In its heyday, the area now known as the Neon District in the downtown section of Norfolk had a variety of furniture stores.

Almost all are gone, and on Dec. 31, Virginia Furniture Co. will join the list. After 86 years, the family-owned and -operated store is holding a going-out-of-business sale.

First cousins Jeff and David Laibstain, second-generation owners and ages 64 and 69, respectively, have both decided it’s time to retire.

“We’ve been working pretty much six days a week for 40 years,” David Laibstain said. “And you know, Sunday goes by pretty quickly.”

The men took over the business from their fathers, Leonard and Harry Laibstain, who started the business together as teenagers in 1939.

Times were tough back in the 1930s and early 1940s and they were in pursuit of a good l

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