Help Save Brown Furniture's 85-Year Legacy

Dear Friends,

For 85 years, Brown Furniture has been a staple of West Lebanon, NH, and the Upper Valley of NH and VT, providing furniture, bedding, and great service to our wonderful customers in the region, even as far away as Burlington, VT, and Boston, MA. In the last few years, as other stores closed down, leaving us as the last in West Lebanon, NH, we've continued due to an incredible staff, terrific partners, and our great customers, but we've fallen on very difficult times.

I am here, composing this letter today to ask you all for your help. Like so many retail stores in this country, COVID wreaked havoc on our operation, putting the business on shaky grounds, and most recently, fears over tariffs and the economy, along with backlogs, have brought our business to a standstill. After a very slow 2024, which was a nationwide bust in the industry, we had been able to maintain our staff of nine and were continuing to do what we could to raise funds to get product in and bills paid, but the market came to a standstill after the tariffs conversations and we've just had to lay off our employees and (hopefully temporarily) close our doors. We come to you knowing that we are not alone in our struggles, but we have truly run out of options. Our debt load, both the SBA's and our other high-interest loans, have starved us of the resources necessary for us to keep rents, bills, employees, and manufacturers paid, and, most importantly, give us the breathing room we need so we can increase our staffing to keep up with the real demand that our customers need, once these fearful movements of the economy calm down. Our staff have worked so incredibly hard and proudly to keep customers happy because they know our situation, and they deserve better.

Just to be clear, Brown Furniture can be a strong business and has done fairly well in a very tough and uncertain business environment, thanks to everyone's continuous support, but the last few years have drained the cash reserves needed to keep the ball rolling. We hope to achieve the following goals with this campaign:

- Pay our employees the back wages due.

- Cover our current debts to landlords, etc.

- Get our inventory backlog cleared up so customers have the products they ordered.

- Help set the business on a firm foundation so people have a local resource for a basic need.

We will reach these goals depending on the success of our campaign. We have always believed in helping the community and have long worked in the belief of giving back. Now we find ourselves in a terribly difficult situation and we humbly come to our community to ask you all for help.

Thank you, we hope to be worthy of your generosity.

Sincerely,

Brad Nelson and the entire Brown Furniture family