Sept. 20, 2018 – West Bend, WI – Change is afoot at Stein Gardens & Gifts in West Bend. The store on W. Washington Street is changing its logo and its name to Stein’s Garden & Home.
The rebranding of 16 stores across Wisconsin started two years ago.
Everything was in line for a new look including the landscape to how merchandise would be laid out inside the store. Watch for the new signage to go up in the coming weeks.
Did you ever wonder how Stein’s got its start?
In 2010 Amy Rabideau Silvers with the Journal Sentinel wrote Jack Stein’s obituary. A portion of that story is below.
Published on: 4/26/2010
Jack Stein learned a lot working for his parents’ florist business, following service during World War II and a couple years of college.
“He learned that he didn’t want to do that kind of work,” said his wife, Joan Stein. “But he also learned other things.”
Instead of taking care of one customer at a time, Stein wanted to take care of lots of customers. The result was Stein Gardens & Gifts, the second-largest independently owned garden center business in the country.
“He was a merchandiser,” she said. “He wanted to sell merchandise.”
When Stein founded his business in the 1950s, he also realized that the market for gardening supplies was changing. Department stores were getting out of the business. The postwar housing boom was on.
“Everybody was buying houses,” his wife said. “And that’s when he stepped into the gardening supply business.”
Stein’s now has annual sales of nearly $90 million at 16 stores. The company employs about 1,000 people in Wisconsin and about 200 more during the busy spring season.
Ill with cancer last year, Stein decided that he wanted to see his firm continue as a family business, even if it needed to be run by a non-family member.
Stein didn’t hesitate or mince words when he found the right candidate for the job. Click HERE to read the rest of the story about the life and business of Jack Stein.
