How rural retail is changing

Progressive Farmer has an article detailing how rural retail is changing, Not Your Father’s Farm Store.

Indeed, successful retailers know that much of what they sell can be had in the big box stores, sometimes cheaper. It’s what goes along with the sale that keeps their parking lots full. “We have four certified crop advisers, an animal nutritionist, two pesticide application specialists, two master gardeners and a nursery professional on staff here,” Deatherage notes. Producers now has a lawn-and-garden center, but even the so-called farm store is well lit and ultraclean so it appeals to women.
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“In the 1980s, people from the city began moving back out, and that’s when the concept of rural lifestyle began to take off,” notes Blake Fohl, TSC’s vice president of advertising and marketing. The chain has tapped into hobby and part-time farmers in a big way.

“Since the 1990s we’ve had the Agurbs,” Fohl says. “People want their little piece of heaven. With interstate highways, people can live out and commute to work. They like smaller communities and the rural lifestyle. That is the lifestyle we serve.”

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About Becky McCray

Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband have a small cattle ranch and are lifelong entrepreneurs. Becky is an international speaker on small business and rural topics.