Beds By Phone owner Colby C. Carter is helping students rest easy by selling inexpensive beds and furniture less than three miles from ASU.
"It's an outlet for energy," said Carter, 81. "I like to meet people and help people."
ASU students make up the majority of customers at Beds By Phone during the beginning of each semester, Carter said. Carter's son Vincent Carter, a local commercial real estate investor and granddaughter Courtney Salaro are both ASU graduates.
The Carter family also has ties to Hollywood. He said his daughter Linda is the actress who played Wonder Woman in the 1970s.
"You never know what your children will grow up to be one day," Carter said.
Carter, now retired, works about four hours a day, Monday through Saturday for Beds By Phone. He said he delivers beds and furniture at no cost to students living in Tempe.
Carter's Beds By Phone has been in business about 12 years. Operated out of a warehouse, it has no other employees. Merchandise includes name brand and generic mattresses as well as used furniture.
"Beds By Phone provides customers with service and reasonable prices," Carter said.
Carter advertises his business in newspapers and on his Web site, bedsbyphone.com.
He said he is able to keep his prices reasonable because of referrals and low overhead, such as employee pay. He said one-third of his business is from referral or repeat customers.
He also said he sells his merchandise on ebay.com
In his free time Carter said he enjoys family visits.
Carter, an Illinois native, attended Kansas University, now known as the University of Kansas, for six months, where he studied radar technology.
He joined the U.S. Army Air Corps, now the U.S. Air Force, for three years during World War II. Before entering the furniture business, he was a part of the U.S. Training Command, where he worked on airplanes such as D-17s and B-29s.
At 22, Carter said he moved to Arizona because his first wife was a native of the state. After 40 years of running furniture businesses in Phoenix, he moved to Tempe.
Carter now is married to his second wife of 36 years, and spent about 40 years self- employed and selling furniture before retiring 10 years ago.
Along with his three children, Carter has 15 grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren.
"My dad never retires," said daughter Pamela Carter, "I'm happy he's able to work. I think that's what keeps him young and happy.
"He's the best father in the world."
Reach the reporter at katherine.ruark@asu.edu.
