Greensburg's Used Furniture Outlet to close by end of year

Some Like it Olde, the antique store better known to Greensburg residents as the Used Furniture Outlet, will close by the end of the year.

Owners Frank and Marian Ernhart sold their three-story South Pennsylvania Avenue building for $155,000 to Southpaw Properties, a company based in Pittsburgh and Columbus. “We’re at the age where we’re ready to retire, so we needed to sell the building to help us be able to retire,” said Frank Ernhart, 88.

The property houses several apartments in addition to the shop.

The Ernharts opened the Used Furniture Outlet in the late 1980s, but eventually decided running a shop wasn’t for them. They maintained ownership of the building, but the business changed hands and names several times.

Edward Wilding has owned it since 2014. The sign out front still says “U.F.O.,” but officially its name is Some Like it Olde. The shop houses about a dozen vendors selling antiques and collectibles.

Wilding used to be the Ernhart’s main supplier of furniture and antiques. He said he’s always been a “picker,” rummaging through discarded objects to find hidden gems.

“I was an American Picker… just like on TV,” he said. “I accumulated so much stuff, I needed an outlet, so I put some of it in an antique shop and it sold.”

The store will close by Dec. 31.

The vendors who operate out of Some Like it Olde are in talks with another Greensburg property owner who might be opening an antique mall soon, though plans aren’t finalized, Wilding said.

Chad Reed, project manager for Southpaw Properties, said his company hasn’t decided what to do with the building’s retail space. It would make a good restaurant or microbrewery, but doesn’t have the parking to support that kind of business, Reed said.

“We’re really a long way away from figuring out what we can do with that,” he said.

As for Wilding, he plans to enjoy retirement.

“I’m going to jump in my RV, and I’m headed out,” he said.

One thing won’t change. He’ll always be looking for treasure among trash.

“You can’t stop picking,” he said.