photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Going-out-of-business signs were being hung Aug. 22, 2025 at Winfield Place, 645 Massachusetts Street.

During the pandemic and the lockdowns that ensued, Sammy Thomsen remembers trying almost anything to generate a few dollars and stay connected with the customers of her family’s longtime home furnishing store, Winfield House.

“There were even a few days where my husband would come with me and we did candle deliveries around town and in Kansas City,” Thomsen said. “You were just trying to do something.”

Consumers, on the other hand, were mainly trying and succeeding at doing one thing during the lockdown period: Internet shopping.

“They were before COVID too, but that just accelerated that to the Nth-degree,” Ken Campbell, Sammy’s father and owner of Winfield House, told me.

If you had any question about which was more powerful — candles or the Internet — there are signs on the doors and windows of Winfield House, 645 Massachusetts Street, that tell the answer.

They are “going-out-of-business” signs.

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Home furnishings are pictured on Aug. 22, 2025 at Winfield House in downtown Lawrence.

The store-closing sale starts on Wednesday and will last for an indefinite amount of time, based on merchandise availability and demand. What is definite is that downtown Lawrence is losing one of its longer serving retailers.

Win and Linda Campbell — Ken’s parents — started the business 30 years ago. Win Campbell, though was already a downtown fixture by that time, having operated Campbell’s Clothiers since the 1960s. After sensing some irreversible fashion trends when it came to business clothing, Win decided to get into home furnishing with the idea that it would provide more stability.

photo by: Submitted

The mother and son retailing team of Linda and Ken Campbell are pictured.

For the most part, it did. By the time the pandemic struck in 2020, Ken had taken over the business from his father, who died in 2017. The lockdowns and anti-gathering measures put in place to try to stop the spread of COVID were unlike anything Win would have seen in his retailing career.

The impact they had on Winfield House ended up being profound, yes, even as nearly five years have passed. While traditional shopping did return and crowds became fashionable again, Ken said that wasn’t enough to replace what Winfield Place lost during the pandemic — years worth of savings that had always helped the business navigate the inevitable slow times that come with any retail business.

“Those peaks and valleys, they don’t matter,” Ken said of a retail business that has an adequate financial cushion.

But when you don’t, they matter a lot. Retail without a cushion is risky. It is a risk that the family decided it was no longer comfortable with, and the decision was reinforced by the fact that consumers haven’t returned to their pre-pandemic ways.

While customer numbers certainly are up from the pandemic days, so too are a certain type of visitor to the store: People who come in to look and touch the merchandise but don’t have much interest in buying. At least not in person. They simply are interested in seeing an item in-person before buying it online.

The Campbells understand the appeal of seeing, touching and trying an item before buying it. They built a business upon the idea. Consumers — as evidenced by the lookers — still like it too, but they may like the prices of internet stores more.

For those who do, however, hear this from the front lines of the retail world: Having it both ways can’t last.

“That is the harsh reality we are about to hit,” Sammy said. “There are going to be less places you can see, touch and feel.”

The solution isn’t complicated, but it also is one that doesn’t scale very well. It can only happen customer by customer.

“If you find a small business you like, just make an effort to support them,” Ken said.

“Yes,” Sammy said, “it may be more convenient to order something online or this that or the other, but you have no idea how much of an impact it makes when you make the decision to support a locally-owned store.”

Such a decision won’t come soon enough to stave off the closing of the Winfield House, but the Campbells said the store already has provided them with a great number of blessings and memories.

Sammy — who has worked at the store since middle school, but noted she’s only been on the payroll since high school — said the shop has already had so many former employees call since seeing the news of the pending closure on social media Thursday evening.

Now the same ritual is beginning with customers. The stored is closed until Wednesday in order to give staff time to mark down items and prepare for the sale, but the outreach and well wishes have already begun

The good feelings go both ways. Sammy said the shop seemed to be a magnet for good people, and the family even had a theory of why.

“My grandma has said this before, people who want to make their homes beautiful, people who want to take care of their homes, they’re genuinely really great people to work with,” Sammy said. “They have a kind heart. They make it fun to work with them.

“I feel like we deal with the best of the best.”

Ken echoed that sentiment, but not just as an owner and operator. His role here also is a father and son, for Winfield House is — until the very end — a family business that has produced a truth that no retail trend has ever been able to change.

“It is a blessing,” Ken said “to be able to work with your family.”

photo by: Submitted

Members of the Winfield House family of owners and operators, Ken Campbell, Linda Campbell, Win Campbell, Robin Campbell and Sammy Thomsen are pictured in this family photo from several years ago.