It’s not too often that a business stays put in one area for 55 years. Even less often is when that business remains in family hands.

Despite the odds, this is the legacy built by Big Bargain Furniture, owned by the Jefferson family, and a fixture in downtown Washington.

Patriarch Billy Jefferson, 82, said he first opened the business in 1961 with a $5,000 investment from a bank in Washington at the time. Walk into the store today, and Jefferson, his wife and his son Bill are all still there ready to help.

Big Bargain began as a used-and-refurbished appliances store — the big deal was $20 down and $4 a week, Jefferson recalled.

“At that time we were in the 135 E. Main St. (location),” he said. “There’s a lot of stories like that, that go with that beginning investment.”

Jefferson has been a part of the business world for quite some time, starting his first job running a Washington Daily News paper route, “Third Street to the power plant,” in fifth grade. Through the years, he also held jobs delivering groceries and working at the old department store on Main Street.

Upon opening Big Bargain, Jefferson said the business wasn’t successful as a primary job, so he had to sell insurance to feed the family, working at the appliances store in the morning and selling insurance in the afternoon.

“I’ve been in downtown for, what, 70-plus years, so there’s a lot of history here that I can tell you about that a lot of the young folks don’t know about,” Jefferson said.

In 1972, Big Bargain moved to a larger space at 120 S. Market St., before making its final move in 1989 to its current location on Main Street. As the store expanded, so did the merchandise; Big Bargain began selling furniture as well, thus prompting the need to expand its space even further to use up three stories in one building and a space across the street, as is the case today.

Jefferson’s son, Bill, said he can still remember spending most of the day on Saturdays painting refrigerators for his dad while growing up. At the time, it seemed as though his Saturdays were ruined, but looking back, he said his father just raised him to work hard. Over the years, the younger Jefferson was able to get his feet wet and learn the ins and outs of his father’s store.

“I do remember the little store that was on Main Street,” Bill Jefferson said, adding that he also used to count the money. “These were little things that I learned along the way.”

Billy Jefferson said he has spent a lifetime making connections with his customers and with his product vendors. He still makes a point to keep only products of the highest quality, offers free delivery in the area and will bend over backward to make a customer satisfied.

To him, that’s the right way, the only way, to do business.

“If there’s a vendor and they don’t care about their product…got a little too big and the families are out of it, those vendors, we’ll cut them off,” son Bill Jefferson said. “That’s all part of the business model that my dad has utilized. … What we do is try to look at it and see what’s fair.”

People have taken notice, too. Customers know when someone is an honest businessman, and even if fixing a problem means expenses come out of the family’s pocket, the reputation that follows is worth it in the long run, according to Billy.

“Sometimes our guys do a little extra,” Bill Jefferson said of his delivery team. “You are the last face of Big Bargain Furniture that these customers see, so they may have to go the extra mile.”

After more than half a century, the Jeffersons hope to continue the Big Bargain legacy and plan to continue treating the customers right. After all, that’s what has worked for the past 55 years.

“It’s amazing how the business has grown,” Billy Jefferson said. “My hope is this and our intent is this, that when I am gone, Bill will continue the business.”

“We operate on the golden rule: do unto others as you would have them do unto you. … What’s right, that’s the way we live,” Jefferson said.