Home, garden and hardware: Worker-Owned and Employee-Owned in the Bay Area

Worker-Owned Businesses

Hardware stores, nurseries, appliances, furniture and garden materials. 8 businesses, each owned by the people who work there. Information verified September 2026; call ahead for hours.

San Francisco

• Room & Board ESOPModern furniture and home goods, mostly American-made, from a Minneapolis company that became fully employee-owned in 2024 with about 1,100 employee-owners.San Francisco showroom

East Bay

• Biofuel Oasis Worker cooperativeA biodiesel station and urban farm store: recycled-oil fuel at the pumps, chicken feed, chicks, beekeeping and garden supplies in the shop.Berkeley
• Friedmans Appliance ESOPKitchen and laundry appliances from more than a hundred brands, in a store that has been in the family, then the employees', since 1922.Pleasant Hill
• Heartwood Cooperative Woodshop Worker cooperativeA shared cooperative woodshop, since 1974, whose member craftspeople build custom cabinetry and furniture.Berkeley
• Westbrae Nursery Worker cooperativePlants, garden supplies and a seasonal pumpkin patch from a nursery that has been on Gilman since the 1930s and became a worker co-op of seven owners in 2022 when the previous owners retired.Berkeley

Peninsula

• Lyngso Garden Materials ESOPSoil, compost, mulch, stone, boulders and pottery by the yard or the bag, from a Peninsula yard that describes itself as employee-owned.San Carlos

North Bay

• Fairfax Lumber & Hardware ESOPA Marin lumber yard and hardware store with paint, plumbing, electrical, housewares and a garden nursery, employee-owned since 1978.Fairfax
• Jackson's Hardware ESOPA full-line hardware store, 80,000 items across tools, paint, garden, plumbing and kitchen and bath, employee-owned since 1972.San Rafael

Know a worker-owned or employee-owned business we missed? Tell us.