Oil changes give way to snacks, milk and beer

Posted on 13. Nov, 2009 by yvettedavis in News

by Yvette Davis

The days of tire sales and oil changes are officially over at the Valley North Service Center at 1201 N. Miller St., Wenatchee, across from the Valley North Shopping Center.

Gone are the auto mechanic bays. In their place are coolers of cool drinks and racks of snacks as owners Greg and John Haberman update the business from a gas station/repair shop to gas station/convenience store. Eventually they will tweak the name as well to reflect the change.

Greg Haberman, who purchased the business with his son in 2006 from previous owner Roger Dalbeck, said he had the remodel in mind but wanted to give the auto repair shop, which employed two mechanics, a shot for about 12 months before making a final decision.

Haberman’s background didn’t include auto repair work, so he knew little about the business when he took it over. If he had, he said, they might have kept it and run it themselves like Dalbeck did. But in the end, they decided that for this area, it made more sense to invest their money into a convenience store remodel and sell convenience food, wine and beer.

Beer and wine are two products the Habermans understand well.

Both Haberman and his son worked stints at B&F Distributors, now owned by Odom Distributing. Greg Haberman worked there from 1982 to 2006, and John Haberman worked there before becoming a partner at the Wenatchee Valley Truck Stop in 2000. Greg

Haberman also has 10 years retail wine and beer experience working in the Wenatchee and East Wenatchee Safeway stores and also in California, which he said is a big help.

“I know the distributors and all the brands and that’s my expertise and comfort level,” he said. “So I want to work with that, and I think that there’s a clientele that wants to come to a place and know that somebody that owns it knows what they are talking about.”

They could have put in a car wash instead, he said, but it seemed to him Wenatchee had quite a few of those already, and not enough family owned convenience stores. His other sons Matt and Joey work at the convenience store/gas station as well.

So the Habermans made the decision to close the repair shop in March 2008 and started drawing up plans for the remodel. They had plans ready to go by the fall and planned to begin the project then but were stymied by the financial market meltdown. The project at last got underway this spring with four months of demolition work. During that period they ripped out floors and a wall and put in new structural beams. That work was finished in July.

Then they closed off the mechanics bays, installed a 14-door cooler and added a 400-square-foot addition to the north side of the building to house a walk-in cooler. They also put in a new door on the Wenatchee Avenue side of the building, and converted the old Goodyear Tire racks to storage.

Once they finish the 1,000-square-foot north side of the building, they will refinish the south half.

The entire 2,000-square-foot remodel is expected to cost between $200,000 and $300,000, depending on what type of kitchen equipment they install. Eventually, they might add a deli, John Haberman said.

They have kept the gas station and store open during construction, and hope to have the revamped store completed in November.

The two contractors working with them on the job are Morisoli and Sons and Courtright Construction. The electrical work is being done by Segaline Electric.

The Habermans’ long range plan for the store is to provide a more family oriented shopping experience than usual convenience stores by offering some alternative food and beverage choices.

“We want to tailor our store more toward the community,” Greg Haberman said.

The Habermans have a long-term lease on the property and own the building, canopy and pumps. The station currently employs five, but they expect to add help to cover longer hours once the convenience store is open to allow shoppers to get what they need both on the way to work and on the way home.

But it may take some time for everyone to get used to the transformation.

“We still get people coming in here looking for tires or an oil change,” Haberman said. “We’d be happy to sell them some food, wine or gas.”

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