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Hardware Wars continued (an ongoing, occasional series in the saga to keep the big boxes out of our city) Note: This article was written prior to the hearing held on July 28, 2005, at which the Planning Commission affirmed Home Depot’s entry into San Francisco. For further news, see hearing.
How would you like three Home Depot outlets in San Francisco? Regular readers of the Hardware Hotline may recall that from time to time I keep our patrons abreast of the activity surrounding Home Depot’s attempts at entering the city of San Francisco. Home Depot is trying to build one of their largest stores in the country on Bayshore Blvd. Optimistically they had hoped to be open for business by now. Needless to say, however, opposition on many fronts has prevented that from becoming a reality. In fact, citywide opposition has been so strong that it took Home Depot more than two years to officially reply to the myriad comments submitted to their Environmental Impact Report for the project, which was published March 29th, 2003. If you are interested in reading the comments and responses, you can pick up a free copy of this two-inch-thick tome at the San Francisco Planning Department. Now that the responses have finally been released, the Planning Commission is set to hear public comment and will consider certification of the EIR. As we go to press, the hearing is scheduled for July 28, 2005. (Please see hearing for an update.) Home Depot is taking no chances with regard to its efforts to control San Francisco’s home improvement business. Not satisfied with two stores in Colma, they are currently building an additional huge store in Daly City. They expect to be open in a number of months in the Westlake Shopping Center, located on the southwestern border of San Francisco near Lake Merced. Plans for the future Of course, they are planning for the future as well. Home Depot asked the Sedway Group in San Francisco to update their Economic Impact Report for the Bayshore Project. (Copies of this are also available to the public at the Planning Department.) Not to worry about neighborhood stores ... Even with the new Daly City store, Sedway says, Home Depot can have three stores in the City all pulling in record sales volume. Not to worry about all of those neighborhood stores though ... Sedway reassures Home Depot that they will probably only lose about 3% of their sales. But if there were store closures, that wouldn’t be a problem for San Francisco, as its retail climate is so robust these vacant stores would probably be re-leased to other retailers. How reassuring! 20 to 40% business loss Sedway, getting paid by Home Depot, must be limiting the scope of their research with selective reading. When Home Depot (and its big box cousins) strangles a community like this, hardware and home improvement retailers go out of business in record numbers. Those that do survive typically lose 20 to 40% of their business. And jobs? Sedway admits that Home Depot’s wages are on average almost $1 per hour lower than what San Francisco’s home improvement retailers currently pay. Thus, when stores close or lay off staff due to slow or no business, there will be a net loss of income to our City’s wage earners. Regardless of this reality, because Home Depot will hire so many entry-level workers and pay their more-experienced staff a bit higher, Sedway suggests, “Home Depot will likely set a high industry standard among home improvement retailers.” (Note to Sedway: You neglected to do an analysis of the paid benefit comparison between San Francisco’s home improvement retailers and Home Depot. Probably for good reason.) So, the sharks are circling once again. Rest assured that along with many other locally-owned retailers in San Francisco, we will be out there doing whatever we can to keep them at bay. As always, I’ll keep you posted.
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