WETASKIWIN, Alta. – The place reputed to be Canada’s largest farm
supply store sells carpets, bathtubs, horseshoes, lawn furniture, dog
food, salt blocks and coveralls. About the only things you won’t find
are groceries and bras.
“The guys would blush if they had to sell ladies dainties,” said
general manager Bert Horvey, during the grand opening of Country
Junction, the Wetaskiwin Co-op’s new outlet, and what Horvey believes
is the largest farm supply store in Canada.
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“We’ve yet to find anything in Canada this size,” said Horvey.
The 42-acre site has six acres of developed storage yard, 20,000 sq.
feet of cold storage, 40,500 sq. feet of retail space, 25,000 sq. feet
of heated warehouse, 810,000-litre bulk petroleum storage with a card
lock, and an 80,000 tonne feed mill.
The opening of the Wetaskiwin Co-op store is the beginning of a new era
for farm supply stores. Gone are the dark, dusty stores attached to
feed mills or gas stations, said Horvey as he walked down the brightly
lit aisles pointing out hardwood flooring, kitchen cabinets, bathtubs
and clothing.
“Farmers need toilet seats and fireplaces too,” he said.
“The image has to change when you think farm supply store.”
When planning began for the store expansion, Horvey flew across the
United States to get ideas of what the farm supply store of the future
might look like. Across the grain-growing states, few of the small
towns had services left for farmers. Instead, farmers were forced to
drive farther for their basic supplies.
“We decided our community is the one people are going to be driving to.”
The store in Wetaskiwin, about one hour south of Edmonton, just off the
busy Highway 2 corridor between Edmonton and Calgary, is aimed at
farmers, acreage owners and urban customers.
No longer can farm supply stores survive by selling low-margin products
like feed or fertilizer alone. Adding clothing, pet supplies, hardware
and garden supplies helps keep the entire business healthy, he said.
“The margin in farm supply is not high enough to pay the bills.”
Managers from Co-op stores in Innisfail and Wainwright, Alta., and
Melfort, Sask., have come to Wetaskiwin to study the model of the
gigantic country store for their communities.
As the tour through the store continued, Horvey pointed out other
products farmers could buy in the store.
“Every farm has a kitchen,” he said as he passed the cabinets.
“I don’t know any farmer out there that doesn’t have a deck or at least
a slab of concrete outside the house,” said Horvey as he circled the
lawn furniture.
