Local businesses have felt some strain this year with rising costs, changing tariffs and customers pulling back on spending. Overall, the year has been flat for three longtime local businesses as they work to engage customers in the ways they know best. 

For Grigg’s Department Store in Pasco, that means getting the right price for customers, while Greenies in Richland focuses on its customer service that you can’t get online. For Lemon Grass Gifts in Kennewick, adaptability and optimism is key to moving forward in uncertain times.

Grigg’s Department Store

Despite increased costs, sales have been staying fairly steady at Grigg’s Department Store at 801 W. Columbia St. in Pasco.

Charlie Grigg, vice president of Grigg Enterprises, said that they’re expecting a good Christmas without any huge increases. Overall, the year has been flat though.

Price increases in merchandise due to tariffs have been hard to keep up with, Grigg said. Prices have climbed, leveled off, and some have begun to come back down again – and that’s on top of other rising costs.

“We’re doing the best we can to keep our prices as competitive as we possibly can,” he said.

Plenty of customers still make their way through Grigg’s doors, though they may not be buying as much. With other costs on the rise, people are being cautious and may have sticker shock when they see higher prices, Grigg said.

“You’ve only got so many dollars to spend,” he said. Still, customers come and Grigg attributes it to the store’s low prices and good deals. 

Looking toward the year ahead, Grigg said he’s hopeful about tariffs being rolled back – though it takes as long for prices to go back down as it took for them to go up, he noted. 

The Grigg family has been a staple of the Tri-Cities for 86 years. Charlie Grigg’s grandparents started the Pasco store in 1939, and his 86-year-old father is still involved, as are both of his kids. 

The company has had as few as one store and as many as 11 stores operating at one time throughout its history, ranging from Yakima to Spokane. 

For the last 25 years or so, Grigg Enterprises has owned two Ace Hardware stores in Richland and one in Kennewick in addition to its Pasco department store. There are 190 employees across all of the stores. 

Greenies

Greenies, a small bike shop at 701 George Washington Way in Richland’s Parkway shopping district, has seen sales slow since 2022 after selling lots of bikes during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

“Every year has just kind of been down since then. And so we’re just waiting to see where that stops,” said Darin Warnick, the shop’s owner.

While things were going well in the beginning of the year, they were unusually slow throughout the summer months into early fall. The Ironman event, held in the Tri-Cities for the second time this year, brought lots of people into the shop, but Warnick said it wasn’t as busy as the year before. Overall, he said business has probably stayed flat compared to the previous year.

Warnick said tariffs were likely one factor causing the slowdown in foot traffic. “I had bikes on the floor that changed price three times this year. The whole aluminum thing is just super scary for our industry, and just the uncertainty of it doesn’t instill confidence,” he said. 

Ultimately, the tariffs end up hurting consumers, Warnick said, because the costs are passed along to them.

Greenies has been in business since 2008, and in the slower winter months, Warnick has one full-time employee alongside him and his wife. In the summer months, there will be two to three full-time workers, plus two to three part-timers.

The store specializes in selling bikes, but it also rents bikes and water sport equipment and does bike repairs. 

Warnick has seen the most sales growth in e-bikes, and while there’s been fewer customers and low buyer confidence, the average price of a bike that’s sold has gone up, from around $700 to $1,300. That’s because e-bikes are in a higher price range.

Lemon Grass Gifts

Lemon Grass Gifts celebrated its 25th anniversary in October. Overall, the year has been a good one for the store at 8901 W. Tucannon Ave., Suite 165, Kennewick. 

Owner Linda Pasco said that while there are always economic ups and downs, the past two or three years have had more than their fair share of challenges. 

The main difficulties she’s seen pop up among her fellow small retailers are rising labor costs, changing taxes and high commercial rents.

State policies have driven some of these pressures, she said, and Washington’s minimum wage is set to go up again in January. 

Lemon Grass offers more than gifts. On the furniture side of the business, there haven’t been as many orders for furniture or home goods as people save their money, Pasco said. Costs have also risen due to tariffs, and she’s seen many furniture stores closing and struggling because of the costs. 

To get through the challenging times, Pasco said it’s about flexibility and adapting to customer needs.

“We’ve had to be tougher, smarter and more attuned to what customers want – and they want convenience, instant gratification and entertainment,” she said, noting stores need to reinvent themselves to stay afloat. 

For Lemon Grass that has meant partnering with furniture brands that allow people to order online and get the product shipped to their home. 

The store also built a new website earlier this year, lemongrasshomeandgifts.com, so that customers can shop online and either pick up items in store or have them shipped directly to them.

Looking ahead, Pasco said that she’s hopeful: “Small boutique owners are the ultimate optimists.”

Shopping local

The three business owners had a resounding answer on why people should shop local: The money stays local. 

Buying things locally means that money goes on to pay employees and buy goods to continue operating the business, Grigg said.

And while Grigg’s stores have an online presence, their main focus is on people coming into the stores. Grigg said people still prefer to see items in the store, and often want to get a part the same day they need it rather than waiting on an order.

Lemon Grass also has adapted to better serve online shoppers, but it has a lot to offer in-store customers, too. Pasco said that unlike bigger box stores, Lemon Grass, which has three employees, gets to know customers, and the store is less congested, which makes for a nicer shopping experience. They also offer free gift wrapping and custom orders. 

Greenies understands that shopping local isn’t about getting the cheapest price. Instead, it offers customers an experience they can’t get elsewhere, servicing bikes, giving expert advice, and fostering community. 

Rather than competing with online shopping, Warnick said, “we try to curate a custom experience that you can’t get online.”

The customer service small businesses offer isn’t likely to be found anywhere else, the owners said. 

“We know what you like, we know what your family likes, we know what you’re looking for, and we’ll help you,” Pasco said.