EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the second in a two-part series about new businesses in Port Angeles.
PORT ANGELES — If there’s light at the end of the tunnel, it just might be a Green Flame on east U.S. Highway 101.
The wholesaler/retailer of Dungeness crab is one of more than 30 new, reopened, relocated or newly bought businesses from downtown to the unincorporated area east of the city.
Chamber of commerce officials won’t call it the end of the recession — that actually started here with the Rayonier pulp mill’s closure in 1997 — but they agree it’s cause for hope.
And if Green Flame Seafoods is an indicator, the phenomenon marks a new way of doing business — that is, by cooperation instead of competition.
Port Angeles is too small — and the influx of tourist dollars too seasonal — for the dog-eat-dog business model, Shara Smith, the Green Flame’s owner, told the Peninsula Daily News.
Rather, said Smith, who also owns The Hair School next to the seafood store at 2947 E. Highway 101, the strategy should be to make customers happy even if it means sending them to a competitor.
“We’re a small town; we should have happy people,” she said at the location where crab is sold from an enormous outdoor counter cut from a single pine tree.
“When the tourists aren’t here, we have to work together,” she said.
She hopes not only to succeed; she wants to beautify the Urban Growth Area east of Lee’s Creek.
Green has replaced blue for the flames on the walls of the former outdoor Blue Flame Barbecue eatery.
The sales area is framed with palm trees in what she explains is her attempt “to create a tropical oasis.”
“At night, it’s extravagant,” she said. “It’s all lit up with green lights and little spotlights on the palm trees.”
Smith explained she’d originally intended to open a recreational marijuana outlet but had received such a good offer for her license that she decided to sell it.
Selling seafood long had been an ambition, so she partnered with former Westport crab fisherman Dean Blazek, who she says “knows all the crabbers out there, so we’re getting the pick of the harvest.”
The Green Flame already sells cooked and live Dungeness crab — singly and in up to 100-pound lots — and will add other fresh seafood when it is in season, she said.
“It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, something that helps the community,” she said.
“I want to see the community thriving again, and I love the beautification part of it.”
She’ll continue the green theme with a restaurant and lounge next door.
Smith has owned the adjacent Hair School for more than 30 years and watched Port Angeles’ faltering economy.
The way up and out of the recession, as she sees it, is threefold:
■ Develop an information clearinghouse where would-be business people could find out at once what permits they will need to set up shop.
Smith owns the building that includes the Green Flame.
Even so, she needed to improve access to it for people with physical disabilities and to procure permits for change of use, occupancy, signs and even landscaping.
■ Frame an attitude “to get the community thriving, not just surviving,” by catering to customers who are spending less money and spending it with more forethought.
“I think that people are getting smarter with their money and being more appreciative of it than I’ve ever seen them,” she said.
“They’re not doing the frivolous things but the necessities. They’re healthier and more conscientious about what they’re doing.”
■ Drop competition as the model for business and replace it with cooperation.
The Green Flame, for instance, will work with seafood suppliers in Jamestown and Forks, not against them, she said.
“I would like to have a conglomerate where we all work together,” Smith said.
“In this day and age, there is no such thing as competition. We should be networking together.
“If you feel competitive, you’re not doing something right. If you’re not loving everybody, you’re not doing your job.
“If it’s best for the people, it’s naturally best for you, too.”
_______
Reporter James Casey can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jcasey@peninsuladailynews.com.
