By J.R. Tidwell/Editor

People in Clanton and the surrounding area now have a new option available when looking for home furnishings and other items.

Badcock Home Furniture & More hosted a ribbon cutting for its new Clanton location April 24.

The store is located at 644 Ollie Avenue in the same shopping center as Winn-Dixie.

The Clanton location is the fifth that has been opened by storeowner Ben Waugh.

“My next door neighbor in Atlanta had been a vendor for Badcock for years,” he said. “He decided he was going to look into a dealership opportunity, and I went along with him. We planned on opening our first stores together in the Atlanta area. But the way things work out in life, he ended up going to Greenwood, South Carolina, and I ended up going to Prattville.”

It was Waugh’s location in Prattville that ultimately made him decide to open up a store in Clanton.

“There had been a store here in Clanton about 14 years ago,” he said. “We just did a little market research, and we also already had a pretty good customer base out of Clanton, but we weren’t delivering to the area. We felt there was enough need for a Badcock store to go ahead and pull the trigger.”

As the name of the business suggest, Badcock has more items available than just furniture.

“Badcock sells it all, so furniture, electronics, appliances, lawn and garden, computers and kids furniture,” Waugh said.

Waugh and other representatives of the company spoke to the gathered crowd during the event and offered refreshments.

Waugh said it felt “great” to have another location open up.

“Hopefully, it won’t be the last,” he said.