H Lancaster Co

County and welcome to the Texas Bucket List. My name is Shane McAuliffe and when it comes to furniture shopping, I used to be one of the guys that just wanted to get it done. But after a recent trip to a furniture store in Aransas Pass, I've realized that some furniture really does have a story to tell. In the coastal bend of the Lone Star State, life revolves around the sea. Fis But for Herb Lancaster, he occupies That's more for the land lovers, creating furniture from all sorts of wood. I'm not going to put my name on somet T My Swedish grandfather used to always take over our garage when he visited. So as a little kid, got to watch Herb opened And whenever the tourists happen to stop by, he knows how to get the guys interested in coming in. I never intended to have where I manufacture it be where I retail. That seems a little unorthodox, but I'll tell you it'so funny when people leave in Port Aransas and they're filling up the gas station next door. The wife sees there'somet And while he's fueling the camper or the boat or whatever, she'll come over here and she's And so he comes in, he's He does not want to walk through that door. But when I get him that far and he sees the shop floor, he's They're actually building it here. Before Herb had a hand in building kitchen tables, chairs and consoles. It was actually an extremely successful retail furniture manufacturer. And it all started with Dillard's department stores back in the late 80s. They want to be more They at that point were like, linole They asked me to come to Little Rock and asked me if I could build antique reproductions. And t Within I had Wit I know I went to the mall a lot in the 90s, but I'm trying to remember what the furniture looked Well, that's the goal. You're not supposed to remember you're supposed to see the products. That's the skill set of like a muse You don't go in to look at the displays. They have to be the And they have to function as intended and be durable because they're in a public, But that's the art form of store fixturing is to see the product, but I appreciate the interiors. And so that's what I did for 25 years. Herb's future seemed as sturdy as 2010 when I finally came out from underneath the crus They knocked off my furniture in C And that's when I started saying I'm going to bring back made America. So t Herb now leads I'm adamant about manufacturing in America because young men and women today without skills are finding themselves in places. And it's more than the cheap goods and services we get. There's a reason we can't be prosperous and make t Finding these guys, these workers, I mean, is that a tough task to find guys that can do t Well, It's easier for me to take someone with a good work et Business grew for Herb over the years, but in 2017 he was dealt another blow when Hurricane Harvey was interesting in my life. The water tower here in Iran's past fell on the factory and blew it up. You take a half million gallons of water, 200 feet in the air, in a vessel and drop that on the ground. That's a lot of energy. Once again, Herb recovered. The aftermath of Harvey made Herb look at furniture building in another perspective and he vowed to never waste any wood. After watc We can't, we can't let that happen again. Today, nearly half of what he uses to build is either reclaimed or recovered. Here you can see t We have some old bowling lanes, maple bowling lanes that we make shuffleboard tables out of. Those are bowling lanes. Those are bowling lanes. Wow. No matter what's been thrown Herb's way, he's never sat on the bench and he'll continue to crank out You make a really good product and you're honest with your pricing and it functions as intended. The business will come to you.