Our story

Derby’s began business in the fall of 1958 in a building at 118 Broadway in West Burlington, IA. The building had been empty for several years so it took many long hours and hard work to get it ready to occupy. The rent at this time was $35 per month. A couple years later the property became available so Keith and Jaunita Derby purchased it on contract.

In the beginning we bought and sold used furniture and antiques and also held consignment auctions every Friday night. This continued for a number of years then in the early sixties we began adding new furniture to the mix. After a short time we had evolved into all new furniture.

In 1973 a store was opened in Mt. Pleasant and the following year an Eldon store was added. The Mt. Pleasant store was sold in 1979 and the Eldon location was liquidated after Keith passed away in 1984 and all our efforts were concentrated on our location in West Burlington. In 1977 a new block building was built adjoining the old building that almost doubled the space. Our buildings sat between City Hall and Hagerla’s market. This new building was heated and much appreciated by all who worked there as the only heat in the old original building was a little cubby hole of an office in the rear northeast corner.

Keith passed away in August of 1984 and Juanita, John and Jess continued at the broadway location till 1986 when they purchased a building from Dean Reynolds of Reynold’s Office Supply. It was just around the corner from the old store on Wheeler Street. This building was quite a change! It had heat throughout, carpet, two bathrooms and painted walls! We operated from this location until October of 2001. The buildings on Broadway were then used for warehousing.

In 2001 the city of West Burlington purchased our buildings in downtown and tore the old buildings on Broadway down to make room for the new city hall. We purchased lots at 709 East Mount Pleasant Street and constructed a 20,000 square foot building with an adjoining warehouse. This new building sits where LaVeine’s trailor court was for many years. The building was completed in October 2001 and we planned the big move. We closed as usual Saturday October 6th at the Wheeler location and early Sunday morning we and all the help we could muster began the task of moving the contents of all three buildings downtown to the new location. We set up displays, etc. as we went. Finally about 1:00 AM Monday morning we were all moved in…furniture, offices and all. Everyone went home for some well needed rest. Opened up Monday morning October 8th at 9:00 in our new digs without closing one day!

Our goals haven’t changed…to give our customers a full line of top quality furniture and bedding, personalized service and fair prices. We have served several generations of customers since 1958 and would like to thank them all for their trust through the years…and hope to continue for many more. We’d just like to let all of our loyal customers know… it’s much appreciated!