Mrs. Grossman's ends tours, closes retail store

Mrs. Grossman's Paper Company next month will end its popular tours and close the store at its Petaluma sticker factory.

The change comes as the 31-year-old company prepares to lease half its building space to a gourmet food manufacturer. As well, the sticker business remains buffeted by competition from cheaper overseas products.

"Stickers have basically gone to China," said company President Jason Grossman. "We're the only true sticker manufacturer in the United States."

Close to a quarter million people have taken his company's tour in the last 15 years, Grossman estimated. That includes school children and visitors from as far as Japan who delighted in stepping onto the factory floor.

He acknowledged feeling "a bit heartbroken" at ending the public visits, but called it the right decision.

"We can't afford the luxury of offering a tour anymore," he said.

The company recently signed an agreement to lease 50,000 square feet of its Cypress Drive facility to Torn Ranch, a gourmet food and gift basket maker. The Novato company is expected to move there this summer.

The lease includes about 10,000 square feet now used for the sticker store.

Grossman's mother, Andrea, began Mrs. Grossman's in 1979 when she designed a red heart sticker and her printer sent the product in rolls like paper towels, rather than in sheets. This new approach to marketing stickers quickly found a market.

The popularity of stickers soared in the 1990s and Mrs. Grossman's saw its business grow by selling high-end stickers in smaller toy stores and gift shops. A 1994 New York Times story said the company was the top sticker seller in the gift market and third in the conventional sector.

Andrea Grossman retired two years ago.

Opportunity eventually brought an influx of lower-cost competitors. A decade ago Mrs. Grossman's employed 150 people. Today the company and a related business, Paragon Label, have 75 workers.

And Paragon, which prints high-end labels for wineries and other businesses, has eclipsed Mrs. Grossman's in revenues, Grossman said. He said he started Paragon in 1998 because he foresaw a need to bring in new customers for his printing business.

Even so, he insisted Mrs. Grossman's stickers aren't going away.

"We've had that competition for 10 years and we're surviving," he said.

The sticker tours will continue through May 12, though most are already booked, he said.

Starting Monday, all the store's goods will be 50 percent off. The store will close for good May 14.