The Woodwork Shop Inc. is not just a family-owned and operated woodworking store that specializes in tools, supplies and education for woodworkers. It also is a meeting place for what owner Rita Dean and her family call “good friend customers” – customers who stick around for hours at a time and are more like extended family than customers.

And according to Rita’s son, David Dean, it has been like this since the beginning. As soon as the Dean family bought the shop, originally named Memphis Woodworks, in 2000 from a family friend, they switched locations, expanded their inventory and set aside a special place for a table and chairs, a coffee pot and doughnuts.

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