A couple of posts back I wrote about going to New York to find product for spring.  In that post…as well as probably every post you’ve read here over the past few months…you MIGHT have detected an underlying tone of anxiety.  I AM in Retail, after all, and anyone watching TV news knows that Retail is not exactly the place to be at the moment.  (Although, where IS the place to be, really?  Half the time this past year I just wanted to be home in bed with the covers pulled over my head.)

BUT…

Those same news shows talked about TARP money going to the banks.  That program was intended to get the economy moving again by loaning money to banks which in turn would then free up credit for small businesses.  Even though lately there have been some feel-bad stories that have trickled out about the program (like CEO’s giving themselves big bonuses), believe it or not there are some feel-GOOD stories, too, and I’m happy to say the Homescapes is one of them.

Despite all the “Business-of-the-Year” stuff that we have on the site, Homescapes still was one of the many businesses caught in the credit squeeze cycle where lines were reduced.  Not only was it hard to keep current inventory levels up, the squeeze  was making it almost impossible to purchase inventory for the spring.  And yet, BECAUSE of the “Business-of-the-Year” stuff and the goodwill we have in the community, we were approached by First National Bank about doing business with them.  They had TARP money to invest and wanted to know if we were interested in a business line of credit.

(I don’t know if you’re allowed to say “HELL YES!!!” to a banker, but we sure thought it.)

And now, we’re using the investment in Homescapes to invest in our community.  We’re working with Robin Stockwell from Succulent Gardens to bring a new garden shop to the Barnyard Shopping Village.  Robin is moving his retail operation to his Castroville nursery and on May 15th we’re taking over that space and opening a second store, Homescapes Home & Garden.  We’ll continue to carry Robin’s succulents as well as the Homescapes plants, orchids, pots and fountains that you locals have relied on lo these many years.

Long-time followers of Homescapes know that we ORIGINALLY began our business in the gazebo next to The Grove Homescapes in Pacific Grove.  We were still building the showroom next door, but the gardens were done and after years of buying stuff to build the building, we were itching to get started selling stuff.

We opened the garden shop in June 1996 and the irony/coincidence of opening a garden shop in an octagon then and, 13 years later, opening a garden shop in an octagon again isn’t lost on us…Homescapes, despite the pun, is literally going back to its roots for this store.

And one other link in this “Village” storyline…the first vendor I met for The Grove Homescapes was a local importer and surfer-dude, Rodney Hunter.  He supplied us with Indonesian furniture once we opened that store and a year later when things started taking off for The Grove, he took me over to Indonesia for my first international buying trip.  And the rest is history.

Except that history repeats itself, and Rodney is our first vendor for Homescapes Home & Garden (we’ll be carrying his line of patio furniture.)

SIDEBAR:

Because Rodney has a store 5 miles away, people have often thought we were competitors and have tried playing us off each other.  Not only is the guy almost like a brother (including the “wanting to kill each other sometimes” aspects of brotherhood) HE’S actually the one holding the camera during the commercial where Beau and I are on that creaky ferry boat.  I guess we could have said “We travel the world so you don’t have to…and Rodney Hunter’s our lackey ” but it doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.

Anyway, despite the national gloom, I’m sunny and happy about the future…hopefully we can get it to rub off!  Spring, literally is coming.