Moving

Beloved Bay Space sticker firm Mrs. Grossman’s transferring from California to Utah

PETALUMA, Calif. (KGO) — Mrs. Grossman’s Paper Company has been making labels in the Bay Area for more than 40 years, but is now moving out of California.

The Petaluma warehouse, where the company has been based for almost three decades, was a busy, colorful factory that offered popular tours for children until 2019.

But on Wednesday the walls of the warehouse are bare and the printing presses are silent. The company has announced its downsizing, ceasing wholesale operations and moving operations out of the state to Utah.

END OF AN ERA: Beloved @MrsGrossmans sticker factory in Petaluma has announced they are moving their business from California to Utah. 🙁

The company was founded in 1979 and has been in this warehouse since 1995. They continue to sell stickers online but have ceased all wholesale activities. pic.twitter.com/yiej7qyMPV

— Liz Kreutz (@ABCLiz) January 13, 2022

RELATED: Beloved Petaluma sticker factory Mrs. Grossman closes tours, retail store

“It’s extremely sad that we’re closing,” Jason Grossman, the company’s owner and president, told ABC7 News as he packed up boxes of stickers. “I mean, we’ve always been an institution here.”

Jason’s mother is Andrea Grossman, the original Mrs. Grossman who founded the company in 1979. He said the challenges they faced as a small business during the pandemic had been the last straw for the company, which was already struggling with competitors selling cheaper made-in-China stickers and, of course, so much digital life.

RELATED: ‘Moral Responsibility’: Some Bay Area restaurants are temporarily closing for months due to COVID surge

“The pandemic has changed things,” Jason said. “I found it easier to get out of this state in business and I need everything easier now, I’m getting old.”

He explained that many of the stores they typically sell to were also struggling with the pandemic, so hadn’t bought as much inventory. The company now sells its products exclusively online.

@MrsGrossmans President Jason Grossman says the challenges they faced as a small business during the pandemic was the final straw. They were already struggling with competitors selling cheaper stickers made in China and of course so much life is digital now. pic.twitter.com/ihRFeFpKYt

— Liz Kreutz (@ABCLiz) January 13, 2022

It’s a sad decision for many of her longtime, loyal customers, including Michelle Leopold, the owner of Standard 5&10 Ace, a San Francisco Mom & Shop that’s been open since 1939.

RELATED: More People Are Leaving California Than Moving In: Is the California Dream Dead?

“We were one of Andrea Grossman’s very first clients,” Leopold told ABC7 News. “We are very saddened by the departure of Mrs. Grossman.”

Leopold said her father-in-law still remembers Andrea Grossman walking into her store in 1979 and trying to sell her first product: the company’s now-iconic red heart sticker.

“She walked into the store with a roll of heart-shaped stickers and said, ‘Okay, here’s a crazy new product. Leopold remembered. “And my father-in-law, who also took risks with BIC pens and hula hoops, said, ‘Yeah, let’s try it.'”

The rest, as they say, is history. Since then, according to Jason Grossman, the company has calculated that it has printed enough stickers to go around the world.

“We touched a lot of lives with a silly little sticker,” Jason said. “It’s amazing how much people are attracted to it and how much they love and adore it.”

RELATED: Though some companies are leaving the country, California will remain as the tech capital

said Leopold, while there are other stickers, Mrs. Grossman’s are better than the others.

“They’re just so innovative and fun and whimsical,” gushed Leopold. “No matter what category you are looking for, from pirates to sloths, you will find a sticker that suits you.”

And that’s what’s so special about Mrs. Grossman’s stickers. Even though times have changed – with probably more and more people using emojis instead of putting a sticker on a handwritten card – these little works of art are timeless and popular, regardless of age or generation.

“We’ve got grandmothers who gave it to their daughters, who then gave it to their daughters, and that’s just how it goes,” Jason said.

And Mrs. Grossmans will go on. Exactly, in the sign of the times, only sold online.

Copyright © 2022 KGO-TV. All rights reserved.

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button