Mid-Century Furniture Warehouse in Port Richmond is set to close its doors in early March, writes Jake Blumgart for The Philadelphia Inquirer. 

Brian Lawlor, the owner of Mid-Century Furniture, credits two major factors for the warehouse’s imminent closure.

“COVID changed a lot of things for me,” said Lawlor. “And my lease is up at the end of March.”

The pandemic caused the end of most in-person auctions, which effectively changed the way his business was able to operate, making it much more difficult to replenish his inventory. 

Before the pandemic, he’d go to five or six live auctions a week and inspect new items while bidding on them. Now, they are reduced to roughly one or two in-person a month, while the rest are online.

“I’ve tried it for the last couple of years and just … it’s not me, I don’t love it,” said Lawlor. “You can’t get a true sense of what you’re buying. That’s difficult, especially when you’re repairing things and you’re refinishing things.”

Lawlor has ran Mid-Century Furniture Warehouse for nearly two decades. First, the warehouse was located in Fishtown, then moved to Second Street and Cecil B. Moore for about a decade, before arriving to its current Port Richmond location five years ago. 

Read more about why Mid-Century Furniture is closing at The Philadelphia Inquirer. 

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