Sam and Ashley Stegall
Community-Focused Customer Service
BoxDrop Beaufort
story by JENNIFER BROWN-CARPENTER photos by PAUL NURNBERG
One of the most wonderful things about Beaufort is the close-knit, everybody-knows-everybody, small-town feel. The community bands together to take care of and support each other. This is evident every hurricane season, and during festivals and events when you see a million people you know. People are smiling, laughing, and making a difference together.
This idea is what drew Sam Stegall to be a pastor, and being a pastor is what brought him to opening his mattress store, BoxDrop Mattress.
Sam is a Marine Corps veteran. He worked as a construction engineer for several years. After that, he got into ministry and became an assistant pastor. Sam and his wife, Ashley, have been partners with Pentecostal churches for over 20 years. They have traveled all over the country preaching and have even been overseas a few times.
When Sam felt called to open a church in Beaufort, he knew they needed a way to fund the church. And that’s how BoxDrop originated. Sam is a South Carolina native, originally from Rock Hill. He and his wife love the state, and the Lowcountry area is where they felt called to be. They moved here not knowing anyone, not having jobs, and just started from scratch. They’ve built two businesses and the church from the ground up.
Sam’s primary business is Tidewater Home Inspections, which has been open for a year and a half. He does home inspections primarily.
Sam had been working in a mattress store for several months before moving to Beaufort and opening his store. He had a good idea of how to run the business and how he wanted his store to look. The experience would be different than that of a typical mattress or furniture store. BoxDrop would not be a traditional mattress store. He didn’t want his customers to be in his store for hours on end, feeling stressed and overwhelmed. He didn’t want to hound them into buying. He wanted to create a great environment, build a relationship, and hopefully sell some mattresses.
At BoxDrop, you schedule an appointment, get all of your questions answered on-site, try out some mattresses, and go from there. Most customers are in and out in 10-15 minutes with their new bed in tow. If they need it, BoxDrop will deliver and set up their new mattress for them. The customer service is unmatched. The store is not a high-pressure environment or a sales environment. It’s a customer-service environment.
BoxDrop has everything from economy mattresses that are sold at a very affordable rate to the most luxurious memory foam mattress you can get on the market. These mattresses are 70% off of what the retail price would be. They have adjustable base beds and sell covers, pillows, platforms … anything that relates to beds.
Sam and Ashley run BoxDrop together and are there with their two kids, Abigail and Ellison. Their kids are homeschooled and help out in the store, learning the ins and outs of the business and also about customer service. They do a lot of hands-on learning and have a ton of involvement in the community, even going around and knocking on doors to meet people. Abigail and Ellison are two kids who are helping to destroy the “socially awkward homeschooler” stereotype.
BoxDrop is a family affair. Sam, Ashley, and their kids do it all. They unload the trucks, set up the showroom, do the sales and deliveries, and set up the merchandise. Because of that, the overhead is very low. This allows them to sell their merchandise at much lower prices than any other furniture store or mattress company. They have customers driving over an hour quite regularly because of their great prices. Because of the way they run their store, they aren’t there eight hours every day. BoxDrop just hired its first sales associate recently.
In the future, Sam and Ashley aspire to expand into the furniture world. They hope to offer more products soon, carrying furniture by the first of 2021. Sam’s primary goal is to keep offering a high-value product at a great price. Their furniture sales would work the same as the mattresses: appointment only, the offer of in-home setup, etc. They will continue focusing on having the friendliest and best customer service in the business.
The Sanctuary, Sam’s church, is a Pentecostal church. They meet on Boundary Street and are completely autonomous from other churches. The church is the focal point of everything for Sam and his family.
Everything Sam does is community-focused. He and his family want to give back to the community. They want to help people and offer services. The mattress store provides them with the opportunity to serve people well, especially those who have been affected by tragedies, such as tornadoes or hurricanes.
This involvement and support make Sam, Ashley, and their kids a great asset to the community here in Beaufort. They want to be a light to the community, which is just what we need. If you need a home inspection, check out tidewaterhomeinspections.com. If you’re looking for a new church, The Sanctuary meets on Boundary Street, and you can find them on Facebook for more information. You can also find BoxDrop on Facebook. Call Sam or Ashley at 843-929-4045 to schedule an appointment to visit the store and test out some of the best mattresses on the market at truly unbeatable prices!
