Sunnyland merchants ponder association
Some work together informally

by Christopher Key

 

In planning the Business Pulse community focus each month, we sometimes end up creating communities that previously have not been well defined. This month, we arbitrarily chose to focus on Bellingham’s Sunnyland area, roughly defined as the stretch of James Street between Iowa and Sunset and a few blocks to either side of James. There is an established neighborhood association named after the Sunnyland school and as we interviewed businesses in the area, there seemed to be increased enthusiasm for creating a merchant’s group.

More than one business claimed to be at the hub of Bellingham, partly because of proximity to the freeway and also because of the busy Iowa/James/State Street intersection that bounds the southern edge of the community. Despite the volume of traffic flowing through the area, it rarely seems as congested as the business communities along Sunset or Meridian. Sunnyland is an interesting mix of small and medium sized, old and new businesses.

There has been some thought given in the past to forming a merchants’ group in the area. At least they gave themselves a name: The James Street Gang. Some informal cooperative efforts are already underway. Hardware Sales has been in the same location for 40 years and has come up with an ingenious marketing device. For the past eight years, they have been hosting a “Ladies Night” during the holiday shopping season so that women can feel more comfortable buying the tools and other gadgets that their guys want for Christmas. It’s such a hit that they do more business in those three hours than they do during a normal business day. It’s also no coincidence that the event is always scheduled for a Monday night when football is on TV.

This December 9, The Garden Spot at the intersection of King and Alabama Streets will host a concurrent “Men’s Night” so that the guys will feel more comfortable shopping for gifts that appeal to women. The Red Apple Market is providing holiday goodies for both locations and is offering its huge parking lot to shoppers. A shuttle bus has been hired to transport customers to the various locations.

Another example of community cooperation occurred when Tails-A-Wagging, which provides day care for dogs, pet sitting service, and obedience classes, wanted to train their employees in animal CPR (Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation). They went to the local Red Cross chapter just down the block for help. Red Cross didn’t have the animal manikins needed, so Tails-A-Wagging purchased them and donated them to the chapter.

The McClellan family and Rich George at Hardware Sales are thoroughly committed to keeping things local and often refer customers to other businesses in the area. They attribute their continued success to hiring the right people.

“We look for knowledge, experience, personality and honesty,” said Jerry McClellan. “It’s a tall order. Then we keep them with our benefits and by paying as much as possible.”

Jerry’s son Ty added: “We give them more decision making power than they would find elsewhere and give department heads autonomy in running their sections.”

Hardware Sales currently employs 89 people in addition to five family members. They offer something that just can’t be found at the “big box” stores.

“Half of the customers that walk through the door,” Rich George said, “we can call ‘em by name. That’s important to customers.”

They all admit that the advent of the big box retailers has some effect. It slows growth, but only temporarily.

“They cut their margins to compete and boost volumes,” Jerry said, “but their growth curve is flattening. They lower prices on advertised items and mark other items up to compensate. We prefer a flat markup.”

The big box approach does not always work, as witness the recent demise of the Home Base chain.

“It may threaten some businesses, but not ours,” Ty said. “We just scale up; give more and better service. We weren’t as concerned with the arrival of Lowe’s as we were with the arrival of Home Base and Home Depot. Then, we weren’t ready. Now we are.”

Hardware Sales focuses on remaining flexible and offering things the others don’t.

“Our strengths lie in our rental department and our industrial services,” Jerry said. “We also offer rental and office furniture which the others don’t.”

Their motto is: “Don’t run scared, be prepared.” Once the dust settles, they believe, Hardware Sales will be busier than ever.

“This is a great location,” Rich said. “We’ll never move. Everything you need is close by. Les Schwab pulls people in. The Auto Auction pulls people in. Then they come see us. After 40 years, we still enjoy what we do.”

Things are going well enough that a new 10,000 square foot building is on the drawing board.

“We have to thank our customers for our success,” Jerry said. “Without them we’d not be here.”

Just across James Street is Cascade Performance, which offers auto parts for high performance and four-wheel-drive (4WD) vehicles. Les Scott started the business in 1996 when he couldn’t find the parts he needed elsewhere.

“We were mostly 4WD at first,” Scott said, “but the import market is a big part of the business now. We don’t just do imports. We have parts for trucks and domestic autos and we’ve just added ASE (National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence) certified auto repair.”

