As a member of the fourth generation of the Waters family in the furniture business, Loy Waters knows the origin story of L.A. Waters Furniture well.

“My great grandfather (L.A. Waters) started the business in 1934 at his home in Twin City, selling furniture off of trucks,” he said. “Drivers drove routes as far as Claxton and Sylvania, taking orders from people at their homes and delivering items the next week.”

And while so much has changed in the furniture business in the 90 years since L.A. Waters Furniture was founded, Waters knows their guiding principle will never change. 

“We will always keep the customer at the center of everything we do,” he said. 

L.A. Waters has been marking the 90th anniversary of the store’s founding during all of 2024 and Anthony Waters said he doesn’t take the company’s longevity for granted, or that L.A. Waters is now the oldest completely family-owned business in Bulloch County.

“I remember my grandfather telling me when I was a young man that you will never make it in this business if you think you can sell somebody one time and one time only,” Anthony Waters said. “’You got to be able to sell them again and again and again,’ he told me. ‘You do a good enough job so that they’ll want to come back and you take care of them for a lifetime.’

“That was great advice then and still is today.”

Now, Loy and his brother Lee are the fourth generation of the Waters family who are charged with leading the company into the future. 

“There was no pressure. I'm honored that (my sons) would want to do this,” Anthony Waters said. “And they have come in and made some real contributions to the business. Dad gave me the reins to make changes I saw fit to make, like his father allowed him to do. Okay. I'm giving them the reins to make the changes that they see need to be done to make the business better. To take care of our customers better.”

Currently, Loy and dad Anthony are based at the Lovett Road store across from Food Lion, while Lee and grandfather Si are at the iconic L.A. Waters store in downtown Statesboro.

Along with the business, Si turned 90 this year and he still comes into his office at the store every weekday.

Anthony Waters remembers first moving into the West Main St. store and how a disaster reaffirmed the family’s faith in the community.

“They had moved into this old theater building,” he said. “Daddy (Si) had remodeled it, and they started selling furniture out of there. And within a year, it had caught on fire and burned to the ground. They stuck everything they had into redoing the building – probably more than they had – and just trying to work their way out of it.

“But people were good to us, I’ll tell you. It was amazing that they would still come and support a local business that was in a very tough situation, trying just to survive. And they came in and they were very supportive, the people of this county, and we were able to rebuild it.

“(Daddy) has always had that vision and that mentality and that work ethic. And, I'm thankful he's done his best to pass that on to us.”

The future

Currently, L.A. Waters has the two family-named stores noted above that are open to the public, a furniture warehouse on Northside Drive and the I Save More furniture store next to Krispy Kreme on Northside Drive.

Loy Waters said he and Lee will always consider ways to expand, but not just for the sake of getting bigger.

“If you do expand, you have to make sure that you retain the character of your business,” he said. “Otherwise, you're defeating your purpose. Just to sell more furniture is wonderful. But it has to be more than just that. It all goes back to our people-focused approach. We're going to grow in the future in the ways we see best for our customers.”

And for Anthony Waters, doing things the right way for the right customers won’t ever change.

“You know, there are things about our business that do change,” he said. “There are styles that are always changing, offering the best new brands to our customers. Those are things that change all the time.

“But how we do business never changes. We have found that offering a better-quality product is not something that people are doing everywhere. We have found a niche for L.A. Waters is a customer who wants really good quality at a fair price, with good service.

“There are people within a 100-mile radius of Statesboro that come to us for that. We're sending delivery trucks into Savannah every week. We're into Hilton Head, Bluffton, Macon. L.A. Waters has become a destination when somebody is looking for a little nicer quality product. That’s a niche we’re going to stay in.”