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April 2 - April 15, 2016
21
Turf and Sport owner opens Artificial Grass Superstore BY CHRISTINA FUOCO-KARASINSKI
In the early 2000s, Mike Alexander was looking to change careers. Little did he know that a visit to the home of his wife’s grandmother would offer an idea for that opportunity. “We went to her house in Sun Lakes and she backed up to a golf course,” Alexander said. “Her grass looked incredible—better than the golf course. I went out with my son, who was 1, and realized it was synthetic.” That piqued his curiosity about synthetic turf. In 2004, Alexander bought the rights to a company that was new in the market. Four years ago, he switched to his own
brand and Turf and Sport was born. At the beginning of this year, he opened his first local brick-and-mortar store, Artificial Grass Superstore, at 221 E. Willis Rd., Chandler. For more information, call (480) 726-2411 or visit http://artificialgrasssuperstore.com/. He also has a store in Santa Ana, California. “We’ve always had a warehouse in Chandler, but it was in an industrial park and it was tucked away,” Alexander said. “We weren’t really set up for people just to walk in. Now we have someone behind the counter. All the samples are on the wall. You can see us from Arizona Avenue, so we’re getting a lot of traffic through there.” At the Artificial Grass Superstore,
customers can stop by and request a quote, or even purchase the products to do the installation themselves. “We’re a one-stop shop for all of your synthetic turf needs,” Alexander said. “We have everything you need here.” The store has pallets of product as well as tools for rent, like power brooms. “We have specialty tools that you would need that we rent out,” he said. Now is the perfect time to install synthetic grass, Alexander added. He said when he drives through neighborhoods near his Gilbert home, about half of the yards have artificial grass. “That’s how popular it has become,” he
said. “It’s a lot different now—even in the last two years. It looks so much better than a couple years ago and it performs a lot better. It doesn’t wear down when you walk on it. It stands back up.” Alexander has completed some pretty impressive jobs. He and his team installed synthetic grass at the Hotel del Coronado on Coronado Island, California, between the hotel and the beach. He’s also worked with the Arizona Diamondbacks and the wedding lawn at El Chorro Lodge in Paradise Valley, as well as model home complexes. “We have a lot of cool, fun jobs that we’ve done.”
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