# Wide Bodies Furniture?



## SocialbFly (Dec 3, 2007)

I was looking for the link to Wide Bodies furniture, and i found it, but the link no longer works....

PLEASE tell me they havent gone out of business (i have planned and replanned my new sofa from them, sniff sniff!!)

Info anyone?


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## Ernest Nagel (Dec 3, 2007)

Dianna,

This was the company listed in an old Large in Charge piece as the parent of Wide Bodies Furniture:
Barkel Inc
Categories: Furniture Stores, Furniture Wholesale & Manufacturers

3781 Loop 337, New Braunfels, TX 78130

(830) 625-8535

No website listed. Their voice mail says Leather Sofa something, I think?

Here's the LIC article, if you can divine anything further from that. There's an e-ddress I didn't try at the bottom. # in the article is out of service. You might try Craig's List if you can live with used? Good luck!



Interview with Mike of Wide Bodies Furniture

Jay of LargeInCharge.com: What is your name, your company, and title?



Mike of Wide Bodies Furniture: My name Is Mike Liedka and I am president of Barkel Inc the company that produces the Wide Bodies furniture line.





Jay of LargeInCharge.com: Does your company have a slogan?



Mike of Wide Bodies Furniture: I don't know if this is a slogan or not but our product is designed with form following function. We do make luxury seating for big beautiful people. If you are a person of size Wide Bodies furniture will change your life. It will give you back your independence. You will be able to come and go from your couch without any help getting in or out of it.





Jay of LargeInCharge.com: Where is your company based?



Mike of Wide Bodies Furniture: Our factory is located in a town called New Braunfels, TX about 25 miles north of San Antonio, TX on IH 35 N.





Jay of LargeInCharge.com: Tell us about your facility?



Mike of Wide Bodies Furniture: Our company currently has approximately 65 people working with us. Our facility is 120,000 sq ft.





Jay of LargeInCharge.com: How did you get into the furniture business?



Mike of Wide Bodies Furniture: I have been in the furniture industry since 1964. My father-in-law founded the firm in 1949.





Jay of LargeInCharge.com: Are you a person of size? And if so have you been Big all your life?



Mike of Wide Bodies Furniture: Yes - I am large sized. I am 6'5" tall and weigh about 380 lbs. I have not been big all my life. I went in to the army in 1961 at 149 lbs.





Jay of LargeInCharge.com: Have you ever attended any of the BBW/BHM Events?



Mike of Wide Bodies Furniture: Yes- my wife and I have been to 3 people of size events. We went to our first event 2 years ago at the Big AS TExas event in Corpus Christy TX. We also went to bash sponsored by the BBW Network in Las Vegas last summer. We also attended the Austin, Texas BBW Bash last labor day.





Jay of LargeInCharge.com: How long has your site been active? And do you get a lot of positive feedback?



Mike of Wide Bodies Furniture: Our site has been up and running since October 2003. We do get a lot of positive feed back from our site. I am the only one who takes WB calls and I average about 20 emails and 4-6 phone call per week. We have a counter on our site that has been there only about 13 months. 

The last I looked it was around 8900 hits. It is pretty remarkable since we are not signed up to search engines that will bring people to our site. 



Jay of LargeInCharge.com: Who came up with the name Wide Bodies?



Mike of Wide Bodies Furniture: My wife Loretta came up the name Wide Bodies.





Jay of LargeInCharge.com: Tell us more about your company?



Mike of Wide Bodies Furniture: Our company is a primary resource for large furniture chains such as Levitz and Seaman's. We make furniture for standard size clientele. We sell only upholstered furniture.





Jay of LargeInCharge.com: Does your company personally manufacture the furniture?



Mike of Wide Bodies Furniture: We do make all of the furniture that we sell ourselves.





Jay of LargeInCharge.com: Does your company make size furniture only or do you also make standard sizes?



Mike of Wide Bodies Furniture: The WideBodies line is currently a secondary product that we manufacture. We are starting to put an additional effort in selling the WB product. We feel that this will be a major part of our business within the next 2 years. In a sense you could say that we specialize in plus size furniture since I am not aware of any other companies making this type furniture.





Jay of LargeInCharge.com: What makes your products better than the rest?



Mike of Wide Bodies Furniture: Our furniture is better than the competition because we pay total attention to the personal needs of each plus sized person who orders furniture from us. Each piece is custom manufactured to the specs of each individual customer.





Jay of LargeInCharge.com: Do you deliver?



