In the end, it wasn’t downtown’s struggles, a pandemic, or changing shopping habits that brought down Rosenthal Interiors. The oldest furniture store in Minneapolis is going out of business after 128 years because fourth-generation owner Rosie (Lebewitz) Rosenthal is ready to relax.

“I’ve been married to this business for 41 years,” said Rosenthal, who grew up jumping on bunk beds in the Warehouse District store her great-grandparents Aaron and Rose Rosenthal started in 1895. Her grandfather, Harold, was still living when Rosenthal joined the business, which she ran for a time with her parents Sherm and Bobbie (who starred in the retailer’s irreverent ads back in the ‘90s) before taking over completely and building Rosenthal’s high-end contemporary furniture business.

Business is on the upswing at the suburban outpost of Rosenthal Interiors, which opened in 2021, but Rosenthal said, she didn’t want to delay her retirement while waiting to find a buyer.

A going-out-of-business sale is on now both at the flagship location, 22 N. Fifth St., Minneapolis, and the newer shop, 13153 Ridgedale Drive, Minnetonka. Rosenthal estimates there’s around $1.5 million in inventory that is now at least 50% off. Rosenthal is also selling the downtown building that has been adorned with her family name for more than a century: a two-level, 25,000-square-foot historic landmark that now sits on the light rail line.

“It’s got great visibility,” Rosenthal said. “But it’s not the right audience. We were always the only retail on the block. I could see it becoming a restaurant. I’d love to see it go to someone small, like us.”

Rosenthal Interiors has been renting the second level of the Fifth Street store to a CBD business. When the Minnetonka store debuted, Rosenthal initially kept downtown open a few days a week, but said there were days when not one customer would come in. She shut it down a year ago, but has reopened temporarily for the going out of business sale, which is expected to conclude by mid-January.

Deep discounts have a way of drawing a crowd—“Now it’s busy at the downtown store,” Rosenthal said with a chuckle.

Location was always Rosenthal Interior’s biggest obstacle, Rosenthal reflected, from a contemporary lounge chair on the sales floor. Even in its heyday, the store was a destination. “Customers would spend $20,000 on a sectional, but they don’t want to pay $6 to park,” she said.

Still, Rosenthal said she believes it’s possible to build an enduring retail business anywhere, if you’re committed. “If you’ve got a specialty, and you stick with it, you can be successful,” she said. “You’ve got to know your stuff and serve your guests.”

Rosenthal said it wasn’t until she announced the closing sale and received an outpouring of calls, visits, and reflections from longtime customers that she finally understood what her life’s work meant to her community. “My goal in life was to feel like I carried this business on my own—not on my father or grandfather’s shoulders.

“I never went into the red,” Rosenthal said. “I did okay.”