For 80 years, Friedman’s Home Improvement has done more than sell lumber and hardware. We sat down with third-generation owner Barry Friedman to talk about family, trust and why investing in Sonoma County’s next generation of builders is, in his words, “in our blood.” 

Authored by Malloy Schaffner, Marketing & Communications Manager 

Benny and Joe Friedman stand outside the original Friedman Bros. store in Petaluma, where a small salvage yard business founded in 1946 would grow into one of the North Bay’s most trusted family-owned companies. 

In 1946, two brothers bought a salvage yard in downtown Petaluma. Raw materials were scarce in the years right after World War II, so Benny and Joe Friedman did what resourceful people do: they fixed up old things and sold them, brought in new products as they could, and treated everyone who walked through the door with respect.  

The community noticed. And 80 years later, that little new-and-secondhand store has become Friedman’s Home Improvement – four stores across Sonoma and Mendocino counties, a distribution center in Petaluma, and nearly 500 team members serving the North Bay and North Coast.

It would be easy to tell that as a story about hardware. But spend twenty minutes with Barry Friedman – Benny’s grandson, and the third generation to lead the family company – and you realize the end goal was never really about products. It’s about people. Friedman’s Home Improvement has been a partner of CTE Foundation since the start. The company embodies what career-connected learning can mean for Sonoma County’s youth. And sharing their story with our community was a no brainer. 

It All Started with a Salvage Yard 

The original Friedman Bros. salvage yard in downtown Petaluma. In the years following World War II, resourcefulness, hard work, and a commitment to serving the community laid the foundation for the company that would become Friedman’s Home Improvement. 

Before he started his own business, Barry’s grandfather learned the hardware trade working for a retailer in downtown Santa Rosa. When the time came to open his own doors, he chose Petaluma – harder to get to in those days – specifically so he wouldn’t compete with the man who had taught him the trade. 

“That just kind of shows you the kind of person he was,” Barry told us, “and the values that are in our family.” 

Those values became the foundation. Generosity, too, came early and never left. Over the decades the Friedman family helped co-found the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts and established a community gathering place known as the Friedman Center – local investments that had everything to do with a simple philosophy Benny was known for: if you’ve got it, give it. 

“It’s Not a Transaction. It’s an Interaction.” 

Second-generation CEO Bill Friedman and third-generation owner Barry Friedman represent nearly eight decades of family leadership, carrying forward the values that have shaped Friedman’s since 1946. 

Ask Barry how a family business stays trusted for 80 years, and he doesn’t reach for a marketing line. He reaches for something bigger. 

“Trust is earned one customer at a time. One customer, one project, one relationship at a time. For 80 years, we’ve been focused on serving our customers, our neighbors, our community – and that hasn’t changed.” 

It shows up, he says, in how Friedman’s treats three groups at once: customers, team members, and the community. “It’s not a transaction. It’s an interaction in how we treat our customers.”  

That philosophy is now literally written into the company’s mission – delivering the human side of home improvement. As longtime Communications Manager Carolyn put it during our conversation, “There’s people right there in the mission.” 80 years on, Friedman’s still serves some contractor and agricultural families it has served for generations – grandparents, parents, and kids walking through the same doors. 

Why a Home Improvement Company Invests in Students  

Students gain hands-on construction experience through career technical education, building the skills, confidence, and career pathways that local employers like Friedman’s are helping make possible. 

Here’s where Friedman’s story and ours meet: students. 

“We provide the products and the materials,” Barry said, “But it takes people to know how to take those products and materials and do things with them – to create, to build.” A home-improvement company, in other words, is only as strong as the skilled people in its community. And right now, that next generation needs to be intentionally built. 

That’s why Friedman’s invests across the full pipeline of career-connected learning – CTE Foundation, Next Gen Trades Academy, SRJC’s construction program, Schools Plus and Schools Rule, the North Coast Builders Exchange and their Construction Corps. When local programs need equipment, people, or a partner who will pick up the phone, Friedman’s shows up. 

The reason is partly practical and partly personal. “There are challenges with retirements and continuing the workforce, so we’ve got to invest now,” Barry explained. “Because twenty years from now, if we don’t, we won’t have the people we need to do the things our community depends on.”  

But it’s also about widening what young people believe is possible for them. “These opportunities help young people see that there’s a path that might be right for them – and they can still have strong earning potential and feel good about what they’re able to build for their families and our community.” 

In a county where the cost-of-living pushes so many young people out, that last point resonates with our work. As Barry put it: “People who go into the trades can earn a good living and live in Sonoma County, where they grew up.” Through that, our community stays whole. 

Friedman’s Five Values  

Every Friedman’s team member begins with the same foundation: the company’s mission and five core values – Lead, Connect, Grow, Serve, and Care. 

A decade or so ago, Friedman’s took the values it had always operated by and finally put them on paper. Today, every new team member receives them on their very first day, printed on a small card that fits in a pocket: Lead. Connect. Grow. Serve. Care. 

Barry is quick to point out that these values are a compass for any career. For the students across Sonoma County who are still figuring out their path, they’re worth writing down: 

Lead – take initiative and be willing to step up, even when you don’t have all the answers. 

Connect – build real relationships and learn from the people around you. 

Grow – stay curious, and keep pushing yourself to improve. 

Serve – think about how you can help others succeed, not just yourself. 

Care – treat people with respect and do the right thing, especially when no one’s watching. 

“Someone can take those and say, this is what I stand for, and it’s how I show up every day,” Barry said. “That works for any industry, any business, any career.” 

There’s wisdom in that for a sixteen-year-old standing in an aisle with a phone and a YouTube tutorial, trying something for the first time. In our conversation, we talked about how being bad at something is the first step towards being sort-of good at something. Friedman’s gives people room for that – and the room to start. 

What Gives Barry Hope  

Barry Friedman, third-generation owner of Friedman’s Home Improvement, continues his family’s legacy of investing in people, strengthening communities, and helping build Sonoma County’s future workforce. 

We asked Barry what gives him hope for the next generation. He turned to community. 

“Everything in life always comes down to people,” he said. Sonoma County has had a great deal thrown at it – fires, hardship, years that asked a lot of everyone. “What gives me hope is that the people who are here, who choose to be here, step up. We’ve shown we can come together to solve hard things.”  

And then, unprompted, he pointed right back at the work we do together: “Here we are talking about workforce development and career technical education – and here’s CTE Foundation, stepping up to a need. We just need to keep supporting each other and supporting the people out there doing the work.” 

That’s the partnership in a sentence. Friedman’s has spent 80 years proving that a business can grow alongside its community by investing in it – and that evolution, as Barry says, is “in our blood.” The salvage yard became a hardware store, which became four stores, which became a company asking how it serves the next 80 years. The constant of it has always been people, treated well, given a chance. 

At CTE Foundation, we believe a rising tide floats every boat – that when a young person discovers a path, finds good work, and gets to build a life right here, the whole community is stronger for it. Friedman’s has believed that for eight decades. What makes Friedman’s special is that they extend the same grace to a seasoned contractor and a first-time customer, to a veteran tradesperson and a student on day one. 

They don’t just sell the materials to build homes. They help build the community. 

Happy 80th, Friedman’s. Here’s to the next 80 – and to every young person who’ll help build them.