Submitted by Fox First at Ten on March 14th
SPOKANE, Wash. - Huppin's announced on Thursday that it plans to close its downtown Spokane store at 421 W. Main. The electronics retailer will consolidate its bricks and mortar presence to the north Spokane location at 8016 N. Division.
The company will expand Huppins.com and will also continue the OneCall online retail operation. Huppin's downtown location will begin its biggest inventory sale in history on Friday, March 22. The "Three Million Dollar Moving Sale" will include everything in the downtown store.
"During our 104 years of history, Huppin's has succeeded by evolving with our customers and their shopping preferences. This change is a natural evolution of that," said Murray Huppin, President of Huppin's.
"We have seen our customer base shift to the north store where we've created a bright, open shopping experience. We know we'll have some customers who are disappointed to lose the downtown location, but we hope they'll come see us up north."
Huppin's, an Apple Specialist, offers an expanded assortment of Apple products and accessories at the north store, one of the largest selections in Inland Northwest. With twice the inventory of downtown, the Division location also features a wide variety of small appliances, kitchen vignette, computer audio products, more than 100 headphones on display and new sound rooms, as well as easy access and free parking. Huppin's will continue to be on the cutting edge with its inventory, stocking the new ultra high-definition 4K televisions just coming to market.
The company will be expanding its Huppins.com website allowing customers to browse online, compare prices and, soon, provide customers a way to easily place orders and track deliveries from their home computer or mobile phone.
Huppin continued, "The home electronics market is continuing to evolve and we're seeing an increased consumer movement to internet shopping, even within local markets. "There are so many good memories in the downtown location, but the evolution of online retail and our bigger, more accessible location on North Division makes this a good business decision," Huppin said. "We are part of a great community, and we look forward to continuing to serve Spokane."
Huppin's has a history of being ahead of the consumer curve. The company began as a small tailor shop in 1908 and grew over time, moving into dry goods retail and pawnbroking before its start in electronics and cameras in the 1950s. The company was an early entrant in the online retail space, launching OneCall in 1994.
OneCall pioneered a very successful service model to help customers make online electronic shopping choices.
