Owner channels the best vibes running Positively Fourth Street in downtown Santa Rosa

You don’t have to believe in the metaphysical to vibe with the special energy emanating from Positively Fourth Street.

Maybe it’s the crystals and gemstones for sale at the downtown Santa Rosa shop — sacred rocks that many say have magical, healing and restorative powers. Perhaps it’s the panoply of hand-crafted scarves and other trinkets from artists and artisans all over the Bay Area. It might be the wall of silly dress socks, like the ones with tacos, cats or the image of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Owner Randy Harris is charismatic, too. He and his gray ponytail have run the place for 28 years.

Whatever the source of the energy, whatever the reason for attraction, it’s nearly impossible to walk into the eclectic, new-age shop next to Mac’s Deli and Cafe and not find something that piques your interest, heightens your curiosity, and draws you in.

“I’m selling to people over 70, under 7, and everybody in between,” said Harris. “Something for everyone, all of it unlike anything you’ve seen before.”

From San Francisco to Santa Rosa

Positively Fourth Street is one of the longest-running businesses downtown. It opened in 1994. In the months before, Harris was running two other stores in the Bay Area — one in Berkeley, and another in San Francisco. When the lease expired on the San Francisco store, he decided to launch a new operation in Santa Rosa.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Harris chose Santa Rosa because he knew customers in Sonoma County would be “amenable” to the items he liked to sell. Beyond that, he really didn’t know the market. He had a few distant relatives with property in Sebastopol and Guerneville, but that was it.

“At the time I really didn’t know much about Santa Rosa, except that the people seemed nice and it felt like a place that would embrace my store,” he said. “It turned out to be a great decision.”

Harris and his wife Melissa moved north the following year, and have called Santa Rosa home ever since.

People always ask Harris about the name of the store, and he said he chose the name by “trying to think of something positive that also had the address in it.” He acknowledged he was inspired by the Bob Dylan song of the same name, but noted that the song isn’t exactly positive — it is bitter and derisive.

“My other stores were called Marketplace on Haight Street and Dragonstar Design, so my names have been all over the place,” he joked.

In the early days, Harris tried his best to stock the Santa Rosa store with “interesting items” from craftspeople he knew from around the region, particularly Berkeley and the North Bay. Gradually, he built a network of consignment artists. Depending on the time of year, more than half of the store’s inventory might be made by artisans and artists local to the area.

Every month, these artists come by to drop off new material and collect payment for the items they dropped off the month before.

“We really try to make this a locals’ shop,” he said. “There are a lot of creative people around here.”

Unique trinkets for everyone

Considering the sheer volume of merchandise Harris carries, it’s quite an accomplishment to offer that many local crafts.

The 69-year-old Central Valley native estimates he’s got more than 1,000 items in the store at any given time, including hand-crafted rings, silk scarves, hand-printed cards and those silly socks. There’s an extensive collection of crystals and rocks, as well as incense, weed bags, t-shirts, even Himalayan Salt lamps. Sometimes it feels as if the store is almost overflowing with different items.

Crystals comprise about 30% of sales. Smoky quartz, aquamarine, amethyst — you name the crystal, they probably carry it at Positively Fourth Street.

He noted that two of the most popular items are crystal pendants wrapped in wire from Santa Rosa artist Leo Gonzalez, and bracelets made of beads that look like evil eyes, which are believed to ward off evil spirits.

Another popular item: Copper switch plate covers glazed with enamel, from Berkeley artist Ray Storch.

Storch and Harris go way back — the two have known each other for 40 years and became friends when both were part of an artisan group that sold wares on Telegraph Avenue in the 1980s.

Storch said he believes no vendor has carried his work longer than Harris, and added that he’s “proud” to sell his pieces at Positively Fourth Street because the shop has an old-school appeal that leaves customers feeling happy about the things they buy.

“(Harris) has a great eye for new work,” Storch said. “Randy himself is one of the things that makes the store special because he talks to people, gives them suggestions, and helps them make decisions.”

Customers also cheered the feeling they get when they shop at Positively Fourth Street.

Jennifer More, a Santa Rosa resident and owner of Prenatal Vinyasa Yoga, said she frequents the shop when looking for crystals to gift to friends in need.

“The staff is so nice, they helped me look up the best stones for healing different cancers and they had great recommendations,” she said. “I like that it's kind of a new-age store with a down-to-earth staff. They go out of their way to help me find the perfect gift every time I go in.”

Continuing to serve the customers

Harris demurred upon hearing this feedback, saying that he and his staff of four strive to make every customer feel welcome.

He added that since the shop has been open 28 years and endured a three-month closure during the COVID-19 pandemic, he is confident that Positively Fourth Street will continue to thrive and live on well past its 30th anniversary into the future.

“We’ve been here a while, we survived COVID, we’re not going anywhere anytime soon,” he said.

Harris doesn’t have any major or earth-shattering plans for the shop’s future — just doing more of what he always has done. Positively Fourth Street recently replaced an old-fashioned cash register with the computerized payment system Square, and Harris joked that was more than enough change for one stretch of time.

In the meantime, Harris vows to continue working with local artists and said he’ll keep sourcing items from the International Gift Show in Las Vegas every year. He’s also committed to offering the same friendly customer service that has made him so beloved among Santa Rosa shoppers over the years.

At some point, he said, perhaps he’ll consider retirement, in which case he would spend more time playing guitar and hand the store over to someone else.

“This place has established quite a following over the years — good people who value good craftsmanship and a variety of choices,” he said. “I intend to serve those customers as long as I possibly can.”