GILROY
– Of approximately 17 new chain stores now open at two new
shopping centers on the east side of town, seven have joined the
Gilroy Chamber of Commerce.
GILROY – Of approximately 17 new chain stores now open at two new shopping centers on the east side of town, seven have joined the Gilroy Chamber of Commerce.
That 41 percent membership rate at the Pacheco Pass Center and Gilroy Crossing is far better than the Chamber has fared over the years at the city’s other corporate retail hub, the Gilroy Premium Outlets. Less than 10 percent of the 145 outlet stores are Chamber members, according to Chamber Membership and Programs Director Marsha Becht.
Yet the biggest new stores have joined the Gilroy Chamber.
Target, Lowe’s Home Improvement, Costco Wholesale, Sportmart and Wal-Mart – which plans to move to Pacheco Pass Center in the future – are all members. The smaller but still spacious Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, Bed Bath & Beyond and Pier 1 Imports are not.
For a store like Lowe’s, which employs about 140 people, the annual membership fee is $390 to join the Gilroy Chamber. What does it get for that?
“We’re an advocate for business,” Becht said.
Locally, chambers of commerce work to foster business growth in their locales. The Gilroy Economic Development Corporation, which the Gilroy Chamber contributes to and shares a downtown office with, was a major force in setting the stage for the two shopping centers to town.
Statewide, Becht noted numerous “business-killing” bills in the Legislature that the Chamber is watching and lobbying against via its association with the California Chamber of Commerce.
Chamber Executive Director Susan Valenta noted that chambers of commerce are key collectors and sources of information about local demographics and business climates. Many businesses take advantage of chamber resources when setting up their operations, and the local chamber does not charge a fee for using this information for research purposes.
“There would be an expectation that if someone is going to use those services, they would pay to support those,” Valenta said.
Each store has its own policy on whether it joins local chambers of commerce, and those policies aren’t always absolute. Becht said a manager at Best Buy told her the electronics store doesn’t join local chambers as a rule, but Becht said she knows of other chambers that claim Best Buy stores as members. Best Buy store managers referred questions to corporate officials in Minneapolis, who could not be reached for comment as of press time.
Across the parking lot, Chili’s bar and grill has joined the Gilroy Chamber.
“We thought it was important to be part of the community,” Chili’s manager Stephanie Van Blommestein said. “Our entire management staff is from San Jose, so we really didn’t know much about this community.”
According to Becht, joining the Chamber can help businesses learn more about the way their local customers think.
“I talked to someone up at Chili’s, and they said … Gilroy was such a tight community; they’d never seen a community like that in their other locations,” Becht said.
As Joe Kacer left Best Buy Tuesday with a cartload of electronic equipment he had just bought, he said he would prefer that any store he shops at be a local chamber of commerce member.
Nevertheless, the 32-year-old father of three from Morgan Hill said the fact that Best Buy is not a Gilroy Chamber member would “probably not” affect his shopping habits.
“I go here because it’s convenient,” he said. “It’s not too far to drive.”
