Impact Furniture, 2507 Redmond Circle, a fixture in the home and office furnishings industry in Rome since 1975 is closing its doors.

From its inception through 2004, Impact operated from as many as seven different locations. In 2009, owner Gail Poole settled in at the 22,000 square foot location in the Gala Plaza shopping center at Redmond Circle and Shorter Avenue

Just last year, Poole made some changes to her merchandising concepts and added new lines to offer customers greater variety.

“It has just been a brutal economy and Gail did her best to keep the store going, we had quite a history in Rome,” said Dave Ward, store manager.

Ward said he suspects part of the problem as the store made changes in 2011 was it made an effort to add lines of higher quality furniture when people were looking for a lower price range of goods. “We tried to maintain that level in an economy where people were really having to watch their budget,” Ward said. “In retrospect we look back now and we think we should have gone with a more moderate price range of furniture.”

The closing sale, which started last Thursday, could take anywhere from 30 to 90 days. “With the amount of inventory we have, the amount of people coming through the door will really determine that,” Ward said.