Eliot Tatelman reflects on his retirement from Jordan’s Furniture

Business

Tatelman’s sons, Josh and Michael, will continue to run as co-CEOs as they have been for the past five years.

While the Avon location of Jordan’s Furniture was being built in the late ’80s, company President Eliot Tatelman noticed a young man who had been delivering pizzas every day to his employees. The delivery man got to know all of the employees very well, including Tatelman, who said the man “had a gift.”

After several weeks of pizza deliveries, Tatelman asked the man: “Why don’t you come work for me?”

The man started off as a salesperson, then became an assistant store manager, and worked his way up to run four Jordan’s Furniture stores. Tatelman said he believed recruiting and mobilizing his employees into sectors they felt passionate about formed the family-like culture the business is known for today.

“That’s how we built the company,” Tatelman told Boston.com.

Tatelman, the face of the New England fixture for decades, announced Thursday he is stepping down as president of the company.

Tatelman’s sons, Josh and Michael, will continue as co-CEOs as they have been for the past five years, now with “an expanded leadership role,” according to a statement from the company.

“They’re going to take the company to new heights,” Tatelman said.

The beginning of Jordan’s Furniture

Samuel Tatleman, Eliot Tatelman’s grandfather, found the first Jordan’s in 1928 in Waltham. The company had 10 employees, Tatelman said, when he started helping around the store — when he was as young as 5 years old.

“My father used to have me go around and clean ashtrays,” Tatelman recalled. “Once I broke a vase dusting, and my grandfather and father came over to me and I was almost ready to cry.”

Besides dusting, Tatelman took on many jobs for the store as he got older: from driving the shipment truck to making deliveries in a white van. Tatelman said his wide-ranging experience gave him an appreciation for all of his employees — because he’s been there.

“I know what it’s like to carry a sleep sofa up three flights of stairs to go into a house and it’s 90 degrees outside,” Tatelman said. “It’s hard work.”

Tatelman and his brother, Barry, took over the company from their father in 1973. Under their ownership, a New England household name emerged. 

How the Tatelmans expanded Jordan’s

The brothers expanded the company’s locations to Avon, Natick, and Reading in Massachusetts, and also to locations in Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. What helped Jordan’s stand out was the brothers’ ability to “think out of the box” and provide a different experience compared to other furniture stores.

Tatelman said he thinks of furniture as fashion, and it amazed him how people could impulsively buy pieces that they did not intentionally seek out — all because other attractions brought them into the store.

“We’ve realized that if we put in the right type of entertainment, the right type of other reasons to bring people to our store other than furniture, it works for us,” Tatelman said.

The Motion Odyssey Movie ride, or the MOM, was one of the first experiences in Jordan’s Furniture. Other more recent ones include zipline courses, IMAX theaters, and the iconic “Beantown” in the Reading location that replicates Boston’s downtown with jellybeans.

“It was more about just having a good time, showing a personality to the company,” Tatelman said. “Come to Jordan’s, and you’ll experience something very different.”

MOM was often featured in the many memorable commercials that put Jordan’s on the map. The brothers would often star in these commercials, advertising their quality leather couches or their “underprices,” and becoming local celebrities in the process.

Barry Tatelman left the company in 2006 to pursue show business ventures including plans for a Broadway show and a TV show, Eliot Tatelman told MetroWest Daily News at the time. Barry eventually invested in musicals such as “The Book of Mormon” and “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,” according to WickedLocal in 2014. Today, he produces a PBS kids show called “Hello! Hi! How are you?”

The company culture and customer experience

While reflecting on his time at Jordan’s, Eliot Tatelman said he was proud of the scale of the company — from distribution centers to merchants to fleets of trucks — but mostly thought about the people.

“There’s so many different ends to [the business], but we literally have developed a family within our company, and we treat people really well,” Tatelman said.

Like the pizza delivery man, employees are able to advance in the company and switch to different sectors, something that Tatelman believes contributes to employee retention and happiness.

The Tatelmans themselves made sure employees felt appreciated, too. In 1999, the business jetted all 1,200 employees to Bermuda for a “thank-you party,” where everyone enjoyed barbecue and beach games, according to the Boston Business Journal.

Tatelman also said he believes in giving customers a “unique experience.” 

“When you buy a sofa from us and or a chair and you want to pick it up … not only do we give you freshly made popcorn for the ride home and a cold drink, we wash the windows in your car,” Tatelman said.

What’s next for Jordan’s?

Jordan’s most recently opened store in Farmington, Connecticut, has a Sally’s Apizza attached to it, as well as a large LED screen that’s 80 feet long and 32 feet tall — good for watching sports games, Tatelman said.

This expansion and spectacle is what Jordan’s is known for — and Tatelman said the company will not “rest on its laurels” and will continue to grow.

“You’re always growing and you’re always changing,” Tateleman said. “I don’t care what business you’re in, or what you’re doing, you can’t just sit still. You’re always coming up with newer, unique ideas.”

Tatelman said his sons will bring in a new age using new technology and social media platforms, something Tatelman is admittedly not very savvy to. 

While Tatelman will no longer be involved in the company’s day-to-day operations, he said he will still appear in future commercials.

“It’s like my baby,” Tatelman said. “I’m not just going to walk out … It’s important that I stay in for as long as I can, and I will.”