Business & Tech
Trenton Business Has a Different Meaning for Going Green
Longtime Trenton business, Carefree Lawn Center, has been in the business of selling lawn care equipment and landscaping goods to homeowners and contractors for over 35 years.
At the busy intersection of Fort & and Van Horn, trucks come and go, stopping off to pick up lawn and gardening supplies.
The location in question is no big box retailer, but rather , a landscape supply company that has been in business at the same location since it was founded by Richard Gabri in 1975.
Gabri said he had owned the property for years, repairing the site and building the structures that continue to serve as the storefront today.
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“I worked on it for two years out of an 8x20 trailer,” said Gabri.
The lawn center has roughly 20 employees spread out amongst the traditional sales counter. The nursery section -- where employees can assist customers in selecting products, and the bulk sales area -- where additional personnel load and drive vehicles.
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Carefree Lawn Center has a noticeable footprint in the area.
They’ve even taken to using the Internet by creating a website to help get the word out about their product offerings, and they recently started a blog to detail information and advice about lawn care.
Though many of their customers are contractors and landscaping companies, Carefree Lawn Center also deals directly with homeowners who are looking to make improvements to their yards.
Sales Manager David Hartwig described their business as selling directly to customers and as a wholesaler to other businesses.
Top selling items include soil, decorative rocks and boulders, and brick pavers, said Hartwig.
The nursery section deals in trees, shrubs, grasses, and flowers. The bulk sales section sits further back on the 20 acre property, and is where customers can go to stock up on mulch, soil, and decorative stones in large quantities.
In the slower winter season, they sell mainly salt and firewood, Hartwig added.
“It’s definitely a fair weather business with the products we sell,” Hartwig explained. “It really starts up when the weather breaks in March, and runs through October.”
However, with the heavy rains that have permeated the downriver area the past few weeks, business has been hurting, and things haven’t been picking up like usual.
Nevertheless, Gabri anticipates the business will continue to grow.
“We’ve grown considerably, even with the economic downturn we’ve developed more and more,” Gabri said.
