Bishop - All in the family: Fendon’s Furniture thrives at same location 3 generations later

The original Fendon’s Furniture refurbishing shop was located in one of the inn’s rooms when Jerry Fendon first came to Bishop. Photo by Mike Gervais

For generations, Fendon’s Furniture of Bishop has been one of the best known and most successful mom-and-pop shops in the area.
And it all began with mom and pop, Fendon’s owner and Manager Randy Fendon said in a recent interview.
“My dad taught himself the furniture and mattress restoration business over 50 years ago and started doing business in Inyo and Mono counties in 1949,” Randy said.
As a youngster, Randy said he can remember going to Mammoth and June Lake every week after school in his father’s flatbed furniture truck, with his little brother in tow, to help out with restorations and other facets of the family business.
It was his early experience with the business that drew Randy back after graduating from college. He has taken the reins and is the second generation running the furniture shop. He is the third generation working on the same property, as his grandparents owned and operated the Kittie Lee Inn, which was located where Whiskey Creek stands now.
It is the basic family values on which Fendon’s bases its business. “I guess you can say that’s the secret to our success,” Randy said.

In the early years, Jerry Fendon, Randy’s father, was operating strictly as a furniture repair man, but as the workload grew, so did the business.
“My dad’s first shop was in the Kittie Lee Inn in Bishop. He later had a very small building on our current site which was eventually sold and now sits across the street from our present location as a decorative concrete store,” Randy said. “After selling the old building and moving it, a new, somewhat larger building, was built. And then over 20 successive years it was remodeled and enlarged five times as our business grew and developed to its current size.”
In addition to remodeling and growing in the show room and refurbishing shop, Fendon’s has added a huge warehouse on Willow Street, which allows the business to offer same-day delivery on most products throughout most of the Eastern Sierra.

Jerry and Shirley Fendon were the first owners and operators of Fendon’s Furniture in Bishop. As the business grew, the Fendons went through several remodels to improve and expand their showroom (below). Now their son, Randy Fendon, is at the helm of the business, continuing the time-honored tradition of family-oriented, friendly service. Photos by Mike Gervais

“We’ve survived, I think, because we’re always taking care of our customers,” Randy said. “That’s who we are, a family run business, but we’re like a big extended family.”
Randy’s parents, Jerry and Shirley Rae, remain active in the business, though management of day-to-day operations has been handed down to the next generation.
“We have a great long-term experienced staff whom we are very proud of and Fendon’s truly is a long-standing family business,” Randy said. “My dad and mother still work actively in the business and we work in Mammoth and June Lake regularly – at least weekly if not more often – and we have many residents and commercial customers in Mammoth and June Lake,” Randy said.
Fendon’s also serves Bishop and Southern Inyo.
In addition to being a family owned and operated business, Fendon’s is unique in that it has a full furniture repair, re-upholstery, wood refinishing and antique restoration shop as a key part of its operation.
“My guess is that less than 5 percent of the furniture stores in the U.S. have the same combination,” Randy said. “We can pretty much do anything with furniture and we don’t have to send it down to L.A.”
That’s another reason Fendon’s has had so much success in the area – it gives locals the opportunity to shop in their home town without missing out on any of the commodities offered by larger, franchised businesses.
Nobody can say what the future has in store for the Sierra’s oldest furniture retailer, but the loyal customers can rest assured that the business is in good hands.
Randy, who has two children who currently live out of state, pursuing their own careers, plans on enjoying the family business for some time to come.
“At this time I don’t think (my kids) have any plans to come back and work here,” Randy said. “But I’m still pretty young, I’ve got some time left here.”