The business has experienced steady growth except for a lull right after 9/11. Local problems, like the layoffs at Georgia-Pacific and the temporary shutdown at Intalco, slowed growth, but not much.

“We like James Street for the good traffic flow,” Scott said. “That intersection (Iowa/James/State) is really the hub of Bellingham.”

It doesn’t hurt to have Hardware Sales right across the street.

“They’re like an extended tool room and parts house,” Scott said. “We have a great relationship with them.”

Scott would like to get involved with any effort to extend cooperation among the businesses in the area.

So would Richard Brown, owner of the Red Apple Market at the corner of James and Alabama. In addition to cooperating with Hardware Sales and The Garden Spot on Men’s and Ladies’ Night, he’d like to see some sort of formal association get going. Part of what motivated him to get involved in that event is the fact that it is the first anniversary of the store under his ownership. Although you may see Red Apples elsewhere, it is not a chain. It is a coop, which belongs to Associated Grocers.

Brown spent 25 years with Safeway, the last 12 as a store manager.

“Working for a big company was no longer any fun,” Brown said. It’s hard to run a community store with a corporate image. At the Red Apple, I don’t have the buying power of a big chain, so I have to be a smart buyer to be competitive.”

Brown feels that his deli section, where almost everything is made from scratch, is the store’s big draw. He also likes the location.

“This is one of the busiest intersections in town,” Brown said, “and yet it’s very easy to get in and out of our parking lot.”

As owner of a community grocery store, Brown wants to get to know his customers.

“I want to make things easy for both the customers and my employees,” Brown said. “For instance, I set up local charge accounts for businesses, which the big chains can’t do.”

His primary customers, the ones who do the majority of their grocery shopping at the store, are primarily those within walking distance. Seventy percent of his business comes from secondary shoppers, those who just drop in for a few items.

“The store had been neglected for a while,” said Brown, “and we’re just now getting to where we want to be. Eventually, I’d like to do a major remodel.”

Brown doesn’t foresee adding a pharmacy and there’s a video store right next door.

“We employ 20 local people and they love working in this kind of store,” Brown said. “Department managers make 90 percent of the decisions. You won’t find that in a chain store. We’re here to serve the customer, not the company.”

He admits it’s scary to be an independent, but he loves the work environment of a community store. It involves customer service.

“Real customer service is not the same as schooled customer service,” Brown said. “The big corporations make it hard. Customer service means more than just getting a good score from the company. If employees feel they’re being watched all the time, it affects their behavior. Here, the employees are not under the gun, so they can relax and give good service.”

Brown can’t afford to spend a lot of money on advertising, so he’s relying on word of mouth.

“We need to rebuild the reputation of this store,” Brown said “and word of mouth is helping. “We’re getting far more positive than negative comments now.”

GaPac Employees Federal Credit Union was formed 50 years ago by employees of Georgia-Pacific (G-P). Other than that, it has no connections to the company. It has occupied the northwest corner of Alabama and James Streets for the past 20 years and the present building for 10. State regulators recently allowed credit unions to open up their membership to the general public and that has been a boon for GaPac and others. They haven’t seen a big effect from cutbacks at G-P, but deposits continue to grow as retirement funds are rolled into the credit union. Manager Katie Jordan believes that there is absolutely an identifiable business community in Sunnyland.

“This is such a convenient area to work in,” Jordan said. “It’s good to be able to support family businesses. Sunnyland has a lot to offer: the school, the park, the hospital is close by. We should market ourselves together. It would benefit the whole community. Businesses can build up an image and support each other.”

She agrees that the traffic flow and access to the freeway at Sunset and Iowa are big advantages.

“We could brand ourselves as a family oriented community,” Jordan said. “There are lots of Mom and Pop operations here.”

She feels that increasing fees and decreasing service at commercial banks are driving people to credit unions. GaPac can also offer better rates on both deposits and loans.

“It’s great to see increasing cooperation in the community,” Jordan said. “We’re learning to recreate our communities after the melting pot broke up the original urban neighborhoods based on ethnic origin. I think people are looking for that same neighborhood feeling.”

John Youngstock helps create that neighborhood feeling with his produce stand. The business started as a nursery and has been in the same location for 30 years. Youngstock originally drove a truck over to eastern Washington to pick up produce, but eventually contracted with an Everett firm to bring it in. He and his family now operate a five-acre farm on King Tut Road. He puts photos on the walls so people will know that much of his stock is home grown.

