Thor Rankin observes the world from a perfect rocking chair view.
“All this was a two-lane road,” Rankin said, gesturing at Medical Center Parkway sprawled out in front of him. “This location right here, where you’re at, this is the best location in Murfreesboro.”
Rankin, the owner and only employee of Thor’s Furniture, has watched the city grow exponentially since setting up shop in 1986. He’s worked in his location at the intersection of Memorial Blvd. and Medical Center since 1997, only two doors down from the original address.
On a Tuesday morning in April, Rankin sat in a rocking chair in front of his store with a banana in one hand and a blueberry donut in the other. Commuters sitting at the traffic light see him there frequently, in his hickory striped conductor’s cap.
Rankin, now 65, opened the shop nearly 40 years ago. He gained experience selling furniture while working at an auction house — a job he started at age 12. Rankin learned much of what he knows about business from his father, who owned a Murfreesboro clothing store called Slack Barn until the ‘90s.
“If you start a business, you have to work every day for five years,” Rankin said. “And that’s what I did. That’s what my dad told me, and he was correct.”
Another business lesson from the elder Rankin?
“Shop with people that shop with you. Shop local first.”
Rankin took the last bite of his treat, purchased from nearby Donut Country, and entered the store that bears his name.
Inside Thor’s, the furniture isn’t the first thing to grab customers’ attention. Nor is the assortment of antiques from floor to ceiling. It’s the trains. While Murfreesboro boasts multiple furniture stores, Rankin realized in the ‘90s that train enthusiasts drove to Nashville for new cabooses or tracks.
He added 10 boxed train sets to the assortment of railroad toys already in his antiques inventory. When they quickly sold out, he restocked and added more train accessories.. Now the miniature worlds of his model railroad displays are a focal point of his shop.
“Let me tell you,” Rankin said. “It’s like your town having the university. A train store makes your town better.”
Different scales of model trains rushing around oval tracks at different speeds creates a mellow sound reminiscent of white noise. Rankin’s hand-written signs surround the vignettes, variations of “do not touch” with every word underlined. His miniature worlds are full of contradictions — “Star Trek” figurines watching the trains go by, for example. While he loves selling trains, he prefers the older models to the modern versions.
“It’s over-engineered and almost impossible to repair,” Rankin said. “And then, since COVID, the prices have doubled.”
Staying in business during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic required a shift in the Thor’s Furniture business model. Signs reading “drive-thru rocker sale” still stand in the store’s yard.
“That’s an essential business technique that you’re allowed to do,” Rankin said. “Sold a lot of trains and a lot of rockers. Yeah, business was very, very good.”
One end of the store is somewhat dedicated to music. A collection of Shania Twain and Elvis posters and memorabilia decorates a wall. After turning off the Bee Gees DVD playing on a small TV, Rankin picked up a guitar.
“When I was at MTSU, I took music,” Rankin said. “At one time I was a really, really good classical guitarist. Got away from it. I’m glad I came back to it.”
To prove his point, Rankin picked up a guitar and played the intro to “Classical Gas.”
“The music that I do now, and everybody I’ve met, it’s all been from right here,” Rankin said. “Yeah, it’s all been people coming in the door.”
The next Saturday morning, Rankin’s friend and customer Kevin Hughes came through that door. He whipped a flip phone out of his pocket to show pictures of his own diminutive train set.
“Everybody says, ‘Make it bigger,’” Hughes said. “I’m like, ‘Yeah, I live in an apartment.’ Bigger is not really an option, you know?”
Hughes wasn’t in the market for furniture or train supplies, though.
“I’m more a musician than a customer half the time,” Hughes said.
Amidst the bookshelves, the dressers and the train tracks, the pair picked up two guitars to rehearse. Rankin sang “Roll in My Sweet Baby’s Arms,” adding a generous pause for a Hughes guitar solo before transitioning into “That’s Alright, Mama.”
“We’re playing a big show August 8,” Rankin said.
Rankin used to play in a band with his late wife, Barbara. Her memory follows him around the store. They were together 20 years before she died from breast cancer in March.
“Here’s Barb right there,” Rankin said that Tuesday, pointing to a black box on a high shelf. “There’s her ashes. Just got here Monday.”
The box sits next to a plush Garfield toy, with the cartoon cat bedecked in bunny ears.
“See those ears? She’d say, ‘Talk to the ears. Talk to the ears.’ Then she’d say, ‘Talk to the ears, stupid.’”
Rankin’s train-loving customers include pilots, mechanical engineers and truck drivers as well as children. And Thor’s has been in business long enough to see second-generation customers, Rankin says. He recalled one encounter with a grateful customer.
“A gentleman came in here, and told me his son was showing his cousins how the train works. First time … “
Rankin broke, wiping his eyes before continuing.
“First time that child ever communicated with other children,” Rankin said. “First time. The man was crying like I am.”
Rankin stood for a moment, watching a train circle the track, before heading back outside
to straighten his row of rocking chairs. He expects to sell more in the upcoming weeks.
“Mother’s Day is coming soon. That’s like Christmas for rocking chairs,” Rankin said. “We do very, very well for Mother’s Day.”
Rankin settled into a rocker, ready to share one last gem of advice for business and beyond.
“Let me tell you what to do to be happy in life,” Rankin said. “Do what you enjoy.”
To contact the Features editor, email [email protected].
For more news, visit www.mtsusidelines.com, and follow us on Facebook at MTSU Sidelines and on X and Instagram at @mtsusidelines. Also, sign up for our weekly newsletter here.
