DOWNTOWN BRENTWOOD BUSINESSES Business Owners Who Aren't Afraid of Change
	June 2004

by Donald Huntington
Photos by Brad Shifflett

I started researching this article believing that I would be telling David and Goliath kinds of stories about struggle and survival in the face of growing competition from the plazas and shopping centers moving in all around us. However, I was pleased to discover that the downtown Antioch businesses I contacted are doing very well.

Learning to Thrive in a Changing Society
Most of the merchants I spoke with said that they appreciate the fact that the town is growing so fast; believing that the growth in East County in general is good for business.

Ms Unique Boutique
Mary Ann Hansen, proprietor of Ms Unique Boutique, said she appreciates the same things in the growth going on that everyone else appreciates. "When we moved to Disco Bay in 1981," she says, "I had to take an ice chest in my car because I was buying groceries in Antioch. I had to keep the ice cream from melting."

She likes the fact that downtown Brentwood is growing and changing. She appreciates that there are more restaurants and wishes that there were more businesses to draw people to the area. In particular, she thinks that a nice ice cream parlor would be a real asset.

Mary Ann added that too many people have moved into the area for her to know everybody any more. Once in a while strangers will try to pass phony money or checks. But then she adds, "These are minor problems compared to the advantages of living in this place at this time!"

Caps Oak Street Grill
Elaine Karadais, proprietor of Caps Oak Street Grill, of all the people I ever spoke with, told me that she had no complaint about the changes. She said that she that she appreciated them all and that she and her husband, Bill, love their East County living experience.

"We live in Oakley, right on the edge of Brentwood," Elaine told me.

Then she added with a grin, "Our five minute commute is awesome."

The Karadais maintain that the only negative part of the growth is the increasing difficulty of finding parking. They have no other complaint.

Some of the other downtown merchants echoed Elaine Karadais' complaint about lack of parking. One of them said that a multi-level parking structure would help with the problem.

The Old Hardware Store
Even Steve Burgess, from The Old Hardware Store, commented on the difficultly of parking downtown, even though he acknowledged that he was fortunate enough to have a parking lot in the back for customers.

Steve pointed out the irony that even though people don't want to park a block from their destination in downtown, they will park the equivalent of three blocks across a huge parking lot at Slatten Ranch.

"Did you ever really look at WinCo Parking lot?" he asked. "How many blocks do people have to walk from the back of the lot to the front door?"

Steve believes that a lot of the new people appreciate businesses like his and enjoy coming downtown. He thinks there would be more of these if the downtown businesses were more accessible.

Steve expressed some nostalgia about the movement he had witnessed of Brentwood from being a small farm town to becoming at least part bedroom community. He observed that more competition shows up all the time, but then he acknowledged that, on the other hand, of course, there are more potential customers now than he had 30 years ago. "More than six weeks ago," he admitted with a grin.

Steve Burgess added his opinion that the downtown-parking problem was acerbated by allocating property for office space that should have been reserved for restaurants, stores, and foot-traffic. He noted that people sometimes can't find a parking place because many are occupied by office workers, who, of course, are going to leave their cars parked by the curb for nine or ten hours every day.

Steve doesn't fault the office workers who do this, he's just sorry to lose those spaces to visitors and potential customers of downtown businesses who now have no place to park. He claims that more enlightened downtown planning prohibits developing office space, except when adjacent to sufficient parking lot structures.

Books and Beans
Joan Taylor noted that the chains drove almost all the books out of her Books and Beans store. She found it too tough to compete with the chains, since they can discount so heavily so she got out of the book business, more or less.

"Now I just sell the books I like." she says. "Chicken Soup books and some of my favorite children's books, like How to Make my Room Special. Especially she says she loves Everything I learned about Parenting I Learned from my Puppy.

Not Only Baja
Ed and Heidi Calvin, owners of Not Only Baja, admitted that the growth takes a toll. For example, the residents of Discovery Bay no longer need to come to Brentwood to shop since their new Safeway opened. However, Heidi admitted that everything ends up coming back around. Discovery Bay is growing so big that the overflow shoppers more than equal the people that used to come shopping from their a few years ago.

"When we first started 'Not Only Baja,' some people didn't imagine that our little town could support it," Heidi said. "However, people keep moving into the area because of the small-town flavor. Then they come to see our small town, discover our store and are amazed and delighted."

"We've become a tourist spot for some people. When family or friends come for a visit, some people will give them a tour of our town, then bring them around to Not Only Baja for Hors d'Oeuvres and Champaign. Almost always the visitors will say, 'I didn't expect anything like this in Brentwood!'"

Then she added with happy pride, "We're providing an up-town experience for people visiting our little down town."

The Calvins think that more parking spaces, perhaps a major parking structure, would help downtown Brentwood a lot. However, that was their only complaint. Heidi did add that she would like to see a Thursday Night Farmers Market come to town.

