.S. Navy, which took him to California, where he was originally planning to stay. But he ended up coming back home and applied to work in a warehouse for Redwood & Ross, a local chain of men’s clothing stores that closed its doors in the late 1990s. It was an experience he says he will never forget. “I show up (for an interview) like I’m dressed now,” says Vandenberg, gesturing to his suit and tie, “and the lady behind the desk goes, ‘Cal, this job isn’t for you. Get out of here.'” He says it wasn’t just his clothes. “I think she realized I had more potential than working stocking shelves,” he says, even though he admits he “still ended up as a warehouse guy.” Vandenberg went back to working for his father, which he said wasn’t always easy, but he loved it anyway. Of the six Vandenberg children, Cal was the only one to follow in his father’s footsteps.