1858 former type american private company industry retail specialty founded 1856 in sacramento california united states of america founder john breuner defunct 2004 retailer still available as an online furniture company area served internet key people bill breuner beth breuner grebitus products furniture website www.breuners.com breuners home furnishings or breuners is an online furniture company that was a chain of brick and mortar furniture stores in the united states for 148 years before declaring bankruptcy in 2004 . 1 founded in california during the california gold rush in the mid 19th century its stores served california and nevada before expanding to the east coast in the late 20th century . 2 in 2004 the company declared bankruptcy 3 closed all its retail stores and now operates solely through the internet . 4 contents 1 history 2 legacy 3 slogans 4 see also 5 references 6 external links history edit the store was founded in 1856 by william robert bill breuner s great grandfather 2 john breuner 1828 1890 to cater to prospectors during the california gold rush . 5 the first store opened in sacramento california with subsequent branches in oakland san francisco and later throughout california and nevada . the company went public in 1968 under bill breuner . 2 breuner sold the company in the 1970s 6 and it was acquired by marshall fields in 1983 . 2 at its height breuners operated 40 retail outlets . 2 the stores were large bigboxes around 140 000 square feet 13 000 m2 . 7 by the 1990s the company was based in san diego and in 1995 expanded into the new york and new jersey markets by acquiring huffman koos 13 stores for 36.9 million dollars . 8 breuners also owned good s furniture stores . 9 legacy edit breuner marsh a wetlands area and breuner field a model airplane field within it in addition to the breuner building in downtown oakland are all named after the family . 5 slogans edit that s the beauty of breuners i ve been to breuners and now i ve seen everything see also edit levitz furniture a company with a similar history montgomery ward a now online only defunct department store chain references edit company history breuners.com access date september 10 2008 a b c d e obituaries stanford alumni magazine september october 2005 access date august 10 2008 company news ; breuners home furnishings files for bankruptcy new york times july 15 2004 access date september 8 2008 breuners company history access date september 8 2008 a b genealogical society marks 110 years of researching family by anallee allen oakland tribune february 28 2008 access date august 15 2008 obituary beth breuner grebitus was civic pillar in sacramento by robert d d vila sacramento bee august 6 2008 access date august 12 2008 former breuners to receive a makeover by christine morente oakland tribune january 24 2007 access date august 15 2008 company news ; breuners home furnishings to acquire huffman koos new york times september 20 1995 access date august 15 2008 company news ; breuners home furnishings files for bankruptcy new york times july 15 2004 access date september 10 2008 external links edit breuners official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title breuners home furnishings & oldid 722301110 categories companies established in 1883defunct department stores of the united statesdefunct furniture manufacturershistory of the san francisco bay areacalifornia gold rushdefunct companies based in california 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 27 may 2016 at 06 09 . 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