How to reinvent something everybody thinks is finished: Coldwater Seed & Supply.

Hoskins Seed Store (Photo appears to have been taken sometime in the late 1930’s)

EDITOR’S NOTE –  It was 1930 when Mr. Hoskins opened the doors for the first time on 6th. Street. Back in the day, owning a seed store in the Deep South was pretty much a sure-bet. This part of Colbert County held a slew of family farms. The farmers would amble to town in their wagons, sometimes with wives and children in tow, other times not, to purchase seed and fertilizer and cotton poison. Now, add to the business he did from the farmers the demand for backyard garden seed from just about everybody in town. You could hardly go wrong owning a seed and fertilizer business. Yes indeed, Hoskins Seed Store was a going concern. Mr. Hoskins was a lucky man. His son, Percy took the store over when his dad retired sometime in the ’40’s. They were friends with Herman and Rivers Wiggins and young Billy Wiggins, of Florence and Sheffield. These men, this writer’s father, grandfather and great-uncle, had Florence Seed & Feed Company. The Hoskins and the Wiggins’ often helped each other out in business. When somebody’s supply of a seed ran low, the other store would loan them what they needed. It was civilised. The age was civilised.

K Mart was one of the first “mass marketers”.

As the years progressed, huge multi-location retailers were selling garden seed and tomato plants. They sold fertilizer. They were open at all hours of the day and night. No more closing the store on Wednesday afternoon for golf and drinks. No more closing on Sunday. The old-timers were up against a wall. And the business changed. What was once a civilized, genteel way of doing business was supplanted by the mass marketers, and the old guys couldn’t (or wouldn’t) change.

Hoskins sold out in 1975. He was old and, quite frankly, had seen enough. Forty-five years of doing business in the same spot on 6th. Street was a testament to his tenacity, since his business had peaked sometime in the early 1960’s. Ray Lacks bought the store; stayed with it for ten years or so. He got out by selling to Danny Inman who didn’t stay with it long.

TUSCUMBIA – Harlan King took the place and held on until Dwight James took ownership in 2003. James had been a banker for 25 years and had hardly any experience in retailing— let alone retailing in what was believed by most folks as a dying industry.

What was he thinking?

Q – How do you tell who the business-owner is?
A – He’s the one with the broom in his hands.
Dwight James

“I knew from my banking years that any business that relies on ninety-to-a hundred twenty days of decent business a year was doomed,” he told The Quad-Cities Daily. “It was an impossibility. But I had an idea in my mind for this place and so my wife and I took the plunge,” he explained.

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James decided to transform the store, now called “Coldwater Seed & Supply Co., Inc.” , into a place that contained a multitude of different products which had sales-intensity at different parts of the year. In his mind, this new incarnation would be sustainable year-round.

Some of Coldwater’s best sellers are the authentic Radio Flyer wagons and toy cars and tricycles.

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“Look at this!” James said as he pointed to the display of Case Knives. “Knives were never part of the old store, but when you think about it, this product is a natural.”

Dwight James at one of many CASE KNIVES display cases.

He continued, “Folks come from all over to look at our inventory. Case and I  promote the product with advertising and direct mail twice a year.” That is only one product that helps smooth out the dips in the year. He brought in Radio Flyer classic wagons and toy cars. Real metal… not the plastic stuff one will find at the mass marketer’s stores. They sell lear long.

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James climbs up to mezzanine for bags of herbs and medicinal plants.

“Check this out,” he exclaimed as he climbed a ladder and began pulling bags off of a mezzanine, “roots and herbs. You would be amazed at just how popular this stuff is! I sell it year round, and even ship to other retailers all over the country.”

One of many natural medicinals in stock.

Among the varieties are ginseng, goldenseal. Another piece of the puzzle of how to transform a supposedly dying market into a 21st Century business.

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Seed bins manufactured in 1910. These have been in the store since Hoskins first opened in 1930.

Of course James still sells garden seed. Why wouldn’t he? It’s a great business during the planting season in the Spring and Fall. The seed bins at the front of the store are the same ones that Hoskins opened the place with in 1930. Hoskins probably bought them used since they are dated 1910.

White’s metal Detectors

At first glance, a store visitor doesn’t really notice the high-tech. But it is there. You walk back on the aisle behind the old office and you’ll find it right there. White’s Metal Detectors Metal Detectors ! This product would have never entered the mind on Mr. Hoskins.

But they are there. “Yeah, but that’s not all,” James said as he led this reporter back to the other side of the building and into a partitioned room off the back. In there was a young woman busily loading up shipping boxes. She was packing those same metal detectors up for delivery to retailers in four states. “We became one of seven distributors for White’s two years ago,” he explained.

Writer’s note: I can’t imagine what my grandfather or Mr. Hoskins would have thought. Would they embrace the concept, or would they look askance, saying that this way of marketing was some sort of impure act? I guess I’ll never know.

When asked if his products were somehow more expensive than Lowe’s or Home Depot (who have practically put K-Mart out of business), James said, “Absolutely not!” He takes care to price his goods competitively. The only thing shoppers at his store don’t find there is the hustle and bustle of the big chain stores. The sense of nostalgia reigns supreme.

Every Spring Coldwater stocks a multitude of garden plants and supplies.

Evidently whatever he is doing must be working.