Brown & White Paper to close doors Merchandise marked down for final days

BANGOR – One of Bangor’s landmark businesses – Brown & White Paper Co. – is going out of business.

Owner Michael Reed, an Arizona businessman who grew up in Greater Bangor and owned a paper goods company in Lewiston for several years, is in Bangor this week to work out the final details.

Reed said Tuesday that his current plan is to close the business in about a month.

The staff is marking down remaining merchandise and will continue to do so in the remaining weeks, he said. He is advertising the going out of business sale, but noted there has been “fairly good word of mouth.”

The tentative last day of business for Brown & White is set for Saturday, June 7, but the business might close sooner if the remaining stock sells out.

Brown & White is housed in the former Larkin Street School, a six-room elementary school that was built in 1907 and closed in 1968. The paper company, previously located on Broad Street, bought the school in 1969.

Reed bought the building and the business from former owner Sanford Fogg in the early 1980s and ran it as a wholesale and discount store.

At the time, Reed also owned Reed Paper Co. in Lewiston, and over time Brown & White became known as “the party store.” He continued to operate it after relocating with his family to Arizona in 1988.

Reed said his decision to close the store was a difficult one to make.

“It’s very dear to our hearts. I’m very nostalgic and sad about closing it. I’m going to miss it,” he said.

So will his staff of four full-time and two part-time employees.

“They’re all a little bit bummed,” said Reed, who is providing a severance package for his employees.

Customers also tell him they’ll miss the store. On Tuesday, he said, a group of Bangor firefighters came into the store looking for new flags to replace the ones that got tattered and torn over the winter.

“We didn’t have any to sell them,” Reed said, adding that the store has stopped ordering new stock, given the pending closure. One of the firefighters told Reed he had attended Larkin Street School as a child and spent a few minutes reminiscing, pointing out where the stairs and drinking fountain used to be.

“We’ve just had an awful lot of comments like that from people, and we feel the same way,” he said.

The store serves not only Greater Bangor but Down East and The County as well, Reed said.

After deciding to put the building up for sale late last year, Reed considered relocating the business to a more visible spot in Brewer or the Bangor Mall area. He said he eventually saw the handwriting on the wall, however, and decided to close.

With high gas and heating oil prices and families’ increasingly busy lifestyles, many people shop online or in shopping centers where they can combine errands, he said. Others simply are not spending money on party products.

The building is now under contract to Bangor developer Bill Masters, who wants to convert it into apartments and offices.

dgagnon@bangordailynews.net

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