Levin Mattress opens at Butler Crossing
Levin Furniture's efforts to revive the century-old family furniture business include a new Levin Mattress store in Butler Township.
The store, which opened Saturday at 620 Butler Crossing, is one of 19 Levin furniture and mattress stores in Pennsylvania and Ohio that have opened since July 3 under the direction of Robert Levin, company chairman, and his new partners, John and Matt Schultz, brothers who also own two Ashley Furniture stores.
Levins' late grandfather, Sam Levin, started the business in 1920 with a store in Mount Pleasant in Westmoreland County.
Levin sold the business to Michigan-based Art Van Furniture in 2017, but the new owner filed for bankruptcy in March after closing all the stores due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Levin bought the business back through a $25.7 million bid in bankruptcy court in May. The bid includes a $10 million fund for compensating more than 1,000 customers in Ohio and Pennsylvania who paid for or made deposits on furniture that Art Van never delivered.
Levin tried to open as many of the original stores as possible, but he couldn't obtain leases for all of the former locations.
Some of the new stores are called Levin Furniture and Mattress Outlets and others like the store in Butler Township are called Levin Mattress.
The store sells about 50 kinds of mattresses, including innerspring, foam and hybrid types. Hybrids have inner springs and foam. Mattress protectors, pillows, sheets and adjustable bases are also sold.
Customers can also order anything that Levin sells, including items sold at furniture stores, and transact the sale at the mattress store, said Stevan Peters, manager of the Butler Crossing store.
“We can sell you anything Levin carries,” he said.
Mattresses are the main product at the new store and Peters uses the company's “tried and true” method to help customers find the mattresses and pillows that fit them best.
“We present. We don't push. Most people don't enjoy mattress shopping,” he said.
The method begins talking with the customer.
“Our biggest job is to ask the right questions,” Peters said. “It's consulting. I can usually find the perfect mattress with five or six laydowns.”
Levin has a furniture store in Wexford and people from Butler shop there, but the company and its customers wanted a mattress store in Butler.
“That was our first entrance into the Butler market so we decided to do it as a mattress store,” said Matt Schultz, who serves as co-CEO with his brother. “We always had a large customer base in Butler that traveled to the furniture store in Wexford. We felt mattresses tend to be local purchases.”
He said the decision to open a mattress store in Butler was also based on customer feedback.
Levin Mattress also has a store in Cranberry Township.
