Omaha Exploration

Born in Russia in 1893, Rose Gorelick crossed Siberia to immigrate to the United States in 1917. Just 24 years old when she arrived, she already had retail experience, having worked in her mother’s grocery store from the age of six. She worked her way up to clerk and eventually store manager by age 19.

Her husband, Isadore Blumkin, had settled in Fort Dodge, Iowa, after fleeing the country a few years earlier to avoid conscription in the czar’s army. The Blumkin family moved to Omaha in 1919, where Isadore opened a used clothing store. After their young children had grown up, Rose took out a $500 loan from her brother Simon to start a used furniture business. Simon owned a jewelry store and would later become part owner of Borsheims.

By this time, her husband was operating the Blumkin Loan Company at 1307 Douglas Street, and Rose ran her furniture store in the basement. Times were tough in the beginning, and at one point the family had to sell its own furniture to pay off debt. In 1937, she moved the store to 1312 Farnam Street and began operating under the name Nebraska Furniture Mart. As the business continued to grow, Rose relocated the store twice more in the 1940s—first to 1918 Farnam Street and then to 2205 Farnam Street.

After larger competitors complained about her low prices, furniture suppliers stopped selling to NFM. To counteract that, Rose traveled to Kansas City, Chicago and even New York to get furniture to sell at her store. Continuing to undersell her competitors in Omaha, Rose clearly lived by the motto that made her famous: “sell cheap, tell the truth, don’t cheat nobody.”

With the Korean War underway, the economy suffered which impacted sales at NFM. At that point she borrowed $250k to rent and move inventory into Omaha’s city auditorium for an all-out, three day sale. While it worked and the company remained debt-free afterwards, she wasn’t done facing adversity which included Isadore’s passing in 1950 and a fire that destroyed most of her inventory in 1961. She opened the new warehouse at 400 S 77th Street in 1965. Just three years later she opened a second location at 700 S 72nd St in a building that used to be an insurance company. She chose to focus on the expansion of her new location in 1970 resulting in the closure of the downtown store. 

Employees and customers both took cover in an old bomb shelter in its new store when a tornado touched down in 1975. Despite causing $5M damage to her store, Rose donated money to the American Red Cross and Salvation Army to help those that were affected. 

In 1983 Rose was seemingly ready to take a step back from the store that she made into the largest furniture store in the country. In a handshake agreement, she sold the business to Warren Buffett for $55M. The deal didn’t even include an audit of her books. The Blumkin family continues to be involved in the business as they retained a 10% stake. 

Rose would come out of retirement in order to open Mrs. B’s Clearance and Factory Outlet across the street. She did so as she thought she was being frozen out of the company she built. Within two years, the new store was profitable. By the time she sold that business to Warren Buffett in 1992, it was the third largest carpet store in Omaha. At that time she was 99 years old. 

Warren Buffett said afterwards that he would never again let her retire without signing a non-compete clause. He also said that he’d rather wrestle a grizzly bear than compete with Mrs. B. He said that she bought brilliantly and had operating ratios that their competitors couldn’t even come close to. That allowed her to pass the savings on to her customers. 

The legacy of Rose Blumkin continues to this day. In addition to being involved in her company until her death in 1998 at 104 years old, she was a large supporter of not only the Omaha Jewish Community Center and the Rose Blumkin Performing Arts Center in addition to many other causes. She received honorary degrees from both Creighton University and New York University. Meanwhile the small store she founded in the basement of her husband’s business has expanded to Des Moines, Kansas City and Dallas.

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