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Re: Fleet Farm

O

oldtanker

Well-known Member
I don't know how many threads I've read on here of complaints about farm stores (insert name here) becoming more and more a yuppy store.

When places like Mills Fleet Farm got started there were lots of farmers and they had no need to chase after other customers. Now today there are nowhere near the numbers enough to keep them in business. What Mill's, TSC and others have done is follow the markets. When I graduated high school here in west MN about 70% of my classmates parents worked on the farm or AG related businesses. Now with fewer farmers they average less than 20% of the students have parents in AG or AG related work. Farm supply stores reflect demand in an area. High AG demand means AG products in the stores. Lower demand they bring in other things to gain a customer base that will spend enough to keep the doors open.

You may not like it but that's they way it is. When the city guy walks in and drops 500 on new hunting duds and some decoys and the farmer walks in and buys 30 bucks worth of baler twine who do you think they are going to cater to?

Rick
 
Well, DUH, the farmer, of course, because they are a farm store!

(Or, maybe NOT!)

On the other hand, $30 doesn't buy you much baler twine.

In my area, the guy that rents my land, as well as many others spend a grand or two on round baler twine and/or netwrap.

For those guys, there would be no point in stopping at the type of facility being discussed here.
 
Certainly understandable.

However, there is still the same number of acres planted, baled, etc.

If 1000 balls of twine were sold 30 years ago, still selling that, likely more for baling cornstalks too theses days.

Maybe only 20 farmers compared to 50, but didnt decrease the amount of supplies purchased?

Paul
 
paul, I agree to a certain extent.But there is a lot of sub-divisions and such that has went up in the last 30 yrs. just is not the same amount of farmers nor acres to be planted now days.In my area alone I've seen 2,000+ acres go to a collage ,meijers, Walmart, houses and so on in the last 30 years.
 
I was going to ask this in the other thread, but I'll
try here. Didn't the name Fleet Farm originally
mean only farmers/businesses with over a given
number of engines could shop at the store? I may
be wrong but I thought someone told me that once.
 
(quoted from post at 21:20:06 01/05/16) Certainly understandable.

However, there is still the same number of acres planted, baled, etc.

If 1000 balls of twine were sold 30 years ago, still selling that, likely more for baling cornstalks too theses days.

Maybe only 20 farmers compared to 50, but didnt decrease the amount of supplies purchased?

Paul
Click to expand...

Paul, not here and a lot of other areas. Most guys around me no longer raise livestock. All grain is becoming the norm here. Other areas too. Most of the time in the store in Fergus Falls and Alexandria you see a guy putting one or 2 rolls of twine in their cart at a time.

So no they are not selling nearly the twine, fingers, rock guards or sections as they did in the past. Don't see too many guys baling corn stalks around here either. 40 years ago these were all small dairies.

Rick
 
Yes- the fleet store system in question (Mills) was started that way about 1955- Dad had to register how many engines he had on the farm, to get the "buys" at a discount...in the St. Cloud, MN store
 
It's not only the farm stores but small towns themselves in our town
at one time there was 3 implement dealers now 1 3 large feed dealers
who ground feed now nobody grinds and only 1 selling feed also grocery
stores , shoe stores , creamery , cheese factories the list goes on
basically rural towns got gutted when nobody wants to work 24/7 on a
small farm when you can go get a factory job work 8 hrs get a paycheck
and the weekend off to spend it.
I was thinking about a town not far from me and the livestock sale
barn had Thursday sales right next to them was a restaurant and a farm
and fleet all were packed on Thursday and the farm and fleet was built
at that location because of the sale barn. Monroe wi still has both
and if you want to know how many farmers are around stop in on sale
day. It gets interesting when you look at the address on the truck a
lot of them are driving quite a distance but still stop at farm and
fleet.
 
I'd say that round baling consumes a lot less twine than small squares that farmers used to use. Only guys using small squares around here are selling to horse folks. And I haven't seen a sickle bar mower used in a long time. Very few dairy farms left, but the survivors are really big. Times change.
 
Well you're right I think, farm stores need the fast moving inventory to be able to afford the stuff farmers buy these days.Anyway a place like TSC is more like what old general stores used to be years ago and no one complained about them having too many different
things to sell.I think some people just like to complain about any and everything.
 
Paul,I'am not going to disagree with you,but if you look deeper into most areas,you will find a lot of land owned by older farmers is now laying dormant and not being farmed.Maybe being 1/4-1/2 being farmed just tobe doing something and stay active.FSA office said a couple years ago,just in their 2 counties over 200,000A wasn't being farmed now that was 5-10 years ago due to older farmers slowing down andn NOT renting their ground out.These counties went from 10 and 15 dealerships to 0 and 1,so now we are 30-45 miles from a dealer.
 
(quoted from post at 04:57:26 01/06/16) It's not only the farm stores but small towns themselves in our town
at one time there was 3 implement dealers now 1 3 large feed dealers
who ground feed now nobody grinds and only 1 selling feed also grocery
stores , shoe stores , creamery , cheese factories the list goes on
basically rural towns got gutted when nobody wants to work 24/7 on a
small farm when you can go get a factory job work 8 hrs get a paycheck
and the weekend off to spend it.
.
Click to expand...

