Businesses evolve.
That might just be the case for brothers Larry and Bruce Miller when their dad, Fred, decided to buy all the shelving and some inventory from a going-out of business Gambles store across the street from their present location to build a hardware line at their Fred’s Feed location.
Today, they might call their late father a visionary. “Basically, it changed the way we did business,” said Bruce, noting Fred saw a rising lawn and garden interest among consumers as well as more and more do-it-yourself home improvements.
“Bruce and I thought that was a bad idea,” Larry said, noting there was a lot of curse words exchanged as they expanded the store from pure feeds and accessories to hardware, especially at a time when West Liberty already had a full-time True Value Hardware in direct competition.
Today, that side of the store on the west end of Third Street in downtown West Liberty does as much as the feed business, where they supply local rural and city residents with everything from pet foods to livestock and horse feed, primarily Kent Feeds products, but evolving to other brands customers have requested through the years.
For the first time since 1966, Fred’s Feed won’t be owned and operated by the Miller family, as a changeover will take place with the start of the new year. A young employee of the operation, Ben Probst, will be taking over management of Fred’s Feed, vowing to keep the original name and working hard to continue the firm’s commitment for providing great service and quality products to local customers.
Fred Miller opened the business in 1966, taking over an operation then known as Jake’s Feeds directly across the street from their present location, eventually moving the operation to the former feed mill in 1976 and teaching his young sons the business they would eventually take over in 1996.
Larry, who graduated from West Liberty High School in 1976 and Bruce, who graduated in 1974, both worked for the operation after high school, but Bruce didn’t join the family business until 1980.
The brothers said their dad was a master businessman. “He loved serving people,” said Larry, noting he remained a staple in the business even after selling out to his sons, working at the store until he died in 2013, nearly two decades after selling the business.
“He’d be in here every day,” said Bruce, noting his dad had a hard time giving up the social aspects of the business.
But that’s what Fred’s Feed is all about – providing for customers, giving them advise on projects and helping them with just about anything they might need without having to “drive out of town to get it.”
The brothers said the business quickly changed in the 1980’s and 90’s when the hog raising industry went from outdoor to indoor confinement operations and they found themselves proud to be serving customers from the hardware side of their store as well – providing top quality paint, power tools and other hardware products as well as lawn and garden seeds and supplies and even footwear.
Bruce said the lawn and garden side of the business has shown “tremendous growth” the past three decades and the business has worked to adapt to the wishes of customers as best as possible.
“West Liberty is a big enough town that you have lots of opportunity to sell a variety of things,” said Bruce, noting when a few customers start asking for the same thing, it gets on their order sheet. Bruce said he’s been to many hardware industry meetings where they talk about “planning” for consumer spending, but he says Fred’s Feed has always had the reputation of being “reactive” to customers and that has worked through the years.
“We sell tons of pet food,” Bruce explained. “When more than one person starts asking for certain brands, we get them in,” he said, noting the word seems to spread through the community in feeding that need and growing their business.
The brothers, who plan to continue to work part-time, said the store has built a reputation on “saving people from taking trips out of town” by having the items they need. Soon-to-be owner Probst said paints are one of the projects the store can provide “from start to finish,” although pointing out they may not be able to provide everything a do-it-yourselfer might need on a major plumbing project.
Open five and a half days a week (closed Saturday afternoon and Sunday) Fred’s Feed has a reputation for having products local consumers desire and if they don’t have it, the brothers say to just ask and "you may find it in their store the next time you visit." Whether it’s a Colona Ice Cream Bar, a snow shovel or a bag of chicken feed, the store has just about anything local consumers won’t find at other businesses in the area.
“I just went day by day,” said Bruce of building the business, noting there was a point in time he wasn’t sure he’d stick around, but was glad he got through the tough times to make it to the end, noting even though they weren’t open seven days a week, it was a lot of hours for a small staff.
“We’re very satisfied with the way it turned out,” said Bruce, Larry adding they’re happy to be selling the business to an employee who will carry on the reputation their dad built. “It’s a good business,” he said. “We wouldn’t be selling if we didn’t think someone could make a good living from it.”
The business expanded in 1979 by adding a warehouse for feed products, adding to that building in 2015.
The brothers thanked the community for being faithful. “We’ve had really good community support, not only from the rural areas, but the city too,” said Larry. “We really have great customers.” He also praised local businesses for their support, noting just about everyone in town comes to Fred's for products, including West Liberty Foods.
The new owner
Probst, 29, said he’s taking a leap of faith in taking over the business. The rural West Liberty resident started working at Fred’s Feed in August, 2008 and left the business for a couple of years only to return in March 2015. A graduate of the University of Iowa, Probst said buying Fred’s Feed was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up.
He said the Millers have been great about providing business knowledge while helping him get acquainted with customers and said he just wants to build off their reputation and “keep things going as best as possible.”