Stewart Lumber has a friendly formula for success

Originally published Saturday, January 18, 1997

By JON HAHN  
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER COLUMNIST

They built the lumberyard office around his grandfather's huge walnut desk, and the doorway is so narrow that Bill Young couldn't move the desk out if he wanted to.

And he doesn't want to.

Stewart Lumber & Hardware Co. sits on the same small plot of land in the 1700 block of Rainier Avenue South where it's been since the community was predominantly Italian and was called "Garlic Gulch." The tan, three-story main building has weathered a lot of changes, though high winds did claim the roof sign 20 years ago.

Here on the west side of the street, next to the Oberto Sausage Co., is where Bill Young, third-generation hands-on owner, learned the business. The Youngs have always gone by first names, theirs and their customers', because that's just the way they prefer to do business. Once you've come through the door more than a couple of times, you're on a first-name basis and can ask for a 30-day charge account.

"It was one of the Stewart lumber yards when my grandfather, Jack Young, bought it in 1926," said Bill, who began working in the family business when he was a 15-year-old student at Highline High School. "These timbers and 4-by-12 floor planks you see here in the main shed construction were originally from an old saw mill on Lake Washington.

"Back when my grandfather ran it, they used to bring in lumber on some sort of a street railway that ran down Rainier Avenue. The delivery guys had their own key, and they'd just open the front door and move a whole rail car in on tracks that used to run straight through and out the back."

A whole lot of change has happened on the north end of Rainier Avenue South since then, not the least of which is the huge Eagle Hardware down the street. Stewart Lumber & Hardware's little one-acre-plus footprint doesn't look like much, "but we try to make up for it by tailoring our operation to the needs of our commercial and homeowner customers," said 50-year-old Bill, leaning back in the chair at his grandfather's desk.

The office -- part of the one-story hardware section added when his father, John Elmer Young, was president -- is jammed full of everything from a coffee pot to an old floor safe, giving it all the spacious ambience of a submarine commander's cabin.

There are only a half-dozen employees, and they tend to stay around, and be around when you need help or have a question, Bill said. "Once we know a customer, he can go out in the yard and help select out the material he's looking for." Chances are, if you're looking for it, it's here . . . somewhere.

A big man would have to take off his tool belt or walk sideways to get through the aisles jammed with everything from nail bins to power tools. There even are items hanging from the old acoustical tile ceiling. "You don't have to buy a half-dozen things shrink-wrapped on a piece of cardboard," Bill said. "Here, you can buy one or 100 of anything."

This is the kind of place you can get saws or drill bits sharpened, keys made, or free advice from Bob Donaldson or manager Joe Sroka on how to hang a gate or build a deck. If the wood you're buying is too big to haul home, or needs to be a specific dimension, the first trim cut is free at the yard.

Surviving amid neighborhood change and warehouse stores is a matter of knowing your customers, Bill said. "About 50 percent of our trade are the small, high-end remodeling contractors. There are a lot of fine old houses being remodeled in Leschi, Mount Baker and other neighborhoods."

Homeowners account for more than 30 percent of Bill's business. "And frankly, I'm not always sure why they come here instead of going down the street," he said. "It might be that they just plain don't like the size of those larger stores. And they can beat you up pretty good on some items. That's why we're part of the Ace Hardware cooperative. We can be competitive on most items."

Or it could be that they can find old-style wood moldings and sidings here that even a megastore won't handle. Lumber-yard staffers report that customers frequently say they were sent up the street by Eagle Hardware in their searches for hard-to-find items. Customers also come back because they know that any order over $100 will be delivered free "anywhere in the Seattle area . . . almost always by the next day," according to Bill.

"And we have a lot of commercial accounts, good customers like Darigold and Pepsi-Cola, or Borracchini's Bakery. Like the contractors and homeowners, if you treat them right, they become friends as well as loyal customers."

Some of the customers are children and grandchildren of original customers, just as a couple of the lumberyard workers are fourth-generation Young family. Bill's sons Ryan, a senior at Washington State University, and Matt, a high-school senior, both work at the yard during school vacations.

But there's no pressure for a family succession, says Bill. "My dad didn't pressure me, either. I had worked at the yard since I was a teenager, and when I graduated from Western (Washington University), I just started working here full time and liked it so much I stayed."

Jon Hahn is a staff columnist who writes three times a week in the P-I.