Business

Domus reopens in downtown Los Gatos after 11-year absence


Domus owner Margaret Smith poses with a Christmas display in the downtown Los Gatos store, which she recently reopened after more than a decade. Smith, who ran the popular home goods store from 1996 to 2012, says 150 people turned out for the Oct. 3 ribbon-cutting at the new Domus location at 54 N. Santa Cruz Ave. (Photo by Laura Ness)

It was nearly impossible to chat with Domus owner Margaret Smith without customers pausing to thank her for reopening the long-missed store, which operated for decades in downtown Los Gatos before closing more than a decade ago.

Smith, who ran the popular home goods store from 1996 to 2012, says 150 people turned out for the Oct. 3 ribbon-cutting at the new Domus location at 54 N. Santa Cruz Ave.

The store’s return came about after Ed Stahl, the building’s landlord, asked Smith to take over the former Pharmaca space and turn it into Domus. Her immediate reaction was no. Thinking of the investment of money and time it would require, Smith told him, “I just don’t think I can do it.”

Then, late one night, she was walking down Santa Cruz Avenue. “I passed by the Pharmaca store all shuttered and thought, ‘What if a retailer goes in there that I don’t like? How would I feel?’ I’m at the point in my life where I don’t have 10 years to think about it.

“I realized this is what people crave: a local store where they can shop hands on. Some things you just don’t want to buy online.”

She called Stahl, then phoned two former store employees, Maria Sanguinetti and Liz Giervert-Kay, and they began plotting Domus’s return.

A recommendation led her to contractor Rafael Hernandez, who took Smith’s photos from the former Domus location and re-created the shelving and layout to suit the new store footprint. Going from 8,500 to 4,000 square feet meant scaling back, but there were certain items she had to carry, like Rosie Rings candles and Blenko Glass water bottles from WV. Blenko has been in business since 1893 and is among the last American glassblowers. Smith says their water pitchers have doubled in price since she last purchased them.



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