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HELPING PROVIDE WANTS & NEEDS
by Kate Darby Rauch SAN PABLO -- Former San Francisco Mayor Joseph Alioto's desk chair sits on the back shelf of a San Pablo secondhand store, crammed in with other furniture. It's white leather, well-worn. You want it? Top dollar. You need it? How much can you spare? So goes the business philosophy of Gerald Brown, Jerome "J.J." Potts and Roosevelt Lewis. They're the proprietors of Wants & Needs, a chain of three thrift stores located in some of the East Bay's struggling neighborhoods. Items in the stores -- pots and pans, furniture, clothes, toys used a little or a lot -- have price tags. But those go out the window if it's a matter of need. Which happens all the time. These gentlemen say they're trying to run a smart business, maybe even turn a profit one day. But "smart" depends on where you've been. And Brown, Potts and Lewis have traveled a pretty unique road. Mayor Alioto's chair was given to them by his daughter, San Francisco attorney Angela Alioto. She's the lawyer who represented them, along with 17 others, in a multimillion dollar racial discrimination lawsuit against the national bakery chain that makes Wonder Bread, Twinkies and Ding Dongs, among other grocery shelf staples. The verdict, reached last year, was the largest of its kind, Alioto said. Brown, Potts and Lewis, all former truck drivers, are wealthy. And though they've been on a wild ride, these men say they've never left home. On most days you'll find them at the main Wants & Needs store, a former auto parts shop on San Pablo Avenue in San Pablo, stacked high with dishes and clothes, dining tables and rugs. They'll be unpacking dusty boxes from an estate sale, digging out a freezer for a waiting customer, collecting a few bucks for a clock or jacket. "Everybody can't afford the mall," said Brown, 42, a tall man with a quick smile. Brown, who grew up in Albany with eight siblings, now lives in Richmond. He was the lead plaintiff in the 1998 suit against Interstate Brands Corp., the Kansas City, Mo., parent company of Hostess, Home Pride and Dolly Madison. The suit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court, alleged that black employees were denied promotions and jobs, and subjected to workplace hostility and racism. A jury agreed, awarding damages of $120 million to 17 plaintiffs. The judge slashed it to $21 million and the final settlement, reached out of court, is believed to be approximately $20 million. While other plaintiffs in the case have pretty much gone their own ways, Brown, Potts and Lewis made a deeper bond. Potts, who grew up in North Richmond and now lives in Richmond, has been friends with Brown for almost 20 years. Lewis is from Mississippi but lives in Oakland. "We're all people-oriented. We like to help people," said Brown, as he massaged the shoulders of 62-year-old Yula Pete, a frequent customer and lover of knickknacks. "We're more like social workers than we are business people." Potts grinned in agreement. "We're psychiatrists," he said, explaining how just that morning a customer had unloaded her marital problems, while browsing household goods. Brown, an outgoing, athletic man, started Wants & Needs as a small Richmond store after being fired from Wonder Bread and before the settlement. Times were tough and the store wasn't really going anywhere, he said. It was the first place he plopped large sums when the settlement came through, inviting his fellow plaintiffs along. The name was his idea. "My mother taught me if I separate my wants from my needs, I'll make it," Brown said. "A lot of people have them confused." The San Pablo store opened in January. The others, in Richmond and Rodeo, are open irregularly, for now. "I feel comfortable, I feel at home here," said Potts, a thin, busy man with a quiet manner, helping dust bookshelves at the San Pablo shop. Potts, who drove a truck at Wonder Bread for seven years, looks and acts more like hired help than a major investor. That's how he likes to be -- low-key. "I'm still the same, I haven't changed. I'm not going around with no tie or suit on, that's not me," he said. The store gives the men a homey place to mingle, flirt, talk the talk. They greet shy shoppers, antique seekers, neighbors with something to hawk. "Man, we see people who just need two dollars to get to work. Well, we give them a broom," Brown said. Thrift stores help communities in myriad ways, the men say. They won't break the bleakest budget. They give people a place to make a few bucks from selling stuff they don't want. "They create jobs," Potts said. The store opened with three young black men behind the counter -- a deliberate choice to help fill a desperate need, the owners said. But the reality of doing business in the store's increasingly Latino neighborhood sunk in, and the boys were replaced by a Spanish-speaking clerk. The initial troupe is on standby until more stores open. Brown envisions a chain of 10 Wants & Needs. One of the young men was hearing impaired, another deliberate choice by Brown, whose 12-year-old daughter is deaf. Fluent in sign language, Brown wants a deaf clerk in every store. Angela Alioto said she's not surprised by where these three "Wonder Boys," as she calls the plaintiffs, are pouring their energies. "That's the point, they're giving back," Alioto said. "These young men get it, they get it; it was never about money for them. They're entrepreneurs who also give back. It gives me serious joy." To be sure, Brown, Potts and Lewis do their share of splurging; there have been new houses and cars since the settlement. They also have other business schemes -- Brown started a recording label and is constantly on the look-out for talent. It's not uncommon for eager young musicians to stop by the store. But no golfing green retirement villas for this crew. They'd rather be down at the secondhand store, taking some of the stigma out of secondhand needs. "You may be feeling down and out when you come in here," said Pete, sipping a cold soda Brown brought her from a back room. "But when you leave, you smile." |