Open for business — still

Marshall Dry Goods a mainstay since 1944

Marshall, left, and Larry Bentley of Batesville are owners of Marshall Dry Goods Company, which has been in operation in Batesville since 1944.
Marshall, left, and Larry Bentley of Batesville are owners of Marshall Dry Goods Company, which has been in operation in Batesville since 1944.

— Larry and Marshall Bentley are no strangers to doing business. The father and son have been the owners of Marshall Dry Goods Company Inc. since 1984, but the store itself has been in business since 1944.

Larry’s father-in-law, Hassell Marshall, originally owned the store.

“At first it was a general merchandise store,” Larry said. “[My wife’s father] used to sell to Sam Walton.”

Marshall grew up in the Batesville store, working for his grandfather.

“I worked for my grandpa since I was like 4 or 5 years old,” Marshall said. “I liked the business, and when we got into it together, every year [our profits] increased.”

The store has gone from a general-merchandise store to a store that supplies fabric to buyers worldwide. The two said that when they bought the store, the sales were about 5 percent fabric.

“It’s all we do now,” Marshall said. “It took us a while to get into it.”

The Bentleys’ success didn’t come easy.

When the two bought the store in 1984, Larry said, he and Marshall had to live off of their wives’ salaries when the father and son were getting started in the business.

Marshall said that although they had to learn the hard way, he enjoys the challenge of selling fabric to customers who now reach from nation to nation.

“We have over 18,000 customers,” Marshall said.

What started out as a mom-and-pop store in a backyard now sells to stores that resemble the original store and to national chain stores.

“I love watching it grow,” Marshall said. “We have no limits. The future is unlimited.”

Though the store isn’t in its original location, which Larry said was in his father-in-law’s backyard, customers keep coming back year after year.

The store has stayed on Main Street in the city but has changed locations over the years as a result of a need for space and because of a fire in 1988, when everything in the store was destroyed, Marshall said.

“We had bought a new warehouse already, where we had a little bit of fabric stored,” Larry said.

Insurance covered the loss, and the father and son were able to open their doors back up in the same month, Marshall said.

“We moved into [the current store] in 2000 because we needed more space,” Larry said.

Marshall said that in their 130,000-square-foot store/warehouse, there is approximately 256 million yards of fabric, and he does all the designs for the fabric.

“We have about 24,000 of our own designs,” Marshall said.

Larry met his wife, Martha, when he came to Arkansas College, now Lyon College, in Batesville. When he visited the store while he was a student, he never dreamed he would own the store someday.

“I was mainly shopping for a girlfriend,” Larry said.

Larry said he can’t imagine living anywhere else but Batesville. He’s been in the city since 1958.

“I’ve got lots of friends here, and it’s a beautiful town,” Larry said. “I couldn’t find a better place to live than Batesville.”

Marshall said he’s not looking to quit the fabric business anytime soon.

“I’m going to do it until I die,” he said. “I love being down here.”

Staff writer Lisa Burnett can be reached at (501) 244-4307 or lburnett@arkansasonline.com.

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