Myrtle Beach business that’s sold used furniture for 40 years is closing. Here’s why
Grand Strand residents have been finding deals at Pat-Mor Salvage for the past four decades.
But the deals are coming to an end this summer, when the store housing used furniture, used appliances and everything else that has been acquired over the years will close.
The large 40,000-square-foot building on 3rd Avenue South has been sold to the owners of the neighboring Milano Quartz and Porcelain Gallery, who will use it as a warehouse for their products.
Pat-Mor Salvage owner Charles Shotts’ lease on the building ends June 18, so the store is expected to close on or around that date.
Because of the pending closing, deals have become exceptional, as practically everything in the store is discounted 50% or more.
“Because we’re closing it down, I’m blowing things out of there dirt cheap,” said Shotts, who is also the managing partner of 501 Furniture on US 501 in Myrtle Beach.
Shotts has operated Pat-Mor for the past eight years on a lease agreement with the original owners.
“It’s a huge garage sale, yard sale, thrift store. It’s just a big collage of anything you got rid of over the years,” Shotts said.
Some things get turned over quickly. Then “there are things that have probably been in there 20 years,” Shotts said.
The Pat-Mor story
Pat-Mor was founded in 1981 by original partners Jack Patterson, Ray Patterson, George Morris and his son, Dean Morris. Tim Delaney became a partner in the early days. The name is derived from the last names of the owners, Patterson and Morris.
The partners opened the store to give George Morris a business to operate after he sold a restaurant in Winston-Salem, N.C.
They opened on 9th Ave. North in a building that was quickly outgrown, and purchased the current building out of a Stallings Salvage bankruptcy in 1982.
Products initially were “damaged goods” acquired in unclaimed freight auctions, and some were added via consignment. A big product in the early days was doghouses made from scrap lumber. “We sold a lot of doghouses,” said Dean Morris, who was a longtime owner of Rossi’s Italian restaurant.
The business model changed a number of times over the years. For many years used furniture from nicer hotels was bought and sold to mom and pop hotels and motels. That practice stopped with the advent of the coronavirus pandemic. Used restaurant equipment was similarly sold.
New furniture was sold for a time, as were remnant carpets and linoleum floors.
Jack Patterson and Dean Morris also operated Coastal Cars, a golf cart rental and sales business, nearby on 3rd Ave. South from 1977 to 2013 before selling it. Shotts took over Pat-Mor after George Morris died.
Shotts has been acquiring his products in many ways including at garage sales, yard sales and estate sales; by buying storage lockers; at John T. Henry auctions in Conway; trade-in furniture from customers at 501 Furniture; and from the general public. “People call me every day asking me to buy stuff,” Shotts said.
He currently has dozens of refrigerators, washers, dryers and ovens, and he has a repairman. “Everything I sell is tested and proven to work,” Shotts said. Myriad of other items for sale include beds sets, tables, vinyl records, books and paintings.
Pat-Mor is open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, 9-5 Saturday and 11-4 Sunday.
The building’s future
The Milano Quartz and Porcelain Gallery has been open for a few weeks and has a grand opening celebration scheduled for 4:30 p.m. on April 19. The Pat-Mor building will be used to store products for the gallery and possibly also Milano Kitchen and Bath on Grissom Parkway.
“We bought it so we will have everything in stock,” Milano co-owner Dana West-Abutbol. “People like to be able to literally pick their own slabs.”
The April grand opening will feature an open house with country artist Kevin Nichols performing and a raffle featuring items from area businesses, restaurants and bars, and will benefit the Grand Strand Down Syndrome Society.
At Milano Kitchen and Bath, a after-hours open house cocktail party will be held on March 24 beginning at 4:30 p.m.
This story was originally published March 11, 2022 at 4:55 AM.
