Las Cruces furniture store owner upset after state says her business isn’t essential

LAS CRUCES, New Mexico -- The owner of Ashley Furniture Home Store in Las Cruces told ABC-7 she is upset that she has had to close her doors while other stores continue to sell furniture.

"It's an essential business because people are moving into new residences," said Wanda Bowman, the store's owner of 50 years. "We have many customers who are waiting for their online orders that have been placed that we want to deliver to them."

Bowman showed ABC-7 a cease and desist order issued by a state police officer that read she was "in violation of Executive Order 2020-004, NM Department of Health Public Health Orders."

That order says certain businesses can remain open, including "businesses that store, ship or deliver groceries, food, goods or services directly to residences or retailers."

"That's what we're doing," Bowman said. Yet I feel like I have been targeted and not been able to do it."

Bowman insists she has only been selling furniture online and delivering it to her customers.

Inside a showroom at Big Lots, a store employee told ABC-7 only 32 people are allowed inside at once.

At Furniture Row on Telshor Blvd., there were empty parking lots, the business was closed and no one answered the phone.

A spokesman for Conn's inside the Mesilla Valley Mall said the store is open for online orders, but delivers from an El Paso warehouse.

Bowman said all her 38 of her employees remain on the payroll, but she is only keeping five people at a time working in her store off of U.S. 70 and Del Rey Boulevard.

"We want to do the right thing for customers, but if they can't get it from us, they're going to buy it from someone else," Bowman said.