Multiple generations of people have come to the distinctive brown and red building at 367 West 13th Avenue in Eugene year after year. But what keeps people coming back isn’t the selection of winter weather clothing and gear, it’s the experience they get at the store. This is the kind of place where kids run in the door knowing there’s a bowl of candy on the counter and families greet staff who have also been there for multiple generations.
This marks the 60th anniversary of Berg’s Snow Sport Specialists. The local family owned business currently has its third generation working at it. During its tenure, the store has remained on the original site and expanded into the buildings around it. The original owner, Al Berg, ran a Shell gasoline station on the West end of the block and a few years later opened Berg’s Nordic Ski Shop next door. Al Berg, a Norwegian immigrant, ran the ski shop with his wife and two sons. Together, they earned a reputation for excellent customer service and local expertise. Dale Berg, the current owner, grew up working in the shop and inherited it from his father with his brother Paul. They ran it together until Paul passed away in 2010.
Berg has seen many changes to the industry over the past 60 years. “There were wooden skis when I started” he said. Berg has witnessed the rise of snowboarding, ebbs and gains in popularity in the sport, and how “skiing has become a lot easier because of the technology.” It’s just as easy for him to discuss the impact of the shift to overseas manufacturing on their ability to serve customers as it is for him to tell stories about spending his summers traveling to Europe and Hawaii.
As Berg gives a tour around the shop, he points out the phases both the building and business have gone through. He makes sure to point out the candy dish on the front counter. The rental shop is located where the gas station used to be. The cinder block walls still bear the blue and yellow paint of the service station. The car lifts of the original garage have been long since covered over and the workbench now serves for tuning skis instead. In the ski shop at the other end of the store which holds the new equipment, Berg talks about the grocery store that used to be there. In between the ski shop and apparel part of the store, was once an alley between the grocery store and Berg’s. Now it hosts the snowboard shop. The current entry to the shop once the site of the carport for the occupants of the apartment above the shop. The front counter that doubles as the register has pegs on its side to hold skis upright as customers take care of their business. Red shag carpet from a bygone era still covers the floor.
Each year, the neon sign in the front window comes on just after Labor Day to open and begin gearing up for the season. The red OPEN rests in the silhouette of a mountain. To skiers and snowboarders, this signals the shift toward winter as they anxiously start preparing for the snow to start falling. They pull out their gear, start planning trips for the upcoming season, buying tickets for the year’s Warren Miller movie, and watching the weather praying for snow. Business starts to really pick up around Thanksgiving as the shopping season gets underway and the local ski areas’ chairlifts start to turn. The tuning shop suddenly fills up as people think to prepare for their first outings of the year and rentals start leaving the store.
The relatively low turnover of the store’s 25 employees return season eliminates a need to recruit each year. Berg laughs while saying, “I have a hard time getting rid of them” and even has someone who comes in for two hours per year for a specific sale. Berg describes it as “very family oriented. We do things as a team. We support one another. We have fun with each other.” Berg chuckles describing how one of his employees at last year’s Christmas party gave him a bag of marbles as a gift and told him he was losing his marbles.
Over the years, people have joined the staff who seem to fit with the place. The employees are all skiers and snowboarders themselves who are passionate about the sports and know what the customers are looking for. As Berg tells it, they’re a group of people who have experienced what it means to fall, get up, and have great days in the mountains. When asked what has made the business successful for sixty years, he replies without hesitation, “The people who work here.” Lauren Pershen, is one of those people. She is entering her ninth season at Berg’s and “literally learned to walk on the red shag.” Her dad has worked at Berg’s for years mounting cross country equipment. As soon as she turned 18, Berg was on the manager, Chris Stowell, to call and tell her to fill out an application. She jokes that she’s supposed to beat the number of years her dad has spent working for Berg’s. Pershern enjoys that they “have a lot of regulars that come in to say hi” and as they reopen each season, she gets excited remembering different people that she will get to see.
Berg’s is not only “the shop around the corner” as customer of 18 years, Kara Crisp calls it. It has also become a community resource. The business and Berg himself partner with other community groups on a regular basis. Whether it’s sponsoring the ski swap, hosting Hoodoo Ski Area for a Veterans Day sale, running buses to the local hills, or helping to host a ski movie to benefit the youth ski teams, Berg’s has been a partner to the community and become as such, a trusted resource.
Customer Robert Crisp has been coming to Berg’s since he was a child. At 6’7,” it can be difficult to find quality coats that fit and Berg’s not only carries his size, but many of the styles he likes. He excitedly jumps out from a wall rack of coats to show his wife Krista a Gore-Tex jacket that is reminiscent of a Hawaiian shirt with a leaf and Birds of Paradise flower print. She laughs and explains how rare it is that “it’s in stock and on the shelf. They don’t have to order it in.” While they are not regular skiers themselves, they have come in for coats, backpacks, and boots for their whole family. Their daughters have grown up shopping at Berg’s.
Berg’s has managed to weather the ups and downs in its history due to its relationships and reputation in the community. For example, the lack of snow last season hit all the area ski hills hard and as a result, Berg’s. Dale Berg says it’s important to keep the relationship and communication open with the bank and vendors when that happens. Another factor that has allowed more stability is their online side of the business. Seven to eight years ago, Berg said they recognized that it was the future of retail. Berg makes multiple trips to the post office and FedEX in a given day, but the ratings online about their service are extremely high. It started with their website being focused on local conditions as a resource for the community, but has since grown into a profitable part of their retail.
After the mountains open, Berg’s coordinates buses to Hoodoo, Willamette Pass, Mount Bachelor, and Mount Hood Meadows each weekend. Parents bring their kids in the early morning hours and Berg greets them himself. He is at the store before anyone else and gets the wax machine turned on. He hands kids who stumble in the early morning hours who can hardly keep their eyes open a muffin and gets them on the buses with chaperones.
Berg and his son, Svein, continue to work in the day to day business. Svein runs the ski shop. Berg said he continues because “it’s kind of like going to a candy store because you never know what you’re going to get.” Like the iconic red carpet that covers the store and that Berg’s customers joke about, Dale Berg shows no signs of replacing something that has worked for 60 years.