HOW’S BUSINESS? La Verne Online Asked and Found Out!
House of Wings is ready to take flight in La Verne, with its great food and friendly staff.
To gauge the health of the current economy, La Verne Online talked to several merchants and shopkeepers on Wednesday, April 11, 2012. In our unscientific survey, we’re happy to report the patient has a pulse, but it’s still touch and go for many business owners. Nobody we talked to was ready to give up the ghost, however. Indeed, many we’re guardedly optimistic and a few, we daresay, we’re brimming with confidence and dreaming big about their future.
Our first stop was mattress man Paul Niederer, who opened Cost + Mattress in La Verne about a year ago. “I made it,” said Niederer about surviving his first year in business, a hurdle that often trips up less savvy business owners.
Indeed, Niederer just moved out of his first-year location and into a new space almost twice as large, right next door to what used to be Sal’s Camera and Little Kuts hair salon. Since he set up shop in La Verne, the ex-Desert Storm and Desert Shield veteran says he’s been shouting from the rooftops that all his products are “Made in America,” and customers have been responding. Referrals also have been increasing as word gets out about his “quality products at good prices.”
“I’m starting to see things snowball,” Niederer said. “People are spending a little bit more money.”
Paul Niederer is looking to spring forward with mattress sales.
And Niederer anticipates spending more too, envisioning opening a second store in about a year and hiring more employees. “I see the economy getting better,” Niederer said.
Just down the street, the Outdoor Elegance Patio Design Center serves as the luxurious western gateway to the city and a monument to the grand thinking of its visionary owner, Doug Sanicola.
“Business for the first quarter has been up for us, surprisingly up,” said general manager Tom Kay. “The numbers appear to be good and appear to continue to be good.”
But with the good has come the realization that he and his team have to work harder and smarter than ever to reach the ideal customers for their exquisite, top-of-the-line patio furniture, outdoor kitchens and grills, indoor and outdoor fireplaces, fire chat pits, patio umbrellas, outdoor water fountains, and statuary and patio accessories.
“We’ve had to refine our marketing approach,” he said.
In February, Outdoor Elegance hosted a social media event with its key strategic partners, including landscape architects, designers and contractors. There is gold in these relationships because Outdoor Elegance and their partners are, in essence, serving the same clients, so why not work together. “It’s all about outreach,” Kay explained. “Can I network, can I find partners and add value to these relationships?”
Kay is seeing a slight loosening of wallets and purses.
“One guy at our event, said, ‘I’m 55; I thought the world was coming to an end three or four years ago, but I survived it. Now I have some money and I’m going to spend it instead of continuing to hold on to it.’”
Tom Kay is also one of the masterminds behind the upcoming Holy Name of Mary spring festival.
Again, Outdoor Elegance is using more social media to reach these “survivors” who are now ready to spend on the finer things in life. “We’re not waiting for customers to come in,” Kay said. “We’re finding more ways to meet our customers.”
Outdoor Elegance also is hiring new kinds of employees, skilled at reaching clients on their own turf, including at special events and in their homes. “We’re approaching hiring in an entirely different way,” Kay said.
In downtown La Verne, we checked in with Brian McNerney, CEO of the La Verne Chamber, which has been on a fragile financial footing ever since the state siphoned off redevelopment funding on which it relied. The chamber has recently countered with successful a poker tournament, car show and hazardous recycling event to bring in revenues.
“New businesses are revitalizing the downtown area,” McNerney said, “but there are still too many open spots.”
He didn’t have to point to the vacant old Von’s center at the corner of Foothill and Wheeler in La Verne. Compared to the high synergy that some shopping areas of the city enjoy, the Von’s center is more like a black hole, threatening to suck other businesses into its gloomy gravitational pull. McNerney noted that nine different people own the center, including absentee landlords. This balkanization of the center doesn’t appear to be ending any time soon, despite the best efforts of the city and tenants to rectify the situation.
Regardless of what the economy is doing, Chamber CEO Brian McNerney always sees a full cup brimming with possibilities.
Despite this grim outlook, resourceful owners, McNerney said, are stepping up their social marketing and making inroads with potential customers. “Social networking, similar to your newspaper, is how people are getting business,” he said. “Social networking has to be a part of everyone’s marketing program. You have to get things out on Facebook. You have to have a Twitter account. Through e-blasts, lots of people are putting up one day specials and announcing 2-for-1 happy hours and generating lots of foot traffic.”
