The three retail businesses included in our Retail Corner this month all represent a change. One is a change in ownership of an existing center, one is a move and renaming of an existing business, the third is a re-opening.The businesses are the Cornet Plaza in Tillamook, now under new ownership and re-named Tillamook Coastal Plaza; Ortiz Signz & Grafix, recently re-named and moved to Tillamook; and the recently re-opened Gerda's Antiques in Wheeler.
Tillamook Coastal Plaza, known to most Tillamook area residents
as Cornet Plaza, has new ownership. Tillamook residents Ben and
Mary Lou Hathaway purchased the property, which closed mid-October,
"...because we drive by it everyday and it has just been
sitting there."
The Hathaways are descendants from German immigrants who settled
in Southern California and Oregon. Ben Hathaway is the sixth generation,
and he was born in the home where he and his family now live,
just outside of Tillamook. Ben met Mary Lou while the two were
at Oregon State University and she is originally from Corvallis,
Oregon. "She invited me over for a spaghetti dinner,"
he said, "and that was over 38 years ago."
The couple spent time in Santa Barbara, California, but moved
back to Tillamook in 1984. They have five children, mostly grown,
and the youngest is 17 years old. "Our goal," said Ben,
"is to help create jobs. Four of our five children will leave
the area because they can't make a living here. We need an industry,
and educated people to run it. It is very difficult to raise a
family on minimum wage jobs."
The Hathaways are involved in many businesses in many places,
ranging in size from Circus Circus in Las Vegas to the Edgewater
Motel in Seaside, as well as dairies, apartment houses, vacation
rentals and ranches.
The first change they made in the Cornet Plaza was to change the
name followed by embarking on remodeling the store inside and
landscaping outside, with a plan of opening in four months. They
are using their own work crews for the project but hiring locally
whenever possible. Wadsworth Electric is one of the local contractors
already on board.
The next step was to "ratchet" down the lease rates
for the tenants and reduce the size of the lease documents by
over 30 pages. "You can't raise rents to a point where someone
cannot make a living," said Ben. "We need to make money
on the building, but we want our tenants to make money also."
They started with eight empty lease spaces in the building and
by the time of the interview they had lined up businesses for
four of those. "We are being very careful about the tenants
we will take," said Ben. "We don't want any competing
businesses. We won't allow another shoe store or auto parts store,
for example, and we don't want certain types of businesses. We
have been approached by people who want to put in adult videos
or Cigarettes Cheaper. We don't want non-family businesses. We
want businesses that speak well for the community."
The anchor store for the property will probably become the one
that they plan to open themselves: Tillamook Sporting Goods will
occupy 16,800 square feet. The Hathaways plan to employ around
30 people in the store and have it become a full-service, one-stop,
non-competing with the other center tenants, shop. "The problem
around here is that you often have to go to the Valley or order
from a catalog to get what you want," said Ben. "The
problem with ordering from a catalog is it may not fit or you
may not like the item when it arrives. Then you are either stuck
with it or stuck with the task of mailing it back. We want to
have a full-line of merchandise in every size and at reasonable
prices. There will always be a niche where people will want to
touch, feel, try on and see a particular product.
"Parking is another thing. We will have plenty of parking.
We will have a website and will probably eventually develop catalogs
of our own."
"Service is key," chimed in Mary Lou. "The customer
has a better chance of being successful if they are properly prepared.
Our people will ask if the customer needs a fishing license, for
example. Do they have waders? Do they need bait? If you come in
with a problem we will help solve it."
How do you accomplish this?, I asked. "We plan to pay our
people more," said Ben, "and set them up on an hourly
wage plus incentive on sales. Each individual will have their
own till. When they come in, they sign the register and that is
their own responsibility. It is a lot easier for people to suggest
merchandise and be willing to hop up and go help the customer
if they have a stake in the bottom line. We will also train our
people. We plan to develop a training program where every person
will know how to use every item."
"They will be able to set our customers up by type of experience,"
said Mary Lou. "If the customer is planning to go salmon
fishing or bottom fishing, from a boat or from the bank. They
will know how to tie it and what is appropriate for the experience
sought by the customer."
Tillamook Coastal Plaza
Owners: Ben & Mary Lou Hathaway
Address: P. O. Box 635
Tillamook, Oregon 97141
Telephone: 503/842-2292
Fax: 503/842-8374
Hours: By Appointment
The Ortiz family, dad Lonnie, mom Ahna and daughter Julie,
work together to bring vinyl signs, labels and banners to the
folks of Tillamook County in their newly renamed and moved enterprise.
Ahna was born in England and Lonnie is originally from San Diego,
California. The two met in San Diego in 1974 while Ahna was working
as a flight attendant. The couple relocated to Garibaldi in 1977
to help other family members start a restaurant.
A serious auto accident brought the need for rehabilitation, and
for artistically-oriented Lonnie, the art of making stained glass
was just the right therapy.
The therapy became a stained-glass business in 1978 and by 1979
it had evolved into a sign company called Signs Ortiz, located
in Garibaldi. The original sign business utilized inks and hand
lettering, but 12 years ago they introduced computer-aided design
and now 99% of their work is done on computer. Eight years ago
they pretty well dropped painting signs altogether.
