retail founded 1981 founder john volken headquarters edmonton alberta canada products home furnishing parent the brick website http www.ufw.com united furniture warehouse ufw is a retail furniture chain operating approximately twenty four 24 locations in western canada and ontario . the company bills itself as offering warehouse style shopping at the lowest possible prices . 1 the company was founded in 1981 by john volken an immigrant who arrived in canada from east germany in 1960 at the age of 18 . 2 it was one of the first businesses to sell at warehouse prices and to operate without commission sales staff or in store decor . 3 in 2001 the company had sales of 210 million canadian approx . us 135m . by 2003 the company had expanded to over 150 stores including 39 stores in the northwestern united states . with stores in washington idaho oregon and utah it was one of the most widespread retail furniture chains in north america and one of canada s most successful stateside retailers . however in early 2003 they were forced to close all but 5 of their stores in the united states . 2 by early 2004 the company had completely exited the u.s. market . as of march 2004 the company had reduced its size to 81 stores 4 and was acquired by another national furniture retailer the brick . in 2006 the brick rebranded 24 of these under their own name in an attempt to save on advertising costs and increase sales which had fallen 10.8 % in the third quarter of 2005 for established ufw stores . 5 as of february 2010 the company had reduced its size to 36 stores across canada 15 in ontario 10 in alberta 5 in british columbia 3 in each of saskatchewan and manitoba . some time later they re entered the u.s. market with stores in bellingham and mount vernon in washington . those two stores have since closed . as of january 2014 there are 24 united furniture warehouse stores across canada 8 in each of alberta and ontario 2 in british columbia and 3 in each of saskatchewan and manitoba . 6 . advertisements edit united furniture warehouse has a well known musical cue at the end of its broadcast ads including the phrase united furniture warehouse sung in bass followed closely by a bump bump sound effect a pair of orchestral hits that are simultaneous to the flashing of the company s logo on the screen . in one of its commercials they poked fun at this fact with an employee singing the jingle and a group of children pointing out you forgot the bump bump one commentator wrote the jingle was maddeningly catchy . 2 american actor steve landesberg was prominently featured in many of the company s television commercials during the 1990s . references edit ufw.com company profile . a b c canadian furniture retailer plans widespread pullout from u.s. . puget sound business journal . 2003 01 05 . armchair quarterback . canadian business . 68 13 80 81 . december 1995 . the brick plans 400m ipo as income trust . ottawa business journal . 2009 05 31 . brick to rebrand sleep better chain . national post . 2006 01 17 . ufw.com store locator . external links edit official website v t e edmonton based businesses aimco atb financial bioware booster juice the brick canadian western bank capital power corporation company s coming publishing epcor utilities fountain tire intuit canada katz group lone pine publishing nexopia pcl construction pizza 73 servus credit union stantec triple five group united furniture warehouse edmonton portal this article about a canadian corporation or company is a stub . you can help wikipedia by expanding it . v t e retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title united furniture warehouse & oldid 636042915 categories furniture retailers of canadacompanies based in edmonton1981 establishments in albertacanadian company stubshidden categories all stub articles navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 30 november 2014 at 16 39 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view