“In today’s society, people want it now and if you don’t have it, they may go someplace else.”
With that statement, Guy Clark, owner of Cedar Street Sales & Rentals, articulated a retail principle that motivated him and his sons, Connor and Adam, to construct a 6,000-square foot warehouse across the street from the business that has been a fixture in Batavia for the past 28 years.
The Clarks hosted a Genesee County Chamber of Commerce “Business After Hours” event on Thursday evening, attracting about 50 people to the 60- by 100-foot building that can house a couple hundred Cub Cadet lawn mowers and snowblowers.
Clark provided a quick recap of the thought process behind the company’s expansion.
“This lot came with the property across the street but it was just an empty, vacant lot that was overgrown for years,” he said. “Every year, we’d get crates and crates of lawn mowers and we’d had nothing to do with them – no place to put them. We put them together as you sold them – keeping them out back (at 111 Cedar St.) and it became a crowded mess.”
He said he got together with Connor and Adam, both college graduates with business degrees, and they sketched out a design on paper and came up with a plan.
“And now we have this building with beautiful loading dock where we can unload tractor-trailers on a regular basis,” Clark said.
Recently, the national sales manager for Cub Cadet visited the warehouse and was impressed, Clark noted.
“He said this is the future … and he took a lot of pictures,” he said. “Around March 1st, we’ll have 150 mowers completely ready to go in this building.”
Photo at top: Guy Clark, Chamber of Commerce President Erik Fix, Adam Clark and Connor Clark; photo at bottom: Inside view of the Cedar Street Sales & Rentals warehouse. Photos by Mike Pettinella.
