Community

Zainul Abedin, 43, rubs his eyes with the meat of his palm. After six years running a thriving hardware store, his strength is wearing thin in the newest wave of competition for customers. He stands outside his shop, arms crossed over a stocky chest, and surveys the dilapidated urban landscape on Bedford Avenue.

“They’re killing us,” he says, quickly and lividly. “All my life is here, and everything is gone.”

In the neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant, a Home Depot opened on DeKalb and Nostrand avenues without much fanfare on Aug. 18. Thus began another episode in the recurring fight between “big box” stores like Home Depot and Wal-Mart, and small mom-and-pop shops such as Abedin’s. Only here, a mid-sized competitor complicates the battle for business.

Less than a mile away from Abedin’s shop is the locally-owned Park Avenue Home Center, a mid-sized hardware and building-supply store. The contrast between Abedin’s Building Supplies and Park Avenue hints at an overall trend: that the size and corporate clout of a business doesn’t necessarily dictate whether it will be left standing; that keeping a market share is based on a medley of factors, from neighborhood loyalty to specialized services.

Bob Groeninger, a middle-aged man with a build just like Abedin’s, sits in a spacious office at the back of Park Avenue Home Center. Every 10 minutes or so, Groeninger answers his cell phone in the polished, confident voice of a salesman. His right arm is draped over the back of his office chair, as he shows off plans for an upcoming advertising campaign.

“Buying paint? Why wait?” reads one planned billboard, using the signature orange Home Depot lettering to mock Park Avenue’s newest competitor.

“There are strategies going on behind the scenes,” Groeninger says. “What Home Depot can do is make you better. You have to make decisions as a business leader. You can create an environment that can compete.” In the month since Home Depot opened, Groeninger says, his business broke its sales record, at over $2 million.

Abedin said he plans to sell his shop this winter, having weathered a huge sales drop since Home Depot opened nearby. But Groeninger says of Home Depot, “I wish they were closer, right across the street.”

Groeninger, who lives in New Jersey and commutes daily into central Brooklyn, seems confused when asked about his professional background, as though he was born into the home building supply business and can’t imagine having done anything else. He is co-owner of Park Avenue Home Center, which opened in 1993 and has 42 employees spread across its four lots.

Abedin moved from Bangladesh in 1989 and opened Abedin Building Supplies on 1112 Bedford Ave. 10 years later, having built a strong customer base from his previous job in construction. The store employs “almost all my family,” he says.

But the crucial difference between the men is not their background; it’s what will become of their respective businesses.

The nature of battles between “big box” versus “mom ’n’ pop” versus mid-sized locals is unpredictable. According to a 1998 study by Ohio State University, most of the 307 small hardware retailers trounced their mid-sized franchise competitors when faced with a new major corporate hardware store.

The reason, researcher Alice Stewart told Home Furnishings News, was simple: “ Employees at these stores have a lot of knowledge and expertise about their products, and also a personal knowledge of what their customers need. They provide a depth of individualized service that a large store like Home Depot can't.”

Mid-sized companies like Park Avenue Home Center didn’t fare so well in the survey – sandwiched between the friendly, small shops and moneyed, recognizable corporate home improvement businesses.

But since 1998, of course, that’s changed.

A key factor, according to Groeninger, is joining up with a nationally based co-operative franchise. “If you’re ... part of a chain or a larger group, that provides pricing advantage, merchandise updating,” says Groeninger, whose store pays membership dues to the True Value co-op. “If you’re an independent guy, then where does that come from?”

Abedin’s shop could stay afloat if it rallied its customers with the allure of a unique service, or a specialized niche, says Groeninger. But otherwise his advice is, “Sell now!”

Pete Aponte, 54, who lives on Nostrand Avenue just south of Home Depot, is symbolic of this complicated fight for customers. An Amtrak coach cleaner who’s lived in the neighborhood for 35 years, Aponte says the last year has seen a major commercial shift for Bedford-Stuyvesant.

“It’s a monopoly game,” he says. “It’s good for some, bad for others.” And while Aponte sympathizes with the little guy, he adds, “Now I don’t have to go far to get something for my house. I can just walk to Home Depot.”

Residents may return to family-owned shops for more specialized needs, like a custom screen-door repair. But for those who want to pick up a light bulb, doorknob, house plant, and kitchen sink in one fell swoop, Home Depot is convenient.

One week before Home Depot opened in Bed-Stuy, which had an unemployment rate of about 11 percent in 2000, the new store hired 230 employees. Of those hired, 70 to 80 percent live in the neighborhood, according to store manager Ricky Campbell.

Use of the property on which Home Depot stands is perhaps a boon to Bedford-Stuyvesant, according to one local hardware vendor.

Groeninger’s and Abedin’s businesses are located in an area that resembles a post-industrial wasteland. Chain link fences decorated with barbed wire line Park Avenue, where Groeninger works; metal sheets cover the shut-down stores on Abedin’s section of northern Bedford Avenue.

“That land used to be inhabited by stray dogs,” says Anthony Radovic, owner of Total Tool Rentals and Supplies, of the lot now occupied by Home Depot. “The entire property was unused for so long. It’s nice to see something happening.”

Although Radovic’s business isn’t retail and therefore doesn’t compete head-to-head with Home Depot, he says the Depot’s opening has dented his sales “somewhat.” But he’s still pleased it opened.

“I like the influx of new faces,” Radovic said. Losing customers to Home Depot “is probably worse for smaller businesses, at first, but what I’ve observed is that six months later, the novelty wears off and nobody wants to shop there anymore.”

But Radovic’s theory doesn’t fly with Abedin. “If I can’t afford it, I’ll close. That’s all,” he says.

His sales – which he says are 50 percent lower since the “big box” arrived – aren’t encouraging. And as for Home Depot’s ability to attract curious shoppers and draw them away from old favorites, a lot of long-time customers “became my friends,” he says. “I have seen them all go there. When I pass by, I see them. I cannot stop them.”