The Business of Furnishing Comfort
South Bay Furniture Fixture Dave Dennee Puts Customers at Ease
by Betty Lukas
Maggie and Dave Magee relax in some of their beautiful patio furniture on display in their Hollywood Riviera store. Photo by David Fairchild.
He’s always been a family man.
Ever since Dave Dennee was 13 and started sweeping floors at Lloyd’s Goodyear Tire Store in Inglewood, his life has been focused on preserving the family business.
And now, 65 years later, the lavishly furnished Dennee’s “design and decorating showroom” in Redondo Beach–one that no longer carries Goodyear tires or television sets–stands as testimony to that focus.
The South Bay store in no way resembles the original facility on Hawthorne and El Segundo boulevards that his father Lloyd started in 1945, and which his mother Maxine managed, but it does bear a strong commitment to family unity.
Monique and Michelle, two of his three daughters, work at the Avenue I showroom. Even wife Maggie was active in the business until a heart transplant curtailed her presence seven years ago. When available these days, she helps with displays and merchandising, according to Michelle. Daughter Mia manages their store in Santa Ynez that opened 12 years ago. Both Monique and Michelle are products of a design program at UCLA.
Mia, the eldest at 45, has been in the business for 27 years. The same is true for Michelle, 43. Monique, 32, part of the team for nine years. Together, these Dennee daughters have produced nine children ranging in age from two to 20 years.
As proud father/grandfather Dave Dennee recounted the family’s beginnings during a recent interview in his Redondo Beach showroom. It was his father, who began adding television sets 45 years ago as they grew in popularity, and it was his mother, who introduced furniture to the store, he explained. “Her real love was furniture. She was really into design, and found a place for some pieces in a corner of the store.”
“And,” he continued, “it was she who kept everything going after my dad was killed in a car accident when I was a teenager.”
After graduating from Inglewood High School, Dennee went on to El Camino College and then to San Jose State University, but he stayed only a year up north, he explained, “because. I felt the need to help my mother, and then there was a girl—we met when she was 14—so I came home, began working at the Inglewood store and got married. She was 18 and I was 21.” (They’ve now been married 47 years.)
As young marrieds, he said, “we lived in Inglewood for six years, but then moved to Seal Beach—where homes were a lot cheaper. Two of our daughters were born there, but it was quite a commute.”
As the girls grew and as the business grew, they’ve moved several times. More recently, they lived for 12 years at the Riviera Beach Colony, then spent 23 years in Palos Verdes Estates, and a year ago moved to a single-story home in Rolling Hills. “I can look across my canyon and see seven [of nine] grandchildren.” (Monique and Michelle and their families live near their parents in Rolling Hills.)
In thinking about what prompted his departure from the Hawthorne Boulevard store, Dennee had observed that “people were driving all the way from Palos Verdes to buy from us.” Other factors, he said, were the then-new San Diego Freeway that took business away from Hawthorne Boulevard, plus the reality that their customer base was also changing.
So, during the decade from 1973-1983, Dennee launched the Redondo Beach store, plus others in Mammoth, Carson, and San Pedro. At the moment, two stores remain. Redondo Beach—which has a total of 11 employees–and Santa Ynez. A building attached to the Redondo Beach facility contains its Garden Center that opened a year ago.
By way of explaining the fidelity of his patrons, Dennee said, “We do everything. We’re a full-service design center. People know we can do pretty much whatever they want,” he went on. “We basically buy things that we like from vendors, doing it all. And we have local people who do the customizing that our customers want.
“People who shop here also like a family environment, fair treatment, good quality and fair prices.
“What I love is the creative part, the interaction with clients, many of whom are my friends. I like anything that has to do with making something better,” he went on by way of explaining his personal philosophy. “I’ve loved the business from the moment I started delivering furniture, and I don’t think we’ve disappointed anyone in our 65 years.”
Most of their client base is referrals, he said. And it’s widespread. “We’ve done homes in Hawaii and Nantucket. We’ve even shipped pieces to Europe,” he added.
“We buy a lot from the Philippines and Vietnam—because of their attention to detail and customizing. We try not to buy much from China, because it’s all mass-produced. We go to North Carolina, too,” he added.
As for the temperament of his current clients in the present economy, he said that many of them are what he called “price sensitive. They are shopping around more. And the Internet has had an impact,” he admitted. “But what we like to provide is something that is unique and different—something they can’t get elsewhere.”
Dennee, now 69, said he comes into the showroom almost every day, but he does save time for relaxation—especially golf. “I’ve been a member of the Palos Verdes Golf Club since 1975, and I was active in getting the Beach Club going again. I love hunting and fishing—both deep sea and fresh water fishing, and I’ve done both in such places as Costa Rica, Mexico and Mammoth.”
And then, dipping into the past again, Dennee recalled, “In high school, I took an aptitude test, and the counselor told me I should be a landscape architect. Interestingly enough, I am now doing that, too. Sometimes, when we’re redoing the entire interior of a house, I’ve been asked to redesign the landscaping. In fact, I’m completing one of those projects right now,” he said. “The more I get into that, the more I love it.”
But when all is said and done, when all the accomplishments are added up for this successful family-focused businessman, the one thing that stands out for him is this: “The most satisfying thing of all is that I get to work with my daughters.” PEN