After nearly two years lobbying against Ralphs Grocery Co. and other major supermarkets, Sherman Oaks homeowners are now celebrating victory with the impending arrival of a Gelson’s Market. If nothing else, the triumph over Southern California’s biggest grocery chain shows the enduring power of a handful of Valley homeowners groups, particularly the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association. The organization launched a public relations and lobbying campaign in August 1997 after Ralphs parent Fred Meyer Inc. bought Hughes Family Markets. The company was ordered by the California Attorney General’s Office to sell 19 Hughes stores, including one on Milbank Street and Van Nuys Boulevard in Sherman Oaks, to avoid antitrust concerns. The homeowners were lobbying to ensure that the Sherman Oaks store would be sold to Gelson’s, rather than Safeway Inc.’s Von’s chain or Lucky Stores. “The Hughes thing was really big in our lives,” said Dee Gelb, a Sherman Oaks homeowner. “You really did get value service.” Wanting a store with similar customer service to Hughes, Gelb and others lobbied for Gelson’s. They began at the Attorney General’s Office in downtown Los Angeles. While the Attorney General didn’t have the power to order Fred Meyer to sell the store to a specific chain, it could draw up a list of possible buyers and force the company to choose from that list. When Gelb began, Gelson’s, an upscale market with Valley locations in North Hollywood and Encino, was not what regulators had in mind. “Initially, we were concerned about Gelson’s because it was nearby,” said Barbara Motz, acting assistant attorney general for the antitrust division. Regulators also were concerned that Gelson’s wouldn’t be able to compete with nearby Ralphs stores because its prices tend to be higher. But Gelb and other homeowners told officials that a store with a high level of customer service would be competitive with Ralphs. Bernard Briskin, president of the Arden Group, the company that owns Gelson’s, said the company was interested in a Sherman Oaks location before homeowners got involved. In March 1998, it put in a bid to Ralphs for the store. “Without the homeowners, I don’t know if we’d be on the (Attorney General’s) approved list,” Briskin said. “My guess is the other potential buyers were discouraged by the homeowners. They may have influenced potential buyers who would have run into a hornet’s nest of people saying, ‘I’m not going to shop your store.’ “