A short hop from the chamber office, Maryanne Stark runs her bookkeeping and tax service. In other words, she is uniquely positioned to read the economic tea leaves. What have they been teller her?
“The pulse is some are doing better and some are doing worse,” she said. “I see a stabilization.”
But it has come at a high cost.
“Of my client base, I would bet you 40 percent lost a piece of property last year,” she said, adding that after short-selling their homes, they’re now renting.
The employment picture isn’t any prettier. “There are actually a lot of people unemployed, she said. “They can’t get unemployment insurance because they’re maxed out.”
While she thinks the downturn has leveled off, she doesn’t see things shooting up, either. From her chair, she sees more people renting, buying economy cars and holding on. “Some of them are teeter-tottering, hoping they’re not going to lose an existing job,” she said. “They’re scared.”
But hard times for some is a boon to others. Tim Zellman, a real estate broker on D Street in downtown La Verne, is having one of “my best years ever.” I just opened my ninth escrow,” he said. His customers are investors and “people who didn’t suck all their equity out.” He anticipates doing another 17 or 18 deals (short sales and banked owned properties), as real estate enters its traditional April through August buying and selling season.
Tim Zellman (rhymes with, "Just Sell, Man) poke his head out and saw nothing but sunshine in his economic forecast.
“I see people poking their heads out,” he said, while acknowledging that lenders are doing better at streamlining the short-sale process.
Earlier this week saw the opening of the House of Wings, also on D Street “We’re going to make it real big,” said John, its general manager. Indeed, there was a strong lunch crowd, with John promising more to come, including special student nights, two different happy hours, and lots of delicious food at good prices to bring out the entire family. The restaurant is lined with flat screens and boasts street-facing patio seating, so the House of Wings could be the new downtown hub and draw the city has been desperately seeking.
Before leaving downtown, we visited La Verne Animal Hospital on Bonita. We wondered whether pets are also feeling the pinch of the economy.
“We’ve seen a downslide anywhere from 10 to 15 percent,” said Sandie Alford, who runs the office. “Some animal hospitals are down as much as 35 percent.”
To counteract that trend, Alford said the staff is trying to work with clients, often prescribing conservative treatments first. But there’s no getting around it, animals are seeing the doctor less.
“Like today, we have two appointments this afternoon,” Alford added. “Usually, we have anywhere from 15 to 20.”
Pets, large and small, receive first class treatment, from Justin Weller and Sandie Alford.
Uptown, Mickey Rehm, owner of Micky’s Jewelry Studio, is showing that she is recession proof. With a Nordstrom retail background, she has proved a master marketer since she opened her shop in the Orchard Hardware Supply/Office Depot center almost five years ago.
“Every year we just keep getting busier and busier and busier,” she said. “We feel very fortunate, but we’re out there pounding the pavement, too.”
For one, she is very supportive of charitable organizations throughout the city, often donating a diamond or gemstone, and letting the nonprofit keep all the raffle proceeds. In exchange more people discover her store.
With the opening of Jersey Mike’s next door to her shop, she has also seen foot traffic markedly pick up. “It’s really helped our business,” she said. “I would say 20 or 30 people have stopped in since it opened.” On the other side of her shop is Pizza Hut, generating more walk-ins while people wait for their pizzas.
“My husband was concerned when we first opened about all the different smells, but the parking lot is busy all day long,” Mickey said.
While Mickey is another business owner increasing her social marketing, it’s something decidedly old school that has her smiling. She had planned putting her name out there on shopping carts (You have to try everything because you don’t know what’s going to work), but when another business had bought the whole year, bumping her from the slot, she was offered a deal to put her coupons on the back of the store’s register tape.
“I thought big deal, that’s not going to help me at all,” Mickey said. “Well, it turns out it’s the best advertising that I’ve done (next to advertising on LaVerneOnline). I just re-upped. Some days, I would get five or six customers a day. Who would have ever thought!
For Mother’s Day, she’s inviting people to visit the store or visit online, www.mickysjewelrystudio.com, and register to win $500. The drawing will be held, Saturday May 12. “That’s 500 cold cash,” she repeated. “If we pull your name, you don’t even have to give it to your mother.”
There, you have it – our unscientific sampling complete. From pockets of prosperity to purses that have seen plumper times, La Verne’s economic picture remains a mixed bag of opportunity.
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