Photos Courtesy: ©2017 Sacramento Bee.

Taking a cue from his nephew David Ghiz (see “Re-imagining Retail”) Buzz Homsy, working with a local landscape company, has created an Outdoor Room vignette within his store that showcases what can be done in a small space.

Homsy, for those few who don’t know this legendary retailer, not only runs six California Backyard stores, and one Nevada Backyard store in Reno, but he, with the help of his nephew David Ghiz, created and firmly established the Casual Classics buying group that now numbers 62 companies and 208 stores throughout North America.

There’s strength in numbers, so the Casual Classics group is able to negotiate favorable pricing when purchasing from a manufacturer, while also designing and manufacturing its own products.

A key advantage created by the group is that it now has its own brand – which cannot be shopped elsewhere by consumers – and that brand has been growing stronger year by year.

When we spoke with Homsy in mid-May, it was soggy in the upper part of California where his stores are located (Roseville, Gold River, Sacramento, Rancho Cordova, Elk Grove and Rocklin).

A water element is positioned in front of the pergola.

“Furniture sales are off,” he said, “but grills are off the chart for some reason, especially outdoor kitchens, and premade cabinets that people can get right away. The hot tub business is also good,” he said. “We’re working off of two-and-a-half years of pent-up demand. Plus the drought last year affected people’s attitudes about digging a pool and putting it in for a hundred grand.”

As documented in the article “Re-imagining Retail,” in this issue of Hearth & Home, the store in Scottsdale created by David Ghiz has six vignettes of Jacuzzi spas, along with displays of patio furniture and outdoor kitchens.

“Those vignettes were built by the number-one landscape guy in Scottsdale,” says Homsy, “who is also David’s captive subcontractor for installations. So I happened to mention David’s store to Mark Chester of Capital Landscape, the premier landscaper in Sacramento. He had a trip coming up, so he stopped off in Scottsdale and was blown away with what David had done in his store.

“He came back and said, ‘I’ve got to do one of those. We never talk about hot tubs to our landscape customers; this could be a new market for us. I want to design a display that will show hardscapes of all types, a variety of Trex products, concrete, interlocking blocks, real stone. We’ll build it in a corner of your Hazel store.’”

Every store has a bad corner, according to Homsy, and that’s where he carved out the 950 sq. ft. that was needed. It was finished on April 1, and people coming in are amazed at what can be done in such a small space. “We get leads from Capital’s landscape customers, and Capital gets leads from us. It’s working both ways,” says Homsy.

In those 950 sq. ft., Homsy and Chester have managed to fit a Jacuzzi spa, a burlwood counter for dining, an outdoor fireplace, a barbecue and island, bar-height chairs, a pergola with a deep-seating sofa, a portable fire pit, low-voltage lighting, live plants (of course, because a landscaper built the vignette!), a putting green, a stone planter, a water element, and an outdoor fan.

Hearth & Home will check back at the end of the season to see how well the display has done.