Store closing its doors after 37 years
By THOMAS MICHALSKI
Article published on Friday, Jan. 20, 2006  |
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| Photo by THOMAS MICHALSKI |
| Kenneth Keefe still loves selling furniture. His store will close on Feb. 25, but retirement is not on the horizon. |
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PINELLAS PARK – A long-established children’s furniture emporium will become history on Feb. 25, the victim of big box stores, the Internet and a poor economy.
Juvenile Junction at 7101 U.S. 19 is holding a closeout sale on juvenile and teen furniture and related items.
The building in March will become a sports memorabilia store.
Kenneth Keefe, who founded the store in the late 1960s, said he has no plans to retire.
“I can’t,” he said. “I haven’t had a weekend off in 50 years so why should I start now?”
He will work for his son, Kenneth Jr., who operates a real estate business.
Boston-born Keefe worked for a long-gone optical company after graduating Boston University. He later decided to sell baby furniture.
“I basically was a door-to-door salesman,” he said.
In 1956 he and his late wife, Hildegard, moved to Pasadena Isle near St. Petersburg. He continued to sell furniture.
He opened locations in St. Petersburg, Orlando, Pompano Beach and elsewhere within the state. The stores eventually were taken over by his employees. In 1969 he created Juvenile Junction and opened the first store on 46th Avenue in St. Petersburg.
“It expanded quickly,” Keefe said, “so we opened the present 6,000-square-foot location.”
With a 3,000-square-foot addition and good business sense, Keefe expanded the line of furniture and other goods. He added accessories and teen furniture.
“We sold inexpensive, but good furniture,” Keefe said. “I enjoyed working with the customers.”
But the Internet with its low prices and no taxes came on the scene. So did box stores such as Baby Superstore, Babies Are Us and others that introduced discount prices.
Business softened after the Sept. 11, 2001, attack in New York City.
Keefe has mixed emotions about closing the store.
“I’ll still keep very active,” he said, “but I will miss the store, the customers and my faithful employees.”
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Article published on Friday, Jan. 20, 2006
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