She even knows where it could go — right on the corner of Oak and First.

I picked up some common threads from the merchants I spoke with that helped explain their success in thriving in a place that has seen changes as much as Brentwood has.

Track Records
Most of the downtown business owners have been working in their locations for a long time and each has developed a base of loyal customers. Bill and Elaine Karadais, the proprietors of Caps First Street Bar and Grill, for example, have spent seven years serving food at their downtown location.

Joan Taylor has been selling cups of coffee and assorted treasures from her Books and Beans coffee shop for a decade, before anybody heard of Starbucks. She says, "I have been running a coffee shop since before coffee shops were cool."

The same three people have been running 1/4 Pound Big Burger since it opened 13 years ago. Mary Ann Hansen from Ms. Unique Boutique says she has been selling her little things since 1991.

Steve Burgess takes the longevity title of all the merchants I spoke with, since he has been running his Old Hardware Store for 25 years, dating all the way back to March 1979.

Ed and Heidi Calvin moved into the area three years before Steve opened his hardware store, but have been operating their "Not Only Baja" store only since 1999.

These people are typical of the downtown merchants in that they and their businesses have taken their places as solid, dependable fixtures in the downtown landscape. Some of their customers have been coming for years or decades. People are used to them; they are comfortable with them.

The downtown businesses are accomplishing through longevity what the big chain stores accomplish through advertising and reputation: their customers know exactly what to expect.

Commitment
Each of the downtown merchants I spoke with described their businesses as a way of life more than simply a way of making a living. Their businesses form a big part of who they are.

For example, when I asked Elaine Karadais how much longer she expected to be running Caps Restaurant, she said, "The people who come in here are like a family. How could we leave? Where else would we rather be?" She and husband Bill regard their Oak Grill restaurant as a child.

"We took over when this 'kid' was really sick and nursed it to health," Elaine says. "We're not going anywhere. The restaurant is our child. How could we abandon it?"

Mary Ann said she intended to continue operating her Ms Unique Boutique "... for as long as I am able to buy clothes, on one hand, and don't become a bitchy old woman on the other. As soon as I begin griping and complaining, I'm outta here"

Ed and Heidi Calvin echoed the others, "We're going to do this as long as the legs hold out," she said.

Ed and Heidi carry their commitment to Brentwood beyond the walls of their "Not Only Baja" store. They recently purchased the church property on First Street that was vacated by the congregation of the Catholic Church when they moved into their new facility on Fairview.

The Calvins hope to develop the church property with more businesses. Under consideration is a new restaurant, art gallery, or community center. They are aware of the role that the church played in the faith and life of local Hispanic worshippers and intend that all development be taken in a sensitive way. They plan to preserve the church structure and to mark it with a plaque that notes the dates in which the buidling was used for religious purposes.

Quality of Service and Product
Another theme I picked up from the people I spoke with was the quality they built into their businesses.

Mary Ann Hansen, for example, offers services to customers that come into her Ms Unique Boutique store beyond what they could ever get from Mervyns or the Gap. "If something doesn't look good on a customer, I'll tell them," she said. "My customers have learned that if I tell them something looks good on them, then they know that everyone will be telling them that."

Mary Ann says that her customers are her best advertisers. She deliberately dresses them so that when people ask them, "Where did you get that cute outfit?" she's located another potential customer. "I can't buy better advertising than that," she says.

She tells the story of how she dressed one particular customer for a cruise. Afterwards the woman reported, "I wanted to tell you, Mary Ann, that every time I wore something on the cruise that I had gotten from your store, people would come up to me and ask me, 'Where did you get that cute outfit?' Every time I wear something from your store, I get compliments.'"

Mary Ann described an astonishing level of service. She said they do a lot of walking around in the show floors in the big style conferences in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and San Francisco looking for things that catch their eye. "We go to these things with customers in our mind," she said. "'This will look good on so-and-so,' we might say. Or 'That would be a perfect fit for so-and-so.'"

Elaine Karadais pointed out that the food they serve in their Caps Oak Street Grill is farmers' market quality. She and her husband feel particularly unaffected by the fast food places going up all around. They are content to keep profit margins low in order to maintain the quality of their food, as well as labor costs sufficient to attract and maintain quality employees.

Elaine said that they don't give new hires a half-day of orientation and then stick a spatula in their hand or send them to the tables with an order pad and a soft lead pencil. They put new employees through 2-3 weeks of training. They aim to hire family people, adult men and women. Their restaurant is staffed by crew of people who are proud to be where they are and happy to be doing what they are doing.

In the same vein, Heidi Calvin says that Not Only Baja services exceed customers' normal expectations, with such things as free home delivery and gift-wrapping. They seek ways to help people manage their busy lives and work with their customers on a personal basis.

