A journey that began in 1944, will soon come to a close. After 78 years, Vine Furniture will close its doors before the end of summer. The business provided for four generations of one family and connected to other families throughout the community, many of whom were multi-generation customers. It’s something that current owner Kelly Shinlever didn’t see coming when I wrote about the 75-year history of the store, or even as recently as 2019 when I wrote of their plans to re-develop a portion of the building. I sat down with him to talk about the decision to sell.

He said, “We took the plans all the way up through plans review.” By that time the pandemic had started and the family started re-evaluating. They put the portion of the building up for sale to see if there was outside interest in purchasing it for redevelopment. His parents realized that, at their age, waiting on the returns on that major investment might not be their best choice. He said the pandemic made the whole family take stock of what they wanted and where the business was going.

They closed to walk-in customers for a period early in the pandemic. Kelly said the Friday they re-opened was the biggest sales day in the history of the store. Business has been strong since. Still, looking at the long-term, he knew his parents were nearing retirement and his children aren’t interested in continuing the business.

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