Businesses Brace for Possible OSH Arrival

While Tam Valley residents are debating the wins and losses from Orchard Supply Hardware’s possible arrival in the , Orchard’s likely future competitors are bracing for its impact on their respective bottom lines.

While in November 2011 left as the lone comprehensive hardware store in town, a host of businesses overlap with OSH, particularly local garden-oriented stores like , and the , could take a hit with OSH’s arrival.

Zviki Govrin, general manager at Goodman Building Supply on Redwood Hwy., which celebrates its 57th anniversary in May, said he’s in the midst of coming up with a multi-pronged approach: seeing what can be done to fight OSH’s arrival and find a potential grocer to occupy the space, while also bracing for the competition OSH would bring.

“A big operation like Orchard is a real threat for any other operation that does something similar, so it’s definitely a threat to us,” Govrin said, noting that while OSH doesn’t carry all the lumber that Goodman does, it has a strong garden center and hardware business. “In some ways, it’s life and death for us. They have the money and if they decide to kill us, they probably could kill us.”

In an interesting twist, Govrin is in the midst of renegotiating Goodman’s lease at 775 Redwood Hwy. with Robert Knez, CEO of HL Commercial Real Estate in San Rafael and the agent for the former Delano’s building's owners, the Parrish Trust, as well as Goodman’s property, though for a different landowner. Govrin said the matters are separate and not directly related, though he said he’s likely to sign a shorter lease given the potentially heightened competition.

“It’s a matter of our improving our operation and doing things that make our customers want to stick with us,” Govrin said. “We’re working on it.”

Kevin Sadlier, co-owner of Green Jeans Garden Supply across the highway from Goodman, said he intends to continue to differentiate his business with great customer service and unique products that a chain like PSH can’t easily match.

“It would definitely take a bite out of my business but I have a good following and I don’t think I’m going to lose that core,” Sadlier said.

Green Jeans has been in Strawberry for 15 years and Sadlier urged residents to consider the local economic impact of a chain like OSH.

“The money doesn’t really go to the community and the merchandise isn’t purchased locally,” he said. “In the short term, it may create good tax revenue and give a few low paying jobs to people but it won’t pay off in the long run.”

“It could definitely have a negative impact on us,” added Dave Stoner, the operations manager at Sloat Garden Center, which has stores on both East Blithedale and Miller avenues.

Stoner said he was “cautiously confident,” however, that great customer service and high quality products and materials will be hard for a chain store to match consistently.

“They’re a bit cookie cutter in that sense compared to an independent garden center,” Stoner said.

Harold Abend, spokesman for Goodman, said the company intends to reach out to its customers and gauge their thoughts on OSH’s possible arrival.

“We want to know where we stand with the community,” Abend said. “If the people say they want (OSH) there, fine.”

Abend said Goodman officials will also monitor the two online petitions created by Tam Valley resident Mark Marinozzi. One of the invokes the community’s need for a grocery store in the space at 209 Flamingo Road and the other urges one prospective grocery tenant to move into Tam Valley.

Abend also said Goodman would be willing to participate in a neighborhood committee tasked with reaching out to grocers on the property owner’s behalf.

“The community doesn’t need another big box store that simply fills once space and creates more vacancies elsewhere around town,” Marinozzi said.

For more on the community response to Orchard Supply Hardware's possible arrival in Tam Valley, .