Nelsons passing the baton to 4th generation

WILMINGTON – The furniture business has always been an ultra-competitive one, and Nelsons Home Furnishings and Outlet Center in Wilmington keeps rolling with the changes – through four generations for the longtime local business.

“It’s a tough road to have a small family business going on four generations,” said Steve Nelson, who’s readying to pass the baton to the fourth generation.

“It’s just kind of one of those things. It’s hard to keep that many family members involved that would want it, so you must have been doing something right along the way that they still want to be involved with it,” he said. “It’s becoming harder and harder as you have online competition and the big store competition.”

Nelson added that the mix of customers they have and the fact they’ve been there for so long are some of the keys to success.

Nelsons also has longtime employees who stayed with it as well. He said a couple salespeople, who were there for 40 years, just retired in the past couple of years.

“So it’s a lot of the same people, and we knew what we were doing,” he said. “Our managers that are down there right now, they’ve probably been there a long time, too. Braulio [Felix, maintenance manager] has been there over 20 years. So we had people who [customers] were used to seeing. When you come in the door, you see the same people. We take care of the customers.”

When people buy from Nelsons, they know the service doesn’t stop there. That’s a big advantage of buying local rather than online or from a big-box retailer.

Customers can count on Nelson to make sure that they’re taken care of, Nelson said.

If they need anything at all, he said, they know help is only a phone call away.

“They can’t get that at big stores. They just don’t really care about you that much. We have our own service people. We have our own delivery people,” he said.

Nelson, 65, will soon step away from the day-to-day operations after working for more than 42 years in the family business since graduating from Eastern Illinois University in 1982.

“When we were kids, we were always doing something,” he said. “My dad had us delivering flyers or cleaning or God only knows what.”

Annie Nelson, wife of Steve’s son, Ryan, is going to run the family business once Steve and his wife, Tina, step down later this month. Steve and Tina spend winters in South Carolina. Annie has worked at Nelsons for eight years.

“We’ve been stepping back for the last year or so, and they’ve been taking over more and more and more of it,” Steve said. ”... When we get back in town, we’re going to make it official where we’re going to pretty much just back out.”

Annie, 39, has been doing a lot of the book work, drawing up ads and handling the advertising, and she is also involved in all the buying of the furniture. She loves the family atmosphere of the small community.

“You get to know people over the years,” she said. “You know the same families and customers that come to shop. It’s fun because you get older customers who are like, ‘Oh my gosh, you know, I shopped here in 1985, and all my furniture is from here. So to continue to sell to customers that have been buying for so many years, it feels good to keep selling to them.”

How it all started

Steve’s grandfather, Wayne Nelson, started several businesses decades ago in Wilmington. Wayne was from Dwight and his wife, Irma, was from Braidwood. They moved to Wilmington in 1937.

Wayne had the local Maytag dealership and sold other appliances, gas furnaces, paint and carpeting. He also had a grocery store.

“He was quite the entrepreneur,” Steve said.

In 1966 there was a fire in the grocery store, and they decided to switch the family’s focus. The Nelsons saw the mom-and-pop grocery stores going by the wayside as A&P and some bigger chains were out there. Steve’s dad, Ken, asked Wayne about opening up a furniture store, so they closed the grocery store.

“They kept the appliances and the TVs, paint and stuff like that,” Steve said. “But the part of the building that had the grocery store, they changed it over to furniture. Through the years we whittled some of that stuff away. As the Best Buys came into play, and some of the big appliance stores, we got rid of the appliances and same thing with TVs.”

Ken retired in 1995 or so, and Steve started his run in the line of family ownership.

Here and now

Now Nelsons just focuses on furniture although the family does own two adjacent businesses – Nelly’s Restaurant and Rt. 66 Old School Brewing.

Nelly’s opened up about 15 years ago and Old School Brewing in 2019. Annie is also involved in running the restaurant and brewery.

“[Annie] has picked up on all of it,” Steve said. “She pretty much knows what she’s doing. And we’re not going to just walk away from it either. We’ll still be in town all summer, and we’ll be down here all the time making sure everything transitions and everything’s smooth.”

Ryan, 35, works in construction and will step in at Nelsons whenever that expertise is needed.

“Ryan will be like a Steve Jr.,” Annie said. “... He’s very knowledgeable with repairs and any issues.”

As the furniture industry evolves, Annie said they’ll use social media to connect with the younger buyer.

“I think the biggest change, the biggest improvement right now, is just having things online,” she said. “Where before the store always did newspaper ads, direct mailers, everything by mail, by hand, where now we have more reach to the public. ... Hopefully, some fresh new ideas to see what we can bring to the furniture store.”