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By DEREK MOORE
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
At Sonoma Valley Office Supply on Friday, Vicky Frank summed up her mood with a single word.
“Pressured.”
Three blocks away from the 5th Street West store, final preparations were under way for Saturday’s opening of a Staples store.
For Frank, who has worked at or owned Sonoma Valley Office Supply since 1981, the new 14,336-square-foot retail giant represents a clear threat to her bottom line.
The store opening also is a touchstone moment in Sonoma’s ongoing debate on whether to regulate formula or big-box stores, given that it was the Staples plans that sparked the discussion.
When the automatic doors on the West Napa Road store slide open at 9 a.m., many in this city of 10,000 will be anxious to see the affect it will have on local commerce and the city’s collective view of itself as a unique place.
Frank’s opposition to the new Staples is perhaps not surprising given that the store is a business competitor. But she insisted Friday that she would feel the same way were the store in question, say, a Wal-Mart or Target.
“It’s not Sonoma,” she said.
Others disagree, and welcome the opportunity to shop at Staples.
“I don’t think it’s a threat to anything. I’m just upset because they’re not open,” said Jan Valluzzo, a Washington state resident who stopped at the Staples on Friday only to find out the store had yet to open.
Her husband, a fourth-generation McDonald’s franchisee, said he understands why some in Sonoma are wary of corporate businesses.
“If the city doesn’t have rigid design codes that businesses have to conform to, they open the door to a Pandora’s box,” Bob Valluzzo said.
Other than design review of buildings, Sonoma does not define or regulate formula businesses that meet zoning regulations, including in the downtown area. Staples did not have to apply for a use permit to operate a store in a building that formerly housed a Ford dealership.
Whether that should change is the subject of the current debate that has divided the town.
The City Council formed a controversial committee that has been meeting regularly to consider changes to zoning ordinances that could affect future applications submitted by formula businesses.
The eight-member group comprised of council members, business interests and slow-growth advocates, so far has shown support for new restrictions for Sonoma’s Plaza area, including a new use-permit review process for formula retail businesses.
More tests of the city’s resolve are coming.
The proposed developer of a 10,500-square-foot property a block away from the plaza that formerly was the site of a fire station confirmed that Peet’s Coffee & Tea wants to be a tenant there.
The current plans for the site call for two restaurants, a coffee shop, three retail shops, an office loft and multiple “towers.”
The developer, Foothill Partners, is hosting a community workshop at the site from 10 a.m. to noon on Oct. 8 to get feedback on the plans.
At Sonoma Valley Office Supply, Frank’s more immediate concern is fending off Staples, which is offering a 15 percent discount on most of the its 7,000 products through Dec. 31 for customers who sign up for a rewards card. The retail giant also donated $2,500 to the Sonoma Ecology Center.
In response, Frank sped up creating a new direct sales business that will work directly with corporate customers. Her daughter, Dana, quit another job to run the new initiative.
But success is not guaranteed. On Friday, their concerns were evident.
“I may go out for a margarita tonight,” Dana Frank said.
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Hello citizens,
Sonoma was my hometown. I am extremely familiar with the geography and this location ( nice intersection haha ). When I heard about these plans last year, I was jaw dropped that it got approved. Move north. Whatever WAS Sonoma City is totally lost. It is infected with these out of towners swoopin up cheap real estate and bringing their valueless culture with them. Oh ya, and now the santa rosa, ex armed-forces-PTSD-militant sheriffs are your “protection.” What small town charm eh? After a few bank robberies, armed robberies, kidnappings, gang shootings, what else can you do? They frame some dude for operating a “meth lab” on the east side in his moms house. Obvious sensationalism and a big waste of time! Also dont live downtown unless you like ambulance sirens…at 6am :D
Starcrooks? Srapeles? Get ready for a big box store full of clueless employees. Employees with a chance at a real career. Thank this corporate monster every time you pledge to the dollar, watch your old mom&pop stores close in front of your eyes without a thought due to ignorance, and watch troops fight another mans war.
I hope you survive Sonoma Office Supply, u were really nice in there.
Staples = Mit Romney = PUKE
RIP Movie Merchants and All Video and Cafe Maxi and all the great businesses of Sonoma lost due to POOR CITY PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT.
Average Joe,
While low quality products made in subsidized foreign countries may or may not be a problem, I’m not sure that keeping national retail chains out of a town addresses that issue.
Could you please provide us with a list of the high quality, US produced office supply items that Sonoma Valley Office Supply carries that will not be available at Staples?
I’m guessing that there are not too many and, if there are, then hopefully, Sonoma Valley will stay in business and keep selling those products to customers who chose to purchase them. That way, everyone will get to vote with their dollars.
Also, if you are going to make fun of “Chuck”’s education, don’t use the word(s) “lively hood”.
Remember, that in Lake Wobegon, all the kids are above average, Joe.
