When Sorensen’s True Value Rental Owner Miles Sorensen talks about it being a different world today, he’s talking about both a place and time. “We’re located in Los Banos in the San Joaquin Valley where agriculture accounts for nearly 95 percent of the economy,” he related. “The recent drought and the ’08 downturn had a tremendous impact on the local economy. Our store has yet to reach the retail and rental sales level it had prior to the recession.”
Compare that, he added, to a different valley, the Silicon Valley, only 60 miles due west where the computer chip, not agriculture, is king. “The economy there is booming and the rental market is strong. Not to say we don’t look to grow next year. We do and I would be happy with a 4-percent growth, similar to what we had last year.”
Sorensen joined the family hardware and equipment business in 1974. A rental department was added 12 years later in 1986. The other world he was referring to is the labor force he employed in 1974 compared to the labor force today.
“Back in the early 70s we could pay our employees 20 percent more than even the city could pay them. Now, we find it difficult to compete on the wage front. You can’t pay the type of people we need in both the hardware and rental business, those who have experience in the electrical and plumbing trades and with equipment, what they’re worth.”
Despite recent challenges, Sorensen is optimistic about 2017 and beyond. “Rental has been a good business for us and we expect it to continue to be a good business,” he added. When asked about the potential impact the Trump administration would have on have on the local agriculture economy and labor, he didn’t want to speculate. Only time will tell.