Heidi says that she has participated in plots by husbands to surprise their wives. She says that wives have stood in tears in front of a painting that is marked "sold," not knowing that it had just been sold to their husbands who had known they wanted it.

She takes pride in the service that they provide their customers. She remembers when she lived in Los Angeles, she would sometimes go flying down the freeway to try to get to some small store before it closed, screeching to a halt in front of the place five minutes before the announced closing time only to find it closed and locked.

So she instructs her staff that if they see anyone looking in the door after hours, they should let them in. When she knows a customer is trying to get to the store she tells them, "If you are going to be late, call me."

Heidi says that she loves Christmas Eve, which she refers to as "Guy's Day." She specializes in solving problems for distraught husbands and boyfriends who "need that gift today."

"Not Only Baja" maintains records of what people bought. They can tell a husband, for example, what he bought his wife last Christmas, and the Christmas before that.

Steve Burgess also says that he takes care of his Old Hardware Store customers, providing a service rather than just a product. He answers people's questions and helps them with their projects. He can help a customer figure out the best to get a particular job done.

Steve says that he still waits on everybody individually. He tells new customers, "You're guaranteed that someone is going to talk to you." He's on a mission to keep that personal level of service alive.

Also, Steve is proud that his customers can depend upon a level of quality from his products. He feels that quality rather than mere price-point is the overriding issue. "I never sell anything I wouldn't buy myself," he says. He has a motto that he really believes in, "The bitterness of poor quality lingers long after the sweetness of low price is gone."

Diversity
Another characteristic common to many downtown businesses is offering products or services that really set them apart from shopping experiences provided by malls and shopping centers.

Mary Ann Hansen, proprietor of Ms Unique Boutique, for example, said, "I'm keeping up with my name 'unique.' I sell only stuff you can't get in department stores." In that sense, she says that she is not competing with Slatten Ranch. She says that her customers, of course, shop in places like that; she shops in those places herself. However, her customers always come back because she provides products that JC Penny doesn't carry.

"There are a lot of 'box' stores," she said, "stores like Mervyns, Target, Mashalls, that I don't compete with. Our clothes and accessories are altogether different than theirs. Ms Unique Boutique doesn't cater to young people, but to mature adults and business people. People go other places for T-shirts, low-rise jeans, or white socks.

The Karadais try to maintain a place that will come to mind when residents want to do something special and upscale. Menu items include Continental, Italian, French, and, of course, Greek. On Wednesday, for example, they feature Greek Lemon Chicken.

When Bill and Elaine began putting veal shanks and cannelloni as menu entrées, some patrons didn't even know what they were. Before long, however, customers not only learned what the items were, but learned that they were delicious. We're happy that people are happy when they leave.

Ed and Heidi's Not Only Baja has a mixture of world art and home accessories that are surely different than any other store in the world, let alone in our East County.

Steve Burgess said that a great strength of his hardware business that directly intersects a weakness of the big chains lies in his business philosophy. The chains evaluate a product on the number of "turns" the product makes — i.e., how many times a year the particular product will be sold. Steve says the more important thing for him is in actually having the product in stock that a customer might ask for.

For example, Steve said, "I might sell only one particular kind of rake handle in a year. But when that customer comes in looking for that, he can't be satisfied with a shovel handle."

Steve has a real competitive advantage in that his store only sells hardware. You can't buy a refrigerator, computer, or rose bush in The Old Hardware Store. He has 37,000 items on stock, however, and they are all hardware. "If you come in here with a list of ten plumbing or electrical parts, for example," Steve says, "I bet I've got all ten."

Furthermore, Steve claims that OSH, Home Depot, and Ace all refer customers to him when they don't have a product someone is looking for. They know he will have it onhand.

Steve tries to focus on his customers and not on himself. He says that he likes to stay incognito and not to make a big splash. One thing he isn't shy and humble about, however, is the fact that his store has a really complete inventory — and that he knows where every piece of it is.

Some customers try to challenge the completeness of Steve's inventory by asking if he has some obscure part or tool. He says to such people, "You can test me; but if I find the thing, you've got to buy it." He says that not many people will take him up on that challenge.

Joan Taylor says that she sells knickknacks of all kinds in her Books and Beans, which provides irresistible convenience for some of her customers. "If you need a gift for someone at work, stop in for a coffee," Joan says, "and you can find just what you need." Then she adds, "I guarantee it."

Some of the downtown businesses extend the idea of diversity to non-competition with each other. Joan says that she and other merchants compare stock in order to maintain individuality. "Heidi at Not Only Baja Heidi carries Red Hat, like I do," she says, "but her stock is different than mine."

Another indefinable point of separation between these downtown business people and the typical managers of the big chain stores is that all the merchants I talked with seemed to laugh a lot. They found a lot about their businesses that amused and delighted them. They were willing to loosen up and be human with their businesses.

