Take it away: Anne Murray, left, and Corinne Barreca with their dog, Frankie.

 Woman-owned hauling business finds treasure in trash

by SARAH SCHMIDT special to the Examiner  Photo by MEG LOUCKS/Examiner

  Scan the San Fran-
cisco Yellow pages 
for rubbish haulers 
and you'll see a dozen 
or so very similar ads,
most of them either 
for big,municipal 
haulers such as BFI 
and Waste Management 
or smaller,one-pickup 
truck operations. 
Most give little 
information other 
than a policy on 
estimates, service 
boundaries and a 
phone number. And 
only one is decorated 
with cute little 
shamrocks, and 
announces that the 
business is owned 
by women.

  As what is probably 
San Francisco's only 
female-run rubbish 
hauling company, We 
Haul is something 
of an anomaly, say 
owners Corinne Barreca 
and Anne Murray. "As 
far as I know, there 
are no other women-
owned businesses like 
us in the city,"said 
Barreca, as she 
supervised a two-man 
crew loading an old 
couch into We Haul's
14-foot Ford truck.

  If the gender of 
We Haul's owners 
seems a little unusual, 
so are the origins of 
the company.Barreca,a 
print shop manager,and 
Murray, a home health-
care worker, started 
the business as a side 
project about five 
years ago with an ad 
in the San Francisco 
Independent. Flea 
market aficionados, 
their primary goal 
was actually to get 
ahold of antique 
furniture and 
collectibles in 
exchange for hauling 
them away. What they 
didn't want themselves 
they either donated 
to charity or recycled. 
But demand for their 
service grew so much 
they eventually quit 
their day jobs,and now 
they're devoted to We 
Haul full time. They 
command an all-male 
crew of employees and
continue to recycle
-donate and keep 
some goodies for 
themselves.

  Barreca said 
people are often 
surprised to see 
women running such 
a grungy,labor-
intensive business.

"Why not "Sanford &
Daughter"?

  "Remember 'Sanford
& Son'? That's the

image most people 
have in their heads 
about the junk bus-
iness-a couple of 
guys in a beat-up 
old pick-up truck. 
We're different than 
what most people 
expect in a lot of 
ways. We're women, 
we have a clean,
new truck,and our 
appearance is 
professional. There 
really is a 
difference in the 
way we comport
ourselves."

  She said that a 
sizable majority of 
their clientele are 
women, who are often 
much more comfortable 
dealing with other 
women when it comes 
to negotiating a price 
and having work done 
in their homes.

  Barreca and Murray 
usually take turns going 
out on jobs, supervising 
a crew of two or three 
men(hired through a local 
agency),many of whom are 
having their first exper-
ience with a woman boss. 
Relations can be a little
tense once in a while, 
the women say,but most 
of the guys adjust
pretty easily.

  We Haul's main compet-
itors are similar small, 
independent(though"men-
owned")companies. The 
demand for such services 
is particularly high 
in San Francisco though.

  "There's so much money 
in this city and people 
buy so many new things 
all the time. At the same
time people don't have 
a lot of space," said 
Murray,pointing out that 
it's unlikely We Haul 
would be so busy in other 
parts of the country or, 
for that matter,in Mur-
ray's native Ireland.

  "People will have the 
same sofa for 30 years 
there. If they're moving,
they might have a fire 
in their backyard, or 
else they'll just give 
away hand-me-downs to 
their cousin, nieces 
and nephews."

Got enough stuff?

  Recent economic woes 
have had an effect on
We haul, not so much 
on the volume of jobs 
they're called out for 
but on the type. A year 
ago, Barreca and Murray 
were busy carting away 
refuse from lavish down-
town office parties and 
the discarded furniture 
of twentysomethings 
moving to increasingly 
fancier digs after
cashing in on their 
IPOs.

  "It was pretty crazy 
for a while. We had a 
surge of young 
dot-commers moving to
new homes, remodeling 
their lofts. It was like 
"Take this. Take that." 
One young guy gave us a 
beautiful old billiard
table with carved wooden 
legs and crocheted 
pockets-just for the 
hauling. He'd had it in
his "playroom" and he 
decided he just had to 
get rid of it for 
some reason."

  These days We Haul 
is more likely to be 
called to take away 
desks and file cabinets 
from failed businesses, 
which they then try to 
donate to non-profit 
that need them.

  One thing will pro-
bably always hold true 
about We Haul's 
customers, though. 
They are people in 
transition. "Moving 
in, moving out. Fami-
lies dealing with 
settling the estate 
after the death of a 
loved one. Businesses 
that have failed...
It does keep things 
interesting," barreca 
said.

  And the stuff 
clients want hauled 
off runs the gamut.
Once We Haul was called 
to pick up six used, 
but working,bread 
machines (which they 
donated); another 
time they got a Tiffany 
lamp from the 1940s
(which Barreca kept 
for herself)Other finds 
have included a box of 
collectable Frank 
Sinatra records,two
antique Persian rugs 
and a trunk full of 
silver coins, which 
turned out to be worth 
about $5,000.

  Barreca and Murray 
haven't abandoned their 
original intention-
to get dibs on the 
types of antiques and 
collectibles that are 
usually rare finds in 
the Bay Area's picked
-over antique flea 
market scene.

  "When I moved from 
my two-bedroom apart-
ment to my three-
bedroom house, I 
didn't have to buy 
one stick of furniture
or one picture to hang 
on the wall, " Barreca 
said. Among her finds
were a buffet, a 
dresser and a wooden
frame, shell-backed 
loveseat and matching 
chair, probably from 
the 1940s, which she 
had reupholstered.

Dump is the last resort

  Often, though, 
loads are more 
mundane. Typical 
pickups include 
sofas, futons, 
old exercise equip-
ment and patio 
furniture. Items 
of interest for
charity resale shops 
and nonprofits are 
donated. For 
non-donatable
items, the next 
best option is to 
have them recycled, 
usually for scrap 
metal. As a last 
resort, items are 
taken to the dump, 
something Barreca 
and Murray would 
like to do less 
of in the future.

  "Our dream is to 
have a warehouse 
location where we 
can store things 
(that resale shops)
don't want and then 
sell them or give 
them away to the 
needy. It's such 
a shame that we 
have to dump so 
many sofas and 
mattresses when you 
know there are 
people out there 
who could really use 
them," said Murray.

  For the time being, 
though, We Haul will 
once in a while use a
more direct approach
to make sure useful 
items don't go to 
waste. The time they 
cleansed out the estate
of an extremely zealous 
shopping enthusiast 
who left behind a house 
full of never-worn
designer clothes from 
Saks Fifth Avenue and 
Bloomingdales, Murray 
and Barreca were left
with bags and bags of 
expensive suits and 
coats. After donating 
what they could to
local charities, they 
went down to the 
Tenderloin and began 
giving away coats-which
must have been worth 
thousands of dollars 
each-to local homeless 
people. "And it was great
to be able to give so 
much away," Murray said.