Old-fashioned merchants thrive in Woodland

By Luke Gianni
CNS Staff Writer

The economic downturn hasn’t bypassed Woodland.

This year, it lost two of its biggest retailers, Gottschalks and Mervyns. The city now faces a $6.3 million deficit, as officials struggle to make ends meet.

One hopeful sign is the emergence of newcomers Best Buy and Target, which recently opened up along East Main Street and will bring sorely needed revenues to the city coffers.

But as the city looks towards the future for its economic salvation, along the four-block strip of historic Woodland’s Main Street are a handful of old-time merchants, who are weathering the recent economic maelstrom by sticking to the past.

“There is a success story here on Main Street,” said Wendy Ross, the city’s economic development manager.

Ross notes that when Woodland hit the 50,000 population mark a few years back, the large retailers, like Costco, began to set up shop, spelling what many thought might be the end for the city’s remaining historic businesses.

However, she says, Yolo County consumers harbor a demand for merchandise designed for this predominantly agricultural area.

For storeowners like Ivan Schmauderer, owner of Main Street’s Emils Family Shoe Store, a three-generation-old establishment, the recession has slowed business, but it’s nothing they haven’t seen before in their 50-plus years.

“People are coming in all day long,” Schmauderer said.

His secret is simple – quality and customer service.

“People can go out and spend $50 on boots and have them fall apart in a year,” Schmauderer said. “You can come in here and spend your money wisely.”

In these historic stores, many of which have been around since the turn of the 20th century, the customer isn’t a faceless sales opportunity. For Schmauderer, the customer is usually a neighbor, childhood friend or someone else he knows.

Schmauderer’s father, Ed, who works in the store with his son, said they are not too worried about the newly erected big box competitors.

That’s because, Ed says, his store fills the unique demands of the town’s clientele, especially come duck hunting season.

Their words are barely audible over the labored hisses of a 60-year-old General Electric shoe finisher machine, which an employee works from behind the counter.
Emils, like a lot of the older businesses along Main Street, have a repair component to their operation. That’s because while most goods sold at the big box retailers are designed to be thrown away after relatively short life spans, their merchandise, Ivan Schmauderer said, are designed to last for years with occasional maintenance.

David Schmauderer, brother of Ivan who owns the Western Store on Main Street, which carries items like cowboy hats and horse hoof conditioner, said his store has survived by carrying merchandise specifically catered to the area’s demand for ag-related accessories.

It’s a time tested market philosophy, David said, that’s carried over through generations. He adds that many of his patrons are young people, looking for the same ag-related merchandise as their parents did when they were working the family farm.

“It’s good to see these kids come in, wanting to keep up their heritage,” Schmauderer said.

He said another reason why his business and others like it have found success on Main Street is because they stay clear from the popular philosophies of Wall Street.

“We don’t run quite like AIG,” Schmauderer said. “We don’t hand out any big bonuses when we do good. We’re steady as she goes.”

He said there are two employees at the store, including him. He washes the sidewalks, straightens the shelves and said he’s content with his no-growth retailer and the modest living it provides.

Another Main Street business that has held steady through this recession is the Wirth Furniture store, which has been selling furnishings for four generations in Woodland.

“Our stuff is all solid wood,” said Zack Wirth, who operates the store. “No fake stuff here.”

Wirth’s great grandfather opened the store in 1911. They turned it over to their son David in 1979. It is now managed by his son, Zach.

Wirth said, like Emil’s shoes, they are not threatened by stores like IKEA, which recently opened in West Sacramento, because they aren’t competing for the same clientele.

Yolo County includes many families that have been farming in the area for more than a century. And while the edgy modern aesthetic of IKEA’s merchandise may be suited for some new housing developments in the area, Wirth says it does little to compliment the late 19th century design of many homes in the county.

Wirth says that in addition to his Woodland faithful, he has customers from all over the United States, who appreciate not only the quality of his merchandise but the old-fashion service he provides.

In the floor above the selling rooms is a repair area, Rueben Guerrero has been restoring an antique chair for a local customer for three days.

Guerrero is a master craftsman, repairing and restoring antique furniture for the past 20 years.

“You really got to focus,” Guerrero says. “These were all made by hand, and must be repaired by hand.”

He delicately sews new padding into the backrest of the chair, carefully balancing the seams to preserve the historic design of the piece.

A radio blaring news of the day is the only sign that this scene is happening in 2009 as opposed to 1909.

Another Woodland original that isn’t going anywhere is the Corner Drug Company, which has been on Main Street for more than 100 years.

“We know most of the patients by name,” said Ed Shelley, husband to the store’s owner Lisa Shelley, whose father owned the store before turning it over to her. “People come in to get their prescriptions and it’s nice to have a face behind the counter that knows you.”

Their daughter Sara Shelley, 23, recently graduated with a pharmaceutical degree from the University of Pacific and plans to take over the store.

Shelley said many of the owners of the historic businesses along Main Street have family ties to the area that go back generations, which is the same as their clientele.

“I grew up in the same house as my parents did – second generation,” Shelley said. And while pharmacy establishments are often used by recent graduates as a starting point in their careers, Shelley said that some of his employees have been greeting customers for more than 30 years.

“The clerks up front know many of them by name,” Shelley said. “We’re as competitive as anyone else.”

City officials know that while these businesses may not provide the largest tax yields they do provide the downtown its unique character, which they hope will draw shoppers to the area.

“I’m certainly an advocate for downtown,” said the city’s assistant planner Jimmy Stillman. “The people who live in this community are 99 percent ag. These businesses reflect that lifestyle.”

That is why, Stillman said, the city has actively sought to preserve the historic look and feel of the Main Street, which may be the hook for new investment.

An example, Stillman says, is the revival of the old Capitol Hotel Saloon on Main Street, which once served spirits to the local population starting back in the late 1800’s before it shut down. Investors are currently working to reopen a saloon in honor of its namesake, resurrecting its historic design with lofts occupying the upper floors.

In addition, Stillman said, any business that opens in the historic district must adhere to aesthetics reminiscent of its turn-of-the-century past, which was somewhat diluted during the boom of the uninspired cost-cutting commercial designs that spread through the city during the 1970s and early 1980s.

“Our downtown is nationally registered,” Stillman says. “We can lose that designation if it becomes too diluted.”

There is no question that the souring economy and the cheap merchandise of the larger commercial stores pose a challenge to the smaller, independents, Stillman said.

However, he believes that as long as the Yolo County remains an agricultural area, so too will the demand for unique merchandise be found in these historic stores.

“It’s a different kind of service,” Stillman says. “A lot of it comes back to quality of life. People know the history of Woodland and these businesses are part of it.”