Joan Taylor, for example, told me that after her kids grew up her family bought her Books and Beans store for her in order to give her something to do. She adds with a laugh, "The plan worked good."

Steve has a sign in his hardware store, "Husbands without a note from wife may not choose paint colors." The manager at OSH couldn't put up a sign like that without clearance from administrators six levels above him. And, of course, the corporate big-shots wouldn't approve. Most of those suits wouldn't understand the joke, or wouldn't understand that it was a joke.

Relationships
All of the downtown merchants talked about customers as members of an extended family. In many of the downtown businesses you are likely to be waited on by the owner.

The people who bring you a plate of French fries at 1/4 Pound Berger are the same people who brought you those fries ten years ago. And if you have been coming there regularly, they know your name. They will talk to you about your family, ask you about your health.

Downtown businesses focus on levels of customer relationships that have been lost in much of the rest of our culture over the past decades. For example, I never met a McDonalds employee who cared who I was. The person waiting on me at Target doesn't have time to care about me personally. People in Home Depot don't get paid to care about whether I'm having a good day or how my family is doing.

On the other hand, the owners of these downtown businesses consistently spoke of their customers with affection. They like the people they serve; they enjoy making customers happy.

Mary Ann Hansen, from Ms. Unique Boutique, said "We treat customers in our store as though they were guests in our home. We treat them like friends." This is not just a sales technique, because she added, "I really love the people who come through my doors. I think they know I like them; that I'm pleased to see them."

Then she added the astonishing comment, "In 13 years I only had two people I wish wouldn't come back into my store."

Mary Ann says that loving her customers means that her work is fun.

Elaine Karadais spoke with the same enthusiasm. She really enjoys working at her restaurant and says that she goes to work with the feeling that she is having a daily open house. She regards her customers as guests or members of an extended family.

She says that she's from a large family who always enjoyed having dinners. She feels like she's having a party every day. "Except I don't have to do the dishes," she adds with a smile. "Dishes are no fun!"

Heidi Calvin said that they tailor the services of "Not Only Baja" to the needs of their customers in many different ways. One businessman loves to come in after hours and shop their store, walking around with a bottle of Scotch in one hand and a glass in the other. Heidi says that she and Ed just walk around with him, checking the purchases through the cash register, wrapping them, and delivering them to the customer's front door.

Another customer makes exactly opposite demands on their services. He calls up and orders gifts from his cell phone. They ring up the purchases and wrap them. Then they throw them into the back of the car as he drives up to the curb, signs the invoice, and goes flying away to his next destination. Since the customer is actually Senator Tom Torlickson, the Calvins understand why he might not have any more time than this to spend on his shopping than this.

Likewise, Steve Burgess, from The Old Hardware Store, said that most of his customers appreciate the services he provides for them. After you come to his store for a while his store becomes like Cheers because "Everybody knows your name."

Steve says that his customers feel comfortable. He's returned to a way of doing business that, he says, in the old days was expected from every merchant.

Small Town USA
Another asset the downtown businesses appreciate is the whole flavor of downtown Brentwood. Brentwood really does have a nice little downtown. It is a pleasant place to wander around and shop. Some of the merchants said that the downtown activities, — including parades, etc. — interrupt the normal flow of business but increases people's awareness that the downtown exists.

Every winter for the past six years, for example, the town has sponsored a Christmas Walk with gift certificates. About 18 downtown merchants participate. They also join together to sponsor Merchant's Halloween on the Saturday before Halloween, complete with a haunted house, etc.

Snow in the Park is another winter activity. There is a plan for putting in an ice skating rink next winter.

In the summer the town sponsors Concerts in the Park, the Art and Wine Festival, and, of course, the Corn Fest.

Brentwood business people are strong supporters of the formal activities that the town conducts. Steve Burgess says, "I hope people will continue to stay involved. I hope they stay in touch with each other and with the community through parades, the Corn Fest, etc. I hope they keep knowing their neighbors."

"Even if people don't come in to my Unique Boutique shop on parade day," Mary Ann says, "some of them will see the shop and say, 'I didn't know that was here.'" And they might remember the discovery later when they are ready to buy something."

Brentwood is experiencing exploding growth, while still maintaining its small-town flavor. Heidi Calvin says that she and Ed will sit sometimes in the sunshine in front of their "Not Only Baja" store and in ten minutes 30 people will wave to them, calling out, "Hi! How are you doing?" "I can't say enough good things about this town," Heidi said.

Mary Ann went on to make the encouraging observation that as long as she has been in the business she doesn't know for sure than anything was ever stolen from her Ms Boutique store.

"I'm in a good location," she says. I can sit in front of my store, sometimes, and drink the coffee that my friend, Joan, told me. "I just sit there in the sunshine, read a book, and watch people walk by."

"It's a good life," Mary Ann said. "A good job. It's better than daytime TV. It's better than a lot of things!"