Mr Keating's father, Tom junior, had seen war service with the airforce in World War II and, when he was demobbed, bought the business outright with the help of Tom senior.
In 1983, Tom Keating shifted the shop to Glasgow St for a matter of months but then moved into a cluster of shops in Bignell St, near the intersection with Tawa St and Kings Ave.
Mr Keating had been working in Australia and, when he came home in 1985, he started helping his father and mother Betty in the business.
"I'd help dad and mum for a couple of days a week, but when dad died in 1987 I was helping mum full-time."
A couple of years later, he bought his mother out and, since then, he and wife Sue have been running things.
A few years ago, they moved City Furniture Exchange into Tawa St where Sovereign Woodworkers had been operating, and that's where it remains.
"It's been a business that has sustained our family - and that included dad and mum and eight kids early on," Mr Keating said.
He said keeping overheads low was a key reason for trading through a century.
"You have to learn to survive on the smell of an oily rag at times and, being a cash business, we're not waiting on accounts, so that's a huge advantage.
"You live by the seat of your pants to a degree.
"If you can afford something you'll buy it and if you see an opening in the market you go for it and, hopefully, it pays off."
They still handle deceased estates, which remain a big part of the business.
"It's a service as much to the vendors as to us as a business."
But in the past five years, the Keatings have been getting more customers who have travelled long distances to browse through the stock in their shop.
"The internet has made some of that available.
"We don't have a big internet presence but Mr Google has our name down somewhere," Mr Keating said.
"We get people turning up from all over the place. I've had a lot of Australians in recently but there's really no explanation for it."
And the shop is a good barometer for the community's health.
"To be honest, the past 25 years has seen massive social changes but, generally, I don't think people are as well off as the government likes to make out they are.
"They include the elderly and the poor - people who simply can't afford to buy big things brand new."
While Mr Keating deals in second-hand goods, he says the quality far outweighs that of the goods people are buying new these days.
"They're making things with a use-by date and you see that with many new appliances. They've got built-in obsolescence, but that's a good thing for us."
Over time, Mr Keating learned what is quality and what isn't.
"Some brands are good and others are crap. You get to know the difference and sort out the good from the bad."
Like any job, there are times when he wonders why he's in it. Although Mr Keating hasn't got a succession plan in place, he's thinking about it.
But it's the stock in this shop that makes it special. Over time, a vast amount of goods has been accumulated.
The place is brimming over with all sorts of bric-a-brac, big, small, old and sometimes older.
"You pick up an interesting general knowledge of life in a way because you have to be able to recognise trends of what's going to be the next big thing in collectables particularly."
Nowadays about 30-40 per cent of the business is in collectables.
"Kitchen-alia is a good example of that. You've got things that somebody's grandmother used to use and the grandchildren want it because it lasts. There's a buzz of nostalgia about it as well."
Mr Keating does regular stocktakes but admits that a lot of the inventory is stored "in the top half of my head".
If anyone comes into the shop after something, he will be able to lay his hands on it immediately most of the time.
Pride of place on the counter is a 1901 National cash register still in working order - even if it deals in pounds, shillings and pence.
And there's a reminder of his father in the shop. Stored away, but still in perfect working order, is a 1928 General Electric refrigerator. It used to be his father's beer fridge.
