I have never heard it in English either, and don't think it is a common term at all, but in Norwegian it is very common usage, where hvitevarer (white goods) is fridges, washing machines, dishwashers etc, and brunevarer (brown goods) are steroes, TVs etc.

If you go some decades back, almost all steroes and TVs were brown (typically wood or brown plastic), while dishwashers and fridges were nearly always painted white.

Same here in Germany, wondered a lot in the 90s writing my first eCommerce shop and the business owners talked about brown and white ware.

The British consumer magazine 'Which?' [1] routinely uses the term 'white goods' to refer to kitchen appliances.

[1] www.which.co.uk

'White goods' is common in Mexico, but I have never heard 'brown goods'

Brown goods because televisions and radios used to be in wooden cases, white goods because fridges and washing machines, etc. are typically painted white.

It's ordinary British English and as someone else pointed out common in other languages too. English: brown goods, white goods = Norwegian brunevarer, hvitevarer.

I'm not familiar with the "brown goods" term but I imagine it dates to when televisions with CRTs were typically housed in wood-paneled furniture while kitchen and washing appliances were typically white.

In some countries the terms are "black" and "white" and it's not weird - you can quickly tell apart appliances.