Mechanic Joe Vasher works on a lawn mower at Larry's Mower Shop in 2007.

Ann Arbor News file

With a Weingartz outdoor power equipment store opening next month in the former Harley-Davidson store at 5436 Jackson Road in Ann Arbor, several locally owned, family-run stores are concerned about how this will affect their businesses.

Owners at three stores expressed worries that their business will suffer, including Larry's Mower Shop at 5040 Jackson Road, Countryside Lawn and Garden at 6885 Jackson Road, and Maynard Battery at 401 Miller Road.

Three other stores, which are farther removed from the area, but are also considering potential impacts are Diuble Equipment at 4365 S. Parker, Boullion Sales at 8530 N. Territorial, and Mobile Mower Repair, at 1535 Baker Road, which specializes in repair.

Dan Weingartz, company president, said he had heard some of the discussion among other dealers, and pointed out that Weingartz is also a Michigan-based company, with seven family members as partners.

“This is what we do for a living. We’re a bigger operation with multiple locations, but we operate only in southeast Michigan and have been doing it since 1945,” he said. “We’re a business like any other that needs to grow, and one of the ways we look at growing is finding those areas and taking more of the business from those box stores and show people the service they can get from an independent dealer like ourselves.”

The main concern of the existing local shops is that most brands make sure to give their dealers a sales area in order to avoid having another dealer too close. But now Weingartz will carry many of the same brands, including Cub Cadet, Toro and Stihl.

“It’s never been official, but when you’re set up they tell you won’t put another dealer right in your backyard,” said Bob Blakeman, who bought Larry’s Mower Shop seven years ago with his brother, Jim, and their wives.

“But with a big company like Weingartz, it’s hard for a manufacturer to tell them no, even when they already have a dealer like us half a mile away,” he said.

Blakeman plans to concentrate on customer service as a means to stay competitive. He said he already knows his own hourly rate on labor is lower, and all of his mechanics have the highest service level of training possible.

“It’s the same product with the same price, so the difference will be service and how customers are taken care of when they come in. We just have to keep proving that we have the better customer service,” he said.

Steven Luckhardt, owner of Countryside Lawn and Garden, said he's been hit doubly hard with Weingartz moving in 1 mile to the east and a new Tractor Supply Store recently opening 1 mile to the west.

“There are no rules in the dealer provisions that require them not to do that, but you think they would do that for common sense,” said Luckhardt. “It does give us a little bit of hurt feelings that they are willing to put two stores in that close proximity.”

Luckhardt met with Cub Cadet representatives to discuss the matter.

“Their position was that it wasn’t going to interfere with our business,” he said. “They made no provisions for future reimbursement or as I say for ‘pain and suffering.’”

Because the company is locked in as far as pricing, like Larry’s Mower Shop, it's going to concentrate on service and sales.

“We’ve always done a good job with that and now we will take it to a new level,” Luckhardt said. “We’re a local family-owned business and we do a lot of things in the community for local charities. These are the kinds of things that will make us stand out.”

Luckhardt said the current outdoor equipment stores have always had a very good relationship with each other, helped by the fact that they don’t carry the same lines: “We were in competition with each other, but at same time, we always played nice with each other. We buy parts from each other, refer customers to each other, and so on.”

“To be honest, we look at (Weingartz and Tractor Supply) as the Walmart of the power equipment business,” he said. “They count on the glitz and the glamor of the store, not so much the hometown feeling that you have when you walk into our store.”

Weingartz said that he shares many of the same concerns as the other businesses.

“We always look at the box stores as being the biggest competition too. Half of our business is homeowners buying things for themselves, and our biggest competition is Lowe's, Sears and those types of places, which inevitably pop up all over suburban areas,” he said.

Scott Diuble of Diuble Equipment also talked about Weingartz being a Michigan-based family-run business, just on a much larger scale, though he agreed that its presence would affect business in the whole area.

“Weingartz has been a big enough business that a lot of their salespeople were covering Washtenaw County anyway, but with them having a store now, it just spreads them that much further south and west,” he said.

Diuble said he carries only one brand that's similar to Weingartz's, SnowEx spreaders.

Diuble said Washtenaw County seems oversaturated with lawn and garden stores, with "big-box" stores like Lowe’s and now three area Tractor Supply stores competing with the smaller mom-and-pop stores.

“I think a lot of those big-box stores have growth plans here because of the economic factors of household incomes and size of lawns versus Hillsdale or a more rural place,” he said.

When it comes to getting contractor business, Weingartz agreed that there is more competition when they come to town.

“We’re in competition with those (independent) places for those contractor customers. We certainly don’t consider ourselves a chain facility; we’re very much an independent small to medium size business. This will be our fifth store. I have a brother that will be headquartered there and it will be a family business. It’s not like we come in and pop up a store, we’ve been looking there for four years. Every time we open a store, we lay everything on the line,” he said.

With that in mind, Weingartz said that a key concern of the company's was ensuring its key suppliers were on board before it agreed to move in.

“I will tell you for most of these suppliers, there is a chain store element as well. Most of our major suppliers are in Lowe's, Home Depot, Tractor Supply and so on. They’ve already gone down that road. We’ve never had exclusivity, unfortunately for us as well, it’s never been that way. We were concerned (about the brand duplication) as well, and made sure they were on board before we opened.

"Most of them said that ultimately they like what we do for their brand; we’ve grown for a reason. We’re known for excellent service. We do a good job representing their brand and they want to grow with us. They did say they wish it wasn’t as close to existing dealers as what it is, but they also understand location matters in a retail business and you aren’t going to go where the people aren’t. That was entirely their decision,” he said.

In the meantime, owners like Blakeman are looking for a good weather season, which for them means rain.

“With the last two big snow storms, we had a good winter. Now we’ll have to wait and see what develops. We’ll let (Weingartz) get open, and we’ll just hope for rain,” Blakeman said.

Looking for the bright side, Blakeman sees one positive of Weingartz moving in: “Their store will draw more people to this area looking for lawn equipment. Our job is to make sure they find us too.”

Laura Blodgett is a freelance reporter for AnnArbor.com.