Friedman’s Home Improvement Celebrates 80 Year Anniversary!

Friedman’s Home Improvement turns 80 this month, a milestone the local retailer said reflects its legacy and also is a prompt for continued change amid a shifting market.

Founded in 1946 by members of the Friedman family, the business has expanded across three generations into a regional chain with four retail stores in Santa Rosa, Petaluma, Sonoma and Ukiah, along with a Petaluma distribution center and headquarters. In January the distribution center relocated to 72,000 square feet at 1450 Technology Lane in the city. Today, the company employs nearly 500 people.

“It’s pretty awesome,” CEO Barry Friedman, 47, said of the anniversary. “We have a strong foundation to build off of.”

The milestone arrives as the company navigates cooler demand following the surges from pandemic-era remodeling nationally and post-Tubbs Fire rebuilding in Santa Rosa.

Friedman said “the business climate hasn’t been as strong as it once was.” Supply-chain volatility has also complicated planning. Tariffs, commodity price swings and fuel surcharges in the past few years have affected product inputs ranging from metals such as copper, requiring closer monitoring of procurement conditions and pricing strategies.

Friedman's Home Improvement CEO Barry Friedman and his father, Bill, chairman, in 2023. (Courtesy: Friedman's Home Improvement)

That has required reassessing sales expectations and product priorities.

Among the most immediate pressures is competition from large national chains such as The Home Depot and Lowe’s, which set customer expectations on price, inventory availability and convenience. As a locally focused operator, Friedman’s is working to balance those expectations with its community-oriented model.

A central operational challenge has been integrating e-commerce with in-store sales. The company launched an online shopping platform last July, enabling buy-online, pick-up-in-store transactions.

“We were obviously a little later to the game,” he said. The online experience will continue to be tweaked and is being supported by new hires with digital expertise.

Accuracy in inventory data is even more important in the digital marketplace.

“If you’re online, and it says you have five of them, you have to make sure that your inventory is accurate,” Friedman said. Discrepancies can risk customer trust and satisfaction, especially when an item is found to be out of stock after purchase.

In parallel with the virtual experience, the company is working to make the stores more consumer-friendly.

The product strategy has also evolved. Friedman’s remains focused on small- to medium-sized contractors, do-it-yourself customers and gardeners. Expanded apparel offerings — including Carhartt, Dickies, Ariat and women-oriented Dovetail Workwear — are intended to widen the stores’ reach.

“We are a family-owned business run by a very committed team,” he said. That means outside expertise is being incorporated alongside the family’s longstanding presence.

Brothers Joe and Benny Friedman opened the first store in Petaluma in April 1946 as a new and secondhand store. The business incorporated as Friedman Bros. Hardware in 1963 and expanded to Santa Rosa in 1971, becoming Sonoma County’s largest hardware and building materials store at the time.

Subsequent decades brought additional locations in Sonoma (1993) and Ukiah (1996), as well as civic involvement such as cofounding the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts in 1979 and establishing the Friedman Center in 1990.

Leadership transitioned to the second generation in 1985, when the brothers retired and passed responsibilities to their brother Harry and Benny’s son Bill. Bill Friedman became sole owner in 1999, and the company rebranded in 2001 to Friedman’s Home Improvement.

Bill Friedman named his son Barry president and CEO in 2013. The company returned to Petaluma in 2014, opening a store then two years later consolidating corporate headquarters in Petaluma.

The fourth generation aren’t involved in the business yet. Barry Friedman’s four children range in age from sixth grade to high school senior, and he wants them to find their own careers.

“If their path leads back here, that’s great. But I want them to explore and learn and figure out what’s best for them,” he said.