After 20 Years, Brother’s Furniture to Close
You only have until the end of April to shop for sofas, tables, chairs, bedding, and other furniture at this store.
Despite having weathered the housing crisis and other changes to people's buying habits, Bay Area-based Brothers' Furniture is shuttering its doors next month after 20 years at its Castro Valley Boulevard location.
Bold red and yellow banners and signs announce the pending closure. Store owner Dihn Nguyen said the family sold the property last year and is now making plans to clean out the store's inventory. Prices inside the store have been slashed in half in most cases.
"It's a combination of the impact of COVID along with much higher prices for freight," Nguyen told the Forum. "We used to have five stores in the Bay Area, and now we'll only have one in South San Francisco."
Brothers' was started by three brothers back in 1999 when the cost of a 5-piece dining set averaged $300. The various furniture stores specialized in good quality pieces for any room in the house.
Unfortunately, the COVID pandemic forced the temporary closure of stores followed by the exponential rise in prices to make and ship furniture to stores.
"Before COVID, it would cost us about 8 percent of the price to ship furniture from Los Angeles to San Francisco. That has risen to as much as 14 percent in the last two years," Nguyen said. "A shipping container of furniture from Asia now costs upwards of $18,000 whereas it used to cost shippers $2,000.
The so-called supply chain issues have left some customers waiting for as much as a year to get their deliveries. Along with inventory issues, Nguyen also says mass-produced furniture from retailers like IKEA and Wayfair changed people's taste in furniture and buying habits.
"Many people didn't even know who we were or that we sold furniture," Nguyen said.
Brothers' closure is the second largest furniture store to close down in the last few years. Connolly's Furniture & Mattress on Redwood Road liquidated its company after the pandemic.