It's not that there are not people out there who don't want to farm. Look back just here on YT at the numbers who want to farm but can't afford to. When the government did away with the subsidies it got to the point that a young family could no longer afford to work 160 acres with 20 milking cows. That and several other things the government did plus the Carter/Regan recession with the high interest rates killed the small farm. Today with the cost of land young people just can't afford to get into it. A nephew of mine looked at it. The banker told him he was going to have to have at least 500 acres either bought or leased plus would have to agree to have at least 80 milking cows before they would even talk to him. This was 13-14 years ago. He would have had to be willing to borrow at least 500,000 to get started, be a lot more than that today. The amount of debt scared him off.

But yea, people leaving the small farm is what killed the small town too.

Rick
 
The only acre around here that could be farmed that is not is in a goverment program that prevents farming it. Half acre spots that used to be farmed even with 4 row equipment just cannot be farmed with 6 row or bigger equipment. So only those spots are not farmed but there is no idle acres laying.
 
Most complaints are not about having too much stuff but empty bins. As for slow moving parts if they would have so they could order and get it in for you in 4 days complaints would drop but even if it shows to be able to be ordered it would take a month to get it in as is.
 
(quoted from post at 07:53:39 01/06/16) Most complaints are not about having too much stuff but empty bins. As for slow moving parts if they would have so they could order and get it in for you in 4 days complaints would drop but even if it shows to be able to be ordered it would take a month to get it in as is.
Click to expand...

That's the new norm. Instead of having tons of slow moving inventory take that money and put it in stuff that turns around fast. Lots of places are doing that but unless the have warehousing facilities with a good distribution network they just can't keep all the slow moving stuff in stock all the time and still be competitive. Yea I get frustrated with it too but except from specialty businesses like a dealership they just can't do that anymore. They are also competing against online sales too. So price point becomes very important. While some of us might be willing to pay a little more to have the stuff in stock a lot of people would get angry and start ordering bulk online and the store looses business.

Rick
 
(quoted from post at 07:40:18 01/06/16)
(quoted from post at 04:57:26 01/06/16) It's not only the farm stores but small towns themselves in our town
at one time there was 3 implement dealers now 1 3 large feed dealers
who ground feed now nobody grinds and only 1 selling feed also grocery
stores , shoe stores , creamery , cheese factories the list goes on
basically rural towns got gutted when nobody wants to work 24/7 on a
small farm when you can go get a factory job work 8 hrs get a paycheck
and the weekend off to spend it.
.
Click to expand...

It's not that there are not people out there who don't want to farm. Look back just here on YT at the numbers who want to farm but can't afford to. When the government did away with the subsidies it got to the point that a young family could no longer afford to work 160 acres with 20 milking cows. That and several other things the government did plus the Carter/Regan recession with the high interest rates killed the small farm. Today with the cost of land young people just can't afford to get into it. A nephew of mine looked at it. The banker told him he was going to have to have at least 500 acres either bought or leased plus would have to agree to have at least 80 milking cows before they would even talk to him. This was 13-14 years ago. He would have had to be willing to borrow at least 500,000 to get started, be a lot more than that today. The amount of debt scared him off.

But yea, people leaving the small farm is what killed the small town too.

Rick
Click to expand...

This isn't a prime area, but ag land around here never goes unused. And any property changes hand fast. Most older farmers have standing offers for their land, often from relatives. It's pretty rare for a outsider to get their foot in the door.
 
Just wait to see what happens. Mills Fleet Farm just sold off majority ownership to a New York
investment firm. Mills family retained a minority share. It will turn into a Walmart even faster.
Look at Menards, you can do your grocery shopping there. Every store wants to be a one stop shop.
They want to appeal to both sexes.
 
A sad one to add here is south jersey. Over in Medford,nj the local "feed" store closed last week. Kirby's Mills. They just got less and less. The interview was a real bummer. There still is one in Egg harbor called Butterhoffs and they have a pretty good selection of OLD store type stuff. Wood stove in winter with broken up pallets and they even sell chicks in the spring. Lsts and lots o dust on everything.
 
These are mostly all(90%) good productive farms Leroy.If grain prices keep going down and Interest rate income goes back up,there might be more older farmers do the same thing.Other then taxes-ins.,that land isn't going anywhere or costing anything much.
 
Wow, you can't find an acre around here not being farmed. Property taxes in my county are close to $50 an acre, no one is going to let that sit idle. There is a lot of CRP on marginal land, maybe you are calling that idle, but anything allowed to farm is farmed and thrn some! Rent is $200-$250 an acre so e even higher, what retired person is dumb enough to let the land sit idle?

Never heard of such a thing?

Had 2 people try to steal the road ditch hay from me this year, we are even 'farming' every bit of the road ditches to get hay around here. Most get 2 cuttings from the road sides.

Just can't believe anyone lets land lay idle. And especially the past 5 years, crop prices were so high, they were plowing up grass plotted out and set up for city streets, plowed from curb to curb and planted each block if the various cities left thrm.

I