Unemployment is near 12% in Sonoma County. How many people does Ms. Frank employ? How many will Staples employ? We need jobs and if the mom and pops can’t provide them stay out of the way of businesses that can. Or should the peole who want to work that live in Sonoma have to find jobs out of town or worse beg the government for money.
@ Chuck
I’m not sure what they taught you in the “wheel of Retailing” or if you even really went to College 101, but you have totally missed the point.
The problem isn’t more local competition in the form of another retailer e.g., lost local market share, that the local business are concerned about.
The problem is that by introducing low quality products, made in subsidized foreign countries, it permanently lowers the standard for everyone, the consumer, the retailer, the other retailers, the general economy and eventually your lively hood (assuming you work in the private sector).
So if you know any unemployed folks in the manufacturing, retail, service, or IT sectors then you may be clearer on how they got jobless.
You see Chuck, everyone loves Walmart until they can’t shop there anymore. it is a one way ticket to brokeville.
Bad Chuck Bad
Petaluma has lead the fight against big box stores (and all business they don’t deem appropriate) for years. See the article on the front page today about the fetid pond in the city park. They can’t afford to maintain it.
Petaluma is a shambles, laying off cops, terrible streets, and lousy services. Go ahead and follow Petaluma’s lead and see where you end up in a few years.
In Marketing 101, we learned about the “Wheel of Retailing” Big stores replace little stores and Superstores replace Department Stores. This is Evolution, not communism.
Now more than ever, companies must change with the times. Crying for the “good old days” simply shows your age.
What difference does it make what the sign outside the store says. Inside, all the merchandise comes from China. Even in the boutique shops most of the stuff is made in China. It’s the trade policies, people, that are killing us. We’ve been betrayed by our profit raking leaders, you know the ones.
Did you know China is now going green? Yep, they’re moving their most polluting industries just outside their borders into surrounding countries. They even have their own Agenda 21 called China’s Agenda 21. It’s chillingly similar to our UN Agenda 21 but it also has population control in which they are using vaccines as birth control methods. They want to distribute the vaccine to other countries as well. Will our government begin using these vaccines here? Will they tell us? The vaccine will prevent pregnancy for about a year and a half.
The New York Times, parent company of the Press Democrat just ran a story about climate change with a sub-title called the Carbon Dioxide Mystery or something like that. They mentioned the environmental treaty signed onto in 1992 in Rio but did not say the name of that treaty. The name of it, United Nations Agenda 21 was conspicuously missing. Why? The PD won’t talk about it either unless it’s calling the people who are concerned about it ‘Whackos’ or something similar. Why are they hiding this information? If it were a good plan wouldn’t they be promoting it and calling it by its name? Other names are Sustainable Development, Smartgrowth, transit oriented development, green anything and smart anything.
People need to look below the surface of these wonderful sounding new programs that are proliferating at an alarming rate. It’s not what they say but what they do. How long will it be before China decides to collect on their debt? They are now buying Federal lands for about $2/acre through shell corporations that they will be extracting oil and gas from. Wake up and hold our elected officials accountable for their participation in the overthrow of our nation. Have a nice day.
Check out staples’ amazing laptops for $360.!!!!
Ho Hum, more of the “don’t let the big bad chain big boxes into my town” story eh? Well friends we saw the same movie in Novato when Costco and then Staples came to town. The little office supply took it in the chin. Kept running its business the same old way and finally closed. So what do we have today in Novato? We have giant Costco running bigger than ever and big Staples running bigger than ever….and oops we have a new (OK 3-4 years now) full service stationary store located in downtown 1/2 a block from where the little office supply was. And who is the manager of this successful small business that is competing against the giant big boxes at the shopping center? Why the former owner of the little Office Supply. I’ll spare you the details, but he has a different merchandise mix and marketing strategy now and it works very well thank you.
So you can compete against the big boxes, but you have to change. You have to change to what the customers want, not what you want. That is what competition brings. But some folks don’t competition. They want to keep everything just like it is. They don’t want the customers to have a choice. Good luck Sonoma.
Did you see the online news that Mexico City has begun allowing “temporary” wedding licenses ?
Yep.
Try the marriage first before you go the full route.
Of course, you can see, that the entire scam is for the permit process to rake in as many peso’s as possible for the government.
People are living together out of wedlock on their own, but the government wants that money. So, get that permit!
Nothing destroys job growth faster than some local, state, or federal government politician or bureaucrat.
America has become known as :
REGULATION NATION.
Welcome to the 21st century Sonoma. Mom and pop stores were on the way out 40 years ago. People when given a choice will not shop in a little store with high prices and little selection in favor of low prices and lots of choices. That is just the way it is.
Shops that offer unique items will continue to survive in Sonoma and elsewhere, but the days of the local stationery store are long gone.
Slow growth advocates are really advocating a death sentence for business, jobs and a viable tax base in small towns.
Nothing stays the same for ever and little independent shops selling pencils and paper starting to die when Halmark came to town years ago.