Varnau opened the business as Varnau’s Greenhouse & Nursery in 1981, selling flowers, vegetables and nursery material, before switching the name in 1995.
Back then, the center’s neighbors includes massive farms owned by Herbie and Doris Baumann, Louis and Bernice Baumann and Frank and Mary Minges.
“This was actually the little farm of the valley,” said Varnau, 52. “Everybody else had 200 or 300 acres.”
Now, Varnau’s Garden Center must contend with big box retailers it can no longer compete with.
“Ten years ago they weren’t very good at it,” Varnau said. “Their quality was second-quality, but without a doubt over the last 10 years they’ve all gotten really good at more material, more selection.”
That also includes the ability to put certain items on sale and take a loss just to get customers to show up.
“They can afford to take a huge loss,” Varnau said. “So there’s a sale going on at every garden center and every store in the month of May, which puts a pretty good bite into what we’re used to.”
While Varnau’s Garden Center once managed to attract nearly 300 vehicles in its parking lots and fields on the busiest of days, now “maybe 60 or 70 cars” is the maximum business it attracts on weekends, Varnau said.
Worker wages, too, have been a factor.
“When we were paying $8 a hour, minimum wage was $5.50 or $6,” Varnau said. “Well, now we pay $10 and there’s nobody who could live in West Chester and make $10 an hour.”
When most of the neighbors were farmers, the appearance of the garden center’s property wasn’t much of an issue. That changed once large companies bought and built on neighboring farmland, Varnau said.
“To keep up with all these businesses and their landscape budgets, we’re spending two or three times more just to keep the place nice,” he said.
It also doesn’t help that the greenhouses, rebuilt in the 1920s from an older 19th century operation, have aged to the point that renovations are sorely needed.
When a small section of the greenhouse collapsed several years ago, it cost Varnau nearly $200,000 to replace the glass and install aluminum gutters.
Replacing the remaining wooden gutters, which stopped being manufactured in the 1930s, would be only part of the challenge of an all-out renovation, he said.
“If we stay here we’re going to have to drop another million dollars into aluminum and glass,” he said. “Everything would need to be totally revamped.”
Varnau’s Garden Center received offers by developers to sell its property “ever since the entrance ramp was talked about” for Interstate 75 at Union Centre Boulevard, but turned them all down until now.
“We probably could have walked away better off financially, but we’ve just tried to hang on to this to the very bitter end,” he said. “Every year, even though we may not be getting financially better off for it, we still love what we do and are proud of what we do.”
That includes being able to offer a variety of animal’s on site for children to watch and feed, including alpacas, emus, hens, roosters, turkeys, geese, miniature goats, donkey and horses.
Regardless of the garden center’s fate, the family still aims to maintain a presence in the area. Varnau’s son, Tanner, plans to keep operating Varnau’s Landscaping, continuing on a now five-generation family tradition.
In addition, Varnau’s Garden Center could be revived in a smaller format if an alternate location becomes available, “but nothing has presented itself at this time,” Varnau said.
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