"I want this to be a clean business," said Lonnie, "without
the toxins of inks or paint. Besides," he added, "it
was very frustrating working with paint. I worked for 15 years
watching painted signs deteriorate no matter how well I prepared
them. Vinyl signs last years and years. It is really the wave
of the future for signage."
Graphically inclined Lonnie does still create some work with paint,
and he is currently developing a paint and vinyl mural inside
the Garibaldi Museum. This will be followed by a painted mural
on the outside of the building, and maybe more in downtown Tillamook.
The family moved the business out of their Garibaldi home into
a 1,000 square feet downtown Tilla-mook storefront on September
1. They moved and changed the business name to Ortiz Signz &
Grafix for a number of reasons. First, They wanted more visibility
than you can have with a home-based business. "We wanted
more of a public face," said Lonnie, "and people are
starting to drop in." They anticipate they will reach more
people with the business from their new location and think that
people in Tillamook County may go south to the City of Tillamook
for things they need but those in Tillamook don't generally drive
north. They also wanted to have more room for storage of their
vinyl materials and plan to have an even larger array of colors
from which their clients may choose.
As for the types of signs they produce, most are mid-sized, 4
foot by 8 foot, or 8 foot square, and probably done in smaller
quantities. Customers needing as many as 100 signs probably will
be referred to a screen printer .They don't do neon signs but
they will design vinyl applications for the front of electric
or lighted signs. "They make translucent vinyl specifically
for lighted signs. It is a bit more expensive per square foot,
but it looks great and is made just for that application,"
said Lonnie. They also enjoy producing vehicle signs and tend
to stick to vinyl applications of vehicle signage, rather than
the magnetic kind. "Magnetic signs take a lot of maintenance,"
said Ahna, "and customers may not like the fact that they
can fall off, or they might damage the finish.
"With vinyl signage applied directly to the vehicle, no damage
results in the finish of the car and you can take it off when
you sell the vehicle or change the business name, for example."
They design window graphics for storefront information and information
signage, menus, parade or event banners, and highway signs. They
have special signmaking software and recently added the capability
of color printing over the vinyl to enhance the graphics on smaller
signs or labels.
They are in the process of decorating the storefront showroom
so that customers will have examples. "We will have information
boards," said Ahna, "so customers can see the prices
for different sizes and types of signs."
Ortiz Signz & Grafix
Owners: Lonnie & Ahna Ortiz
Address: 2007 4th Street #4
Tillamook, Oregon 97141
Telephone: 503/842-4145
Fax: 503/842-4145
Toll Free: 888/842-4228
Hours: 10a - 6p Tues - Fri
10a - 4p Saturday
Mrs. Gerda Schrage has had her life story printed so many times
that instead of proceeding as most interviews go, she thrust a
series of newspaper articles into my hands and said, "Read
these and then I will answer any questions."
Her story, however, includes events that (thankfully) few of us
have experienced, like spending time in a Russian prison camp,
and escaping the Russians a second time, even after her release
from prison, by clinging to the bottom of a coal train car.
She is filled with memories of family members lost and sometimes
found, of husbands married who then passed away, of hard work.
The newspaper articles all state that she still has nightmares,
and yet she surrounds herself with items from times past. On July
1, 1999 she re-opened her store, Gerda's Antiques, in her home
in Wheeler.
She says that her passion for antiques began in her grandfather's
home in East Prussia. "The house was filled with newer things,"
she said, "but I liked the ones that were stored up in the
attic. The beautiful things."
She also repeats that she doesn't have any "funky" things.
The items she has collected are from her past, from family and
friends and garage sales along the way. "I know what to look
for," she said. "I only bring the things that I like.
If I am going to be surrounded by things as long as they are in
my shop, then I want to enjoy them. It is not necessary that I
need to sell them right away."
Each item clearly has a story of its own that could be told. She
walks around her shop wistfully touching and pointing. Picking
up an item here or there. This came from Russia, she might say,
or that came from France. This is over 100 years old, she might
add. "This I wore to the Opera," she said, holding a
beautifully embroidered black skirt. In another corner you might
find a quilt; or an antique wooden chest; small statues; occasional
books; even original copies of life insurance policies, long since
expired; an embroidered foot roller used for exercise when suffering
from Gout.
While the shop does have posted hours of operation, the sign also
adds that if you see her Subaru in the driveway, ring the bell.
I suggest that instead of reading about her life, you go visit
her. She is a charming woman who has been involved with healthcare,
hospitality, and small town politics. I'm sure she can not only
impart many a history lesson first hand, but she also personifies
it. LCB
Gerda's Antiques Etc.
Owners: Gerda Schrage and 2 cats
Address: 1067 Highway 101
Wheeler, Oregon 97147
Telephone: 503/368-5850
Hours: 10a - 4p Friday, Saturday
10a - 2p Sunday, or by appt.
History: Headlight Herald 8/25/99
North Coast Citizen 8/19/99
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