Mike of Wide Bodies Furniture: Our delivery service is second to none. We currently charge only Jay of LargeInCharge.com: 99 to deliver each WB piece any where in the continental US. I am afraid however, with the recent increases in fuel that our deliver charge will have to go up soon. Our service will deliver one's furniture as high as 2 stories, place the furniture in the customers room of choice and remove the packing materials and haul them off.





Jay of LargeInCharge.com: Are your prices reasonable?



Mike of Wide Bodies Furniture: Our pricing is well below what a retail store would charge. That is why we sell WB only on the internet. We have attempted to make WB affordable to everyone. One thing to consider is that in buying a standard piece of upholstery furniture a plus sized person may have to replace it every 2 or 3 years. A WB piece is designed to last structurally for many many years. I don't know how many because we have only been making the current product for 3 years.





Jay of LargeInCharge.com: Does your furniture come with a guarantee or warranty?



Mike of Wide Bodies Furniture: We do guarantee the frame and structure for the life of the original purchaser. I would suspect that 25 years of wear will easily obtained on all components of a WB piece other than the fabric. Instead of having to buy new furniture every 2-3 years one can use that money to buy something else. 



Our product comes with a terrific warranty. It is listed on our web site and very detailed. We warrant our furniture for persons up to 700 lbs. heavier people can use the furniture, however we can't guarantee the product for people over 700 lbs.





Jay of LargeInCharge.com: Do you have a Financing program for your customers?



Mike of Wide Bodies Furniture: We are currently working on a finance program with American General Finance and hope to have it in place soon. In the mean time we do take all major credit cards as well as a 12 month lay-away program.







Jay of LargeInCharge.com: What is your best seller? And how much does it cost?



Mike of Wide Bodies Furniture: Our best seller is our 504 sofa. All of our sofas are the same price. We offer about 15-20 different fabrics at the same price Jay of LargeInCharge.com: 999.00. The only to pay more for one our sofas is to get it made in leather.





Jay of LargeInCharge.com: Is your furniture sold in retail stores?



Mike of Wide Bodies Furniture: No retail stores carry our WB line. At this time we have no plans to allow any retail stores to purchase our products. We are however, discussing the possibility of one of the large size clothing to add this line to their catalogues.





Jay of LargeInCharge.com: Can you customize the height of a chair?



Mike of Wide Bodies Furniture: Our 3 way stacking leg is designed so that every person can customize the height of their furniture seats.





Jay of LargeInCharge.com: Is it easy to get out of Wide Bodies Furniture?



Mike of Wide Bodies Furniture: Any of our chairs will give our client equal ease of getting up from the furniture. The key to this comfort is in getting the correct seat foam density as well as the proper seating height from the floor.





Jay of LargeInCharge.com: Is leather the most comfortable fabric for plus size women?



Mike of Wide Bodies Furniture: No I don't think that leather is the best covering for the plus sized client. What is the best is the micro fiber fabrics that we offer. These are the most popular fabrics on most furniture today. Micro fiber is almost bulletproof.





Jay of LargeInCharge.com: Tell us about your different grades of leather?



Mike of Wide Bodies Furniture: We only have different grades in the leather furniture that we sell. 

This grade alludes only to the grade of the leather used on the piece. As far as our whole line is concerned there is no piece made differently from another. They are all the same high quality.





Jay of LargeInCharge.com: How can the readers of LargeInCharge help to support your compamy?





Mike of Wide Bodies Furniture: Your readers can help support our company by purchasing our product. 

We suggest that you start with one piece of WB- probably the chair and a half. This is a great personal product that an individual can enhance their personal life with. It is also affordable at Jay of LargeInCharge.com: 699. Additionally, I encourage your readers to call or email me if they have any questions about our product or upholstered furniture in general.



Your readers view our items at www.widebodiesfurniture.com and contact us at [email protected] or toll free at 1-877-608-WIDE.


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## SocialbFly (Dec 3, 2007)

That is what i am saying, the web site and the number, neither work. That was why i was asking for info.


"Your readers view our items at www.widebodiesfurniture.com and contact us at [email protected] or toll free at 1-877-608-WIDE"


Anyone know anything more specific?

Thanks for your effort Ernest.


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## Ernest Nagel (Dec 3, 2007)

This # for The Leather Factory Outlet (830) 625-8535 is active and seems to be affiliated with the company (Barkel) that manufactured Wide Bodies. Same location anyway. That is all.


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