Valley Furniture owner remembers humble beginnings

By Diane Saunders, Staff Writer
Steve Junion remembers his “humble beginnings,” when he and his wife, Diane (Curtis) Junion, opened Valley Furniture


in a 3,800-square-foot building at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Highway 70 in Safford in the fall of 1994.
Today, Valley Furniture is housed in a building nearly eight times bigger — a 24,000-square-foot showroom on Armory Road on Safford’s south side.
“We’re the largest furniture store in the Gila Valley,” Junion said in a recent interview.
Junion has a simple recipe for success. He believes Valley Furniture’s reputation for good service and the lowest furniture prices around helped the business build a strong base of loyal customers.
“You’ve got to have good service to the people. We put a high priority on service,” he said.
Good customer service, however, did not protect the store from Mother Nature.
Junion said between the humble beginnings and the recently built showroom, Valley Furniture hit a low point when a tornado all but destroyed its 8,000-square-foot building on Armory Road on Aug. 21, 2016. The Junions had moved their furniture business into the building in 1999.
When Junion saw the damage, he thought all was lost. He even called his wife, who was in Phoenix, and told her they were out of business. The next day, however, Junion had a new outlook.
“The next day, it was like, ‘Quit crying and get on with it,’” he said.
The store remained open — selling furniture from the remainder of the damaged building and a large tent erected on the grounds. The Junions held a water damage sale and sold furniture at discounted prices.
“We were like Barnum and Bailey for about two months,” Junion said.
Although they had started planning the new 24,000-square-foot building, the Junions first rebuilt the damaged building. Valley Furniture finally got to move into its new building in November 2016 — a little more than a year after the tornado.
Junion is a Wisconsin native who moved to Phoenix when he was 12. He met his wife, who was born and raised in Safford, while he was managing a furniture store in Phoenix. Soon after they married, they moved to Safford and opened Valley Furniture.
Valley Furniture is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday.
The store offers furniture, appliances and accessories for all rooms in the house.