Willow Glen Resident

Cover Story

Photograph by Vicki Thompson

Clean Sweep: Craig Mendence has been managing the family's vacuum cleaner shop since 1990. He grew up in the store. His mother would bring him and his brother, Ed, to the shop while she worked.

Suck It Up

Alliance Appliance opened in 1957 on Lincoln Avenue

By Mayra Flores De Marcotte

Fifty years ago, a door-to-door vacuum salesman decided to go into business for himself.

Mel Mendence opened the doors to his vacuum sale and repair shop, Allied Appliances in 1957 and with the help of his wife, Helen, and sons Ed and Craig, grew his fledging shop into a thriving business. Mel Mendence died in 1990; he was only 56.

"The irony of it all is that in this high-tech valley, a low-tech business such as our store has been able to survive and thrive for so many years," says son Ed Mendence. "Our company's survival during several economic recessions and its longevity are both amazing and admirable when one considers that my parents started and operated this small business with only one of them graduating from high school."

Growth happened fairly rapidly for Mendence. The store underwent a major remodel after it opened and expanded into the adjoining storefront, increasing the showroom area.

Although Mel Mendence worked extensively during the first two decades of the store's life, according to his son, it was his mother's hard work that kept the business going.

"A great deal of the company's survival and longevity can be credited to my mother's tireless work habits," her son says. "My mom was and still is a solid paradigm of persistent, hard and honest American work ethic."

Helen would bring her eldest son, Ed, to the store with her on Saturdays from the time he was 8. It was the one day she worked during the week when her children were young. That would change as the children grew older.

Over the years, Helen would be in the shop more and more.

"Sometimes, I would take the boys to the shop," Helen says. "I would set them up in a playpen and watch them as I worked."

Operating the growing business became more complicated as the family opened more locations and the business expanded geographically into the cities of Dublin and Gilroy and opened two more stores in San Jose.

"It was more difficult to manage each store," Ed says. "My father traveled from location to location."

In the end, the distance between the stores and the traveling involved took a toll on the business.

The Gilroy location, the furthest and hardest for the family to get to, was the first to close. Slowly, other locations followed.

The San Jose store, at the corner of Blossom Hill and Meridian Avenue, which was managed by Ed and maintained by Helen, was the last store to go. That closed in 2002.

"We saw my mom working so much that we pressured her into closing the San Jose location," Ed says.

Now the Mendence business has come full circle, and the last store operating is the first store opened.

In the family

The store's success was built on family collaboration and atmosphere, but it wasn't always a smooth ride.

"Typical family tension would come up," Ed says. "It's hard enough working together at home let alone working together at the shop."

The family was able to find balance and that equilibrium helped bring prosperity to business. It also enable the Mendences to take their profits and invest in San Jose real estate.

"Our father began buying up properties one by one," Ed says.

Each of the family members were touched by their business' success.

From the age of 9, Ed Mendence worked at the shop cleaning and maintaining the facility for $1 a day. As he grew older his responsibilities and earnings increased. Ed was also a saver; being frugal paid off.

"I saved up money that I made at the shop since I was 9 years old," Ed says. "In 1977, I was able to use that $3,200 I had saved as a down payment on my first home in Santa Clara."

His earnings at the shop also paid his way through Santa Clara University.

Ed left the family business in 1981 to follow in his father's footsteps and enter the field of commercial real estate.

Younger brother Craig also benefited from the family's shop.

The financial stability of the store helped various members of the family when they were between jobs.

Craig Mendence says, "We are all grateful for that."

When Craig Mendence was discharged from the Coast Guard in 1997, he began working with his mother at the Blossom Hill location.

In 1998, he took over as manager for the Willow Glen location.

"The store wasn't doing so well, and I wanted to make a go at it to support my own family," Craig says.

When he took over, Craig made plans to upgrade the store's showroom technology, but he lived in Fairfield, and the commute and time away from his family put his plans on hold.

During his early years as manager he would stay in San Jose during the week to work with his parents and go home to his family on the weekends.

"But this became taxing on my family," Craig says. "There's one thing about working for yourself that's very different from working for an employer; it's consuming. You are never done."

Craig came up with a compromise that was more compatible with his family. He bought a home in Dublin to be closer to work.

"No matter what is happening, I try to get out of the store by 6 p.m. at the latest," Craig says.

Following in his mother's footsteps, Craig brought his son Max into the store when he was 3 years old.

"He would sit on the bench while I worked," Craig says. "We would watch 'Blues Clues' on the TV."

This parent-child relationship and its connection to the business has been part of each generation's upbringing and has fostered many warm memories.

"I remember when I would come to the shop, my dad would take me to the old A&W where John's Xlnt Foods now is," Craig says. "We would get Eskimo pies there, and I always looked forward to it."

Craig is now creating new memories with his son.

"I take my son to John's for a hot chocolate every time he comes down with me," Craig says. "It's something that he now looks forward to."

Key to success

Throughout the family's five decades in the business one thing has remained constant; people's vacuums are always in need of repairs, Ed Mendence says.

Becoming an experienced technician and an expert on vacuums gave the family credibility.

"Customers want to know what vacuums are better than others, which break more frequently, and so on," Ed says.

The inventory that the store has at all times is also part of the reason the store has stuck around for so long.

"My mother always makes sure we have hard-to-find parts as well as common ones," Ed Mendence says.

"When customers ask for a specific part, we will never have to tell them we don't have it," Craig Mendence says.

Keeping a well-stocked inventory is just one of the many old habits from the business' opening that are still used today in order to keep up with the competition.

"My mom still checks the newspaper ads to keep up with the competition," Ed says. "It's like a morning ritual, since the beginning."

The family checks models and prices that big-box retailers carry in order to offer the public an alternative and more personalized shopping experience.

Allied Appliances carries only high-end and niche vacuums that enable the family business to remain competitive.

The family also has another secret weapon: Their knowledge of vacuums edges out the competition.

"Big-box employees don't know the ins and outs of vacuums and their repair like we do," Craig says. "We have become experienced technicians."

But the family says the No. 1 reason the business has survived at its location on Lincoln Avenue is its customer base.

"We have the same resident who brought us his vacuum in the '70s still bringing us that same vacuum now," Craig Mendence says. "People still want quality stuff, things that last."

And he says, "The community has made sure of our survival, and we are thankful."

Allied Appliance is located at 1228-A Lincoln Ave, 408.293.3740.