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Home / Washington Business - November/December 2003 / Member Profile: Ellensburg Business Adapts to Survive |
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Member Profile: Ellensburg Business Adapts to Survive |
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Written On: November/December 2003 |
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Written By: By Scott Carlson |
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“For your convenience” is not a catchy phrase Don Williams printed on the red sign that has sat atop his business’s roof since the first ding of the cash register’s bell in 1947. It’s a way of business that has endured for three generations and will soon start on its fourth.
Jerrol’s is a small, but thriving business on East 8th Avenue in Ellensburg that has seen a lot of changes during its 56 year history. The family-owned and run company has catered to motorists traveling to and from Seattle through central Washington. It has survived for so long because of its ability to adapt to consumer demand. Over the years, Jerrol’s owners have listened to what their customers say and acted on their advice.
It was U.S. Highway 10 running through the center of town that brought Jerrol’s a majority of its customers back when it was selling cups of coffee and hamburgers. This lasted until 1964 when Interstate 90 paved a four-lane path on the outskirts of town for Washington travelers – doing away with almost all traffic on Highway 10.
This was the year Jerrol’s founder Don Williams and his wife Irene retired and passed the store on to their son Jerry, who had first worked in Jerrol’s as a dishwasher when he was 11-years-old. This was a tradition that continues today for the Williams family.
However, then in his late twenties, Jerry was a little older and a little wiser. With Highway 10 no longer supplying patrons for the lunch counter, Jerry decided to tap into a source of customers in his own back yard – students at Central Washington University (CWU).
Since then, the employees at Jerrol’s do what they can to help CWU students succeed in their educational venture by selling them the textbooks and other supplies they need to complete their studies.
“During that time, the university had a fantastic growth rate,” Jerry said. “My dad retired, and we switched from selling hamburgers and donuts to text books and pencils.”
There is a university book store on campus for the students enrolled there. However, according to the Williams’, it may not have the flexibility and responsiveness Jerrol’s does.
“It’s not hard to compete,” said Jerrol’s current President Rolf Williams, who took over the store after his father Jerry retired in 1995. “As a private business, we can do a lot of things and react a lot faster … than they can.”
Jerry agreed that competing with the state run book store isn’t as difficult as it may seem.
“The students want a choice,” Jerry said. “The university treats students as the lowest thing on the pecking order.”
College students, as well as any customer, are held in high esteem once they walk through the front door of the shop, said Rolf.
The price of textbooks has also been a concern heard by the employees at Jerrol’s over the years. Jerry had simple motto for the university students. “Walk a block, save a buck.” And according to Jerry and Rolf, the students do choose to walk that bock to shop off-campus.
What may keep them coming back year-after-year, said assistant store manager Mark Brewer, is the fact that those who dictate store policy are very accessible to their customers. Rolf spends as much time running the cash register as any of his employees, putting him face-to-face with the happy or even unhappy customer.
Rolf said he wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I clean the restrooms from time to time. I shovel the snow” he said. “The size of my desk isn’t important. It’s the pleasure my customer has when they shop.”
And as Rolf and Jerry both did, several members of the Williams family get their first job at Jerrol’s; laying the foundation for a work ethic that has kept their business running for decades. Of the 24 employees at Jerrol’s, seven are family. And as more Williams children reach the appropriate age, they too will get their chance to learn the Williams work ethic at the small shop.
Outside of providing CWU students with collegiate necessities, Jerrol’s Book and Supply Company is very involved in the Ellensburg community, said Jerry.
Not only is Rolf a board member of the Ellensburg Chamber of Commerce, all schools receive discounts when they shop at Jerrol’s, he said. Rolf believes giving back to the community in any possible way will benefit lives far beyond grade school.
“Those are our customers down the road,” Rolf said. “If they don’t know how to read or don’t enjoy reading or they don’t get good books, that’s going to impact us. Not only us as a business, but us as a community.”
Jerrol’s gives well over $30,000 to local schools and charities annually, he added.
No matter what service they provide or who their customers may be, the one reason this family-owned business has stayed open for the better part of six decades is customer satisfaction and shopping convenience – a credo that will ring true as long as the cash register bell does for the Williams family, said Rolf.
And as long as the small shop on East 8th Avenue continues to keep its ear to the ground to listen to their shoppers, new customers will continue to walk through Jerrol’s front door and under the same red sign their parents, grandparents and possibly great grandparents have since 1947.
“The one thing we focus on is the customer,” he concluded. “The customer is boss, and that’s our story.”
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