Fleener's Furniture and Flooring: Greensburg's Natural Choice
Friday, July 24, 2009 at 12:46PM by Georgia Abrams 
For 102 years, Fleener’s Furniture and Flooring has served the residents of Greensburg and the surrounding area, and now there’s a green story to tell about it. Established in 1907, the business has been continuously run by at least one son with the founding motto: “Our aim is to be worthy of your friendship.” For a long time, Fleener’s was the largest locally-owned business in town with a grand total of eight employees. Wylan Fleener started working for the family business under his father, John, just a week before his thirteenth birthday. John ran the operation from around 1959 until May 4, 2007, when Fleener’s Furniture and Flooring was one of many businesses wiped out by the EF5 tornado. After the life-changing storm, John Fleener retired and son Wylan took over the reins.
Wylan admitted that after the tornado, he was looking for somewhere else to go, but he started to rebuild the store anyway while running his flooring operations out of a trailer. He felt it was right to stay and he could not walk away from either the town or the family business.
When Greensburg GreenTown’s director, Daniel Wallach, approached him to help form the organization, Wylan began to learn more and more about ‘going green’ and applied it to the re-establishment of the business. He chose to rebuild using ICF (insulating concrete forms) blocks, and made the new shop as sustainable as possible. Through the rebuilding, and after comparing notes with his daughter, Alexsis (Green Club secretary and a passionate advocate for the Green Initiative), Wylan said that the whole process was an educational experience and there are still new things to learn every day.
Wylan enjoys the challenges that he faces through his work and finds it rewarding that flooring is typically the finishing touch in a new home before a family gets to move in. He said, “It’s a struggle to run a business somewhere like Greensburg, but there’s also a joy to it.” He’s extremely passionate about the idea of shopping locally and tries to encourage it, as he believes it’s essential for Greensburg to become the model sustainable community. He also enjoys using a critical eye in sifting through products, learning about new products, interacting with people, and seeing what’s possible.
Fleener’s Furniture and Flooring strives to be the most sustainable business that they can: from the structure itself, to reusing and recycling in both the office and shop, and choosing products. Before making purchases, all aspects are considered: Where is it made? How is it made? Where do the proceeds go? With Fleener’s high standards, you can expect nothing less than unique and socially responsible products.
Reader Comments (3)
Good Friend.Really This Is Very Much Impressive. I Will Keep Visiting This Frequently.Dear Friend Just Tell Me, Can I Call Mechanic Online??
Yeah really it was impressive. a store for a good start. nice post!
by the way, it is also good to use prefab granite especially in a stormy areas. Choose what is right!