Warehouse Operations Manager, High Point Furniture

Sometimes a door closes so another one can open.

After being laid off from his landscaping job in 2009, Andrew Dabbs was out of work for three months, the longest he’s ever been unemployed. The span seemed like an eternity for someone who’d been working since high school.  

Andrew had worked in the furniture business before, so he went to High Point Furniture to inquire about a job. A salesman asked him to come back at lunch and talk to co-owner Reggie Watts.

“I came back at 12:31... and started that day,” Andrew recalls in a deep baritone drawl, relaxing on a sofa on the showroom floor. “I called my mom and asked her to watch the kids until I got off work at 5.”

At first, Andrew helped with deliveries and moving furniture on the sales floor. A fast learner with an instinct for leadership, he was promoted to Warehouse Operations Manager within a few years.

Born in 1986 in Jacksonville, Florida, Andrew moved to Jasper when he was nine. After high school, he worked three jobs—landscaping, fast food, and grocery—to help his family pay bills. He later worked at G. May & Sons, was assistant manager at Sonic for three years, and eventually went back to landscaping until he was laid off.

Andrew has been Warehouse Operations Manager for ten years now. For a self-motivated, goal-oriented person like him, it’s a good fit. Even when seated, he reminds one of a coiled spring ready to be released into action.

“I like to work fast, get the job done, and do it right,” he says.

“The job” includes handling customer service and repairs, making work schedules for warehouse employees, constructing plans for putting furniture on the floor, and scheduling deliveries for the next week. Most deliveries are in the Smith Lake/Curry area, but Andrew and his crew will deliver anywhere in the state of Alabama (for a fee).

“We’re getting ready now to deliver in Gulf Shores and Mobile,” he says.

Occasionally, Andrew even gets to wear a decorator’s hat. “I have an eye for decorating a little bit,” he says. “I’m not a decorator by any means but I've seen many ways things have been decorated.”

This December will mark Andrew’s 14th year at High Point Furniture. One door closed so another one could open and Andrew says he’s grateful for that. 

“I'd like to thank (owners) Reggie (Watts) and Beverly (Hockenberry) for treating me like family and letting me be here as long as they have.” 78