We recently connected with Robert Emmons and have shared our conversation below.
Robert, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So, one thing many business owners consider is donating a percentage of sales or profits to an organization or cause. We’d love to hear your thoughts and the story behind how and why you chose the cause or organization you donate to.
My wholesale business started off with the mission to support local artists and makers, All of our products are designed locally, and in my first store San Francisco Mercantile we carry products from over 150 local artists and makers. Our first donations were focused on local schools with an art focus: Creative Arts Charter School, Ruth Awasa School of the Arts and several others. As we expanded and opened our Welcome Haight & Ashbury location in the historic Doolan-Larson building at the corner of Haight & Ashbury we partnered with San Francisco Heritage with their focus on preserving and enhancing our local unique architectural and cultural identity. Our newest store is Welcome Castro where we partnered with the Castro Merchants Association to create a visitor center and gift shop with a focus on LGBTQ+ artists and makers. In this store we promote and donate to the GLBT Museum in the neighborhood and we have a partnership with HRC (Human Rights Campaign) where we promote the work of HRC and donate a portion of our sales. At wholesale we started a program to raise funds for wildfire recovery using our California Firefighter Bear image that we print on apparel/ totes/towels and give a portion to Cal Fire to assist with recovery….this collection of products has helped in many fires and currently we are focused on the LA fires and recovery. We have many of our retail partners involved carrying this line of products and also giving a portion of their sales so it’s wonderful to see the community partnership and support. I feel strongly that as a business in CA we have a responsibility to partner with and support other local artists, makers, small businesses and non-profits. Community is at the heart of what we do.
Robert, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I’ve been fortunate to have had many great jobs that have taught me so much about retailing, wholesaling and product design. I was a buyer at Macy’s, The Nature Company/Discovery Channel Stores, The Picture People/Hallmark before moving to the wholesale side of the business. I worked for a company that created private label product development for many companies including Target, Crate & Barrel and Starbucks, from there I decided it was time to go out on my own. I had a contract job to revamp the Japanese Tea Garden gift shop in Golden Gate Park and Coit Tower gift shop. While working on creating a new assortment I realized that at that time there was very little local interest products available, most of what these locations were carrying were very low end souvenirs that had no connection to local designers/companies. I saw a niche in the market for a better quality gift/souvenir line with a local connection.
I started SF Mercantile in 2008 with about a dozen designs of ceramic mugs and glassware using my garage as a warehouse. As I grew the line I started hiring other local designers to help me expand my offerings, hired my first employee who is my right hand man to this day and we moved into a small warehouse. We outgrew that space and moved again to a larger space and most recently started doing all of our own apparel/fabric production. We have direct to garment printers and are able to produce custom products at very low minimums. Our in house production is now half of our wholesale business and I have 2 full time employees printing non-stop and now I’m beginning to do production for other local lines. The business has had to change and evolve every year. We are constantly rethinking what we are doing, what we could do better, and what’s next. I’m very proud that we have the ability to help our customers create unique customized products for their stores/locations and that we can react quickly to events such as the LA wildfires.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
In 2020 when the pandemic hit I had to close all of our stores/warehouse and lay everyone off….this was the lowest point as a business owner. I wanted to get back up and running as quickly as possible and bring all of my people back to work. I had been working with San Francisco Parks Alliance and Golden Gate Park to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the park and we partnered to create an outdoor welcome center gift shop using a modified 20′ shipping container that opened up to a 60′ store front in the park. When businesses were able to start reopening outdoor businesses were the first and we opened this up and put my warehouse staff to work in the park. At the same time there was no demand for our gifts/apparel but there was a shortage of masks, so we pivoted and had our apparel factory (located in SF) stop making tees and start making masks. These two things were able to get us back up and going and bring back all of our staff…it was a very hard time, I’ve never worked so hard to loose money but the reward of having my crew back was worth all of the sweat and tears.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
Community involvement and having a great staff who’s first responsibility is to provide the best possible customer service. I believe it’s very important to work with fellow merchants, I’m a member of the Castro Merchants association, on the board of the Haight Ashbury Merchants Association, and because tourism is so important to San Francisco I’m also on the board of San Francisco Travel. Through these connections I’m able to share my knowledge and learn from others as well as partner with special events such as doing pop ups at our convention center, plan special events such as the 60th anniversary of the Grateful Dead and partner with Frameline LGBTQ film festival where we set up a box office for them in our Castro store every year.
My staff is the heart and soul of our company. I’m honored to have attracted an amazing group of people all focused on the same thing, to insure our guests have a great experience from the minute they enter the store until they are thanked when they leave. We have a high number of tourists and feel that we have the responsibility to act as ambassadors of the City, helping to direct people where to go, what to see and helping them find the perfect thing to take home so that every time they look at that item they are transported back to a special time spent in San Francisco.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sfmercantile.com
- Instagram: San Francisco Mercantile, Welcome Haight & Ashbury, Welcome Castro
- Facebook: San Francisco Mercantile, Welcome Haight & Ashbury, Welcome Castro
- Linkedin: Robert Emmons
- Yelp: San Francisco Mercantile, Welcome Haight & Ashbury, Welcome Castro
Image Credits
Robert Emmons