“I grow 70,000 bedding plants and make 3,500 hanging baskets each year,” Youngstock said. “The customers respect this business and miss it when we close in the winter.”

The low overhead at his business makes it easy for Youngstock to compete with bigger operations.

“We don’t play pricing games,” Youngstock said. “We try to keep our markup steady. Many of our customers have been coming here for years and are like part of the family. It’s not the money that keeps me going; I enjoy talking to my people.”

His people come from as far away as Seattle, Lummi Island, Whidbey Island and Lynden to get things that are hard to find elsewhere, like the bigger cabbages used for making sauerkraut.

Youngstock knows that some businesses have been working together and feels he should be involved more.

“I’m just too busy to look up,” Youngstock said. He was preparing produce for sale all during the interview. “I like to keep the place clean and neat. That’s part of my commitment to the community. I don’t want my neighbors to be unhappy. They’re my good friends.”

He’d like to have a larger facility, but property is too expensive. He thinks that his sons, who help in the business, may find something eventually.

“This is a nice neighborhood,” said Youngstock. “At first it was mostly homeowners, then for a while we had a lot of rentals. Now it’s moving back to homeowners.”

The stand is open March to November and reopens during the holidays to sell trees and other decorations. What does Youngstock do during the off-season?

“I work on the farm.”

Marcie Plattner, owner of The Garden Spot, does the same thing. She farms six acres on Smith Road to help supply her business. Plattner started out in a temporary building where Cruisin’ Coffee is now in the Red Apple parking lot. After a few years of putting up and taking down the building each season, she took the plunge and bought three city lots at the corner of King and Alabama. She considers her nursery to be a big show window.

“I love my job, being in a big garden all day,” Plattner said. “My employees help me keep up with it all. Everybody here does everything. We’re all hard working and passionate about what we do. We make our customers happy.”

Plattner has been in business 12 years now and has just paid off her building.

“Other retail businesses are not the same as running a nursery,” Plattner said. “There’s a huge learning curve. It’s seasonal by nature, but we try to stay open year-round. I try to keep some consistency in the staff and work to build the business during the off months.”

During the busy season, keeping the plants healthy and saleable is a big challenge.

“I try to involve the staff in everything that’s going on,” Plattner said. “They’re my critics; they help me improve. They all know that they have a stake in the operation. I couldn’t do it without them. Part of the challenge I face is having some kind of personal life. I had to learn to pull back and let the staff handle things.”

She spends a fair amount of time checking to see what other nurseries are doing.

“There’s a very cooperative business climate among the nurseries in this area,” Plattner said. “Not the big boxes, but the independent businesses. Isolation is dangerous. We all need feedback. I want customers to come here to get inspired.”

Angie and Jason Lenz’s business has been going to the dogs right from the start. Tails-A-Wagging began in 1997 as a petsitting business and is now the largest such firm in Whatcom County. So many clients requested mid-day service that they added a dog day care center. They also keep pets overnight, provide transportation when needed, and offer obedience training. Eight other employees and independent contractors help them handle it all.

“Business is booming,” Angie said. “We now serve over 600 clients, which is right up there with some of the Seattle services.”

They a recently expanded their play spaces for dogs and can handle a maximum of 48 each day.

“This business is pretty recession proof,” Angie said. “Most of our clients are double income, no kids couples that travel a lot. We saw a dip in petsitting after 9/11 due to travel cutbacks, but day care was not affected. With two people working who often get home late, they feel like their pets need more attention. Some dogs come to day care two or three times a week, others just once a month.”

Tails-A-Wagging has a very stringent screening process for their day care service so that they can avoid any problem dogs. Four video cameras installed on the premises provide live streaming video on their website so owners can check up on Fido during the day. Angie feels that their location is ideal.

“Our market research showed that access was important,” Angie said, “so we’re right here next to the freeway. We were lucky to find this space. The zoning had to be right and we didn’t want to cause noise problems for the neighbors.”

She agrees that Sunnyland is a good place to do business.

“Everybody knows everybody here,” Angie said. “Hardware Sales and Red Apple are handy. I think there’s a very good potential for cooperation. It’s a central location with lots of types of businesses. The possibilities are endless.”

There is no question that Sunnyland has a unique feel to it. The businesses are family oriented and small town friendly. The streets are tree lined and serene despite healthy volumes of traffic. It will be interesting to see if the burgeoning spirit of cooperation among the merchants leads to bigger things.