HFN: The Weekly Newspaper for the Home Furnishing Network, June, 2003 by Gill, Penny
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.-It’s a long way from selling muslin sheets and huck towels at four for $1 to selling luxurious cotton bath towels and 1,020-thread-count sheets retailing at more than $1,200 for a queen-size set. But the ability to change with the times is one of the reasons that Pioneer Linens has thrived as a single-store operation for 90 years.
What began in 1912 as a hardware store in the Florida frontier town of Lake Worth has today become a prestigious retailer of fine linens, boasting a customer list that includes presidents, royalty and celebrities. Along the way, the business shifted focus from hardware to furniture to home textiles, and weathered such challenges as a hurricane, the Great Depression and the flight of downtown shoppers to…
