By Joshua Hinton, Senior Reporter
Waking up to go to work before the sun rises. Spending the whole day helping customers. Stocking shelves with no break. Going home after the sun is down. This is the life of a local business owner.
If 10 local or small businesses open today, at least 50% will close within five years, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Even if a business makes it to the five-year mark, it still can be difficult to stay open, with only one out of three local or small businesses making it 10 years, according to Dr. Garret Lahr, chair of Northwestern’s Division of Business.
“Ten years — if you hit that mark, you have done more than a lot of people,” Lahr said.
Yet amid the challenges businesses face, some persevere. Two Alva businesses — Holder Drug, open for 71 years, and Alva’s Market, open for 17 years — have adapted and overcome economic woes. The key to surviving turbulent times is to treat customers well, Lahr said.
“No. 1 in today’s world, you have to become customer-oriented,” he said. “With Amazon and all the online shopping, if a customer walks in the door and you are rude to them or you are not fulfilling the need that they have, they are going to walk back out the door and get online to order that product from Amazon or Walmart.”
The customer’s wants and needs are going to change over time, and likewise, the business needs to change with the customer, Lahr said.
“Customers 10 years ago aren’t the same as customers today,” he said. “You have to constantly be innovating and adaptable to the changing customer base and what their needs are going to shift to over that time period.”
Local or small businesses also need to be open and available when their customers do most of their shopping. Being open on the weekends and after 5 p.m. is necessary, Lahr said.
“A lot of people go into business, and they don’t open their store until 9 [a.m.] and close at 4 [p.m.],” he said. “All the working people who have money are at work 9 [a.m.] to 4 [p.m.]. When am I supposed to come into your store and shop if you’re not open on Saturday or only a couple hours on the weekend? Just being open is a big thing when so many other small businesses are not.”
BRINGING A STORE
TO LIFE
Randy Hamilton, co-owner of Alva’s Market, started working in grocery stores while in college during the 1970s. Years later, he opened his own.
“When they shut Homeland down here in town, I wanted a grocery store here to give the customers a second source to go to and shop,” Hamilton said.
He talked to five independent stores and two chain stores to try to bring them into town, but none would come to Alva. That didn’t deter him, though. He and his wife, Mary, and their children worked with investors to open the store. Mary Hamilton is a co-owner as well.
“It took him three years once he started to open the front door,” Mary Hamilton said. “During those three years, we traveled all over this part of the United States, looking for all the equipment. I knew it was going to be tough. I was teaching school at the time still, and I was going to have to come over here after school and work. But we have done it for 17, almost 18 years, and we love it.”
The Hamiltons credit the success of Alva’s Market to the citizens of Alva and their employees, whom they say provide friendly customer service.
“If you had to pick one word that Randy tells everybody, it’s ‘friendliness, friendliness, friendliness,’” Mary Hamilton said. “He wants everybody to walk in and feel like they are welcome here.”
The Hamiltons try to run the grocery store like an old-fashioned store.
“We try to carry out groceries and keep a smiling attitude here at the store,” Randy Hamilton said.
Alva’s Market has changed with the times, using iPhones to place orders and scan barcodes on the shelves. The Hamiltons try to keep their eyes out for what they think customers will want in the future.
“We watch for new products,” Mary Hamilton said. “If we see something on television and think, ‘Hey, that is going to be a neat product,’ then we try to come down and order that product, to where we can offer our customers the same stuff they are seeing on television.”
Randy Hamilton said they look for certain products if a customer comes in and asks for something they saw or bought at another place. The Hamiltons said they are working to expand what they offer for lunch specials and catering for events in town.
CONSTANT CHANGE
A few blocks away at 513 Barnes St. is a business started 53 years before Alva’s Market opened its doors: Holder Drug.
Holder Drug started when Jim Holder took over a bankrupt drug store in 1952 and started the business seen today. Jim and Mary Holder’s three children — Todd Holder, Sally Eggleston and Susie Simpson — own equal shares of the company. Todd Holder said he remembers the long hours his parents put into the business through the years.
“Mom and Dad put their lives and soul into this business,” he said. “They were here seven days a week, from very early morning to late at night. Lots of time on Saturday during those years, they wouldn’t close the store until midnight or one o’clock. They were here eight to nine hours on Sunday, only closing for church. My folks believed in honest, good, personal service, going above and beyond for this fabulous community.”
In its 71 years, Holder Drug has kept pace with ever-evolving medical technology, Holder said.
“My dad was a very innovative thinker,” he said. “They used to go to market twice a year in Dallas. [He] always kept himself addressed on new [medicinal] drugs and technology. He was one of the first pharmacies in the state of Oklahoma to have a computer system for a pharmacy, mainly because the filing of third-party prescription drugs was very labor-intensive. He believed that we should be talking to customers, not filling out forms. That’s when he made best use in ‘70s of a computer system. He kept changing to the latest and greatest of computer systems and technology.”
As is tradition, the store is still open seven days week. The store added a drive-through window for convenience and a full soda fountain where customers can grab a drink and ice cream.
“We don’t know for sure where [Holder Drug] is going to be,” Holder said. “Insurance is such that it’s very difficult to stay competitive because of the way industry and drug companies have controlled the market and big box stores. But we figure, as long as the good Lord wants us to be here, we’ll be here.”