NASHUA – Businesses merge all the time, but the takeover of Fletcher’s Appliances by Baron’s Major Brands is more like a family transfer.

“I’ve known them most of my life,” said David Pastor, owner of Fletcher’s Appliances, on the three cousins who run the Concord-owned Baron’s Major Brands. As of Monday, the 91-year-old Fletcher’s Appliances at 531 Amherst St. became the seventh store in Baron’s New Hampshire chain.

“Mike Baron even said we could have been brothers – we’ve finished our sentences during the process,” said Pastor, who took over the business in 1988 from his father, Bernie. Bernie Pastor, who died in 2009, had bought it from founder P.E. Fletcher in 1953, after working there for years following his military stint in World War II.

David Pastor, 58, who described himself as semi-retired, said the idea of selling the business came up in casual conversation when the Baron’s co-owners mentioned that they were interested in expanding into Nashua. He declined to discuss the business arrangements.

Pastor said that Jeff Coon, store manager of Fletcher’s, is staying on, adding, “He’s been pretty much the face of the organization recently.”

Fletcher’s Appliances grew out of the region’s first repair service for the then new technology of electric home refrigerators, dating back to 1924 when P.E. Fletcher had a small store on Park Street in Nashua. Over the years it moved to Pearl Street, West Hollis Street and Main Street before Bernie Pastor took it to its current location on Amherst Street in 1996.

Baron’s Major Appliances was started in Concord by two brothers who came home from World War II, then expanded beyond their first job of fixing radios and TVs.

The two companies have been friendly competitors for a long time, cooperating as necessary. Baron’s never came closer to Nashua than Salem and Manchester.

“The two brothers who started (Baron’s) in the ‘40s were friendly with my dad. They helped each other out. … They combined buying in the 1960s, before there were buying groups,” said Pastor.

That last point is important. The small, family-owned businesses have been able to succeed despite competition from “big box” stores because they are part of a purchasing consortium called Nationwide Marketing Group. This reduces the price advantage that national chains get when buying in bulk from manufacturers, allowing many small stores to negotiate as one.

“We’re part of a buying group with 9 billion dollars of purchasing,” said Mike Baron, one of three cousins who own Baron’s Major Brands. “We get our price sheets through them, it leverages our buying power.”

It also helps that buying appliances is such a major purchase that customers often want advice and guidance; with a locally owned store it comes from the owner.

“Here you can usually talk to a principal,” said Baron. “You can’t talk to Mr. Sears or Mr. Lowe’s or Mr. Home Depot.”

Both men said few changes will be noticeable at Fletcher’s. Even the sign won’t be switched for another couple of weeks.

“It’s going to be the same excellent Fletcher’s staff and team and way of doing business,” said Baron, who owns the business with cousins Dave Souter and Brian Ellis.

One change that will come this summer is that Baron’s Major Plans is going to expand into the Horse ‘n’ Hound business next door. The animal therapy facility will be moving to a large, converted barn in Hollis.

That move will expand Baron’s Major Brands store by about one-third, to roughly 8,000 square feet, and allow the creation of a mattress department, as exists at the chain’s other stores.

David Brooks can be reached at 594-6531, dbrooks@nashuatelegraph.com or @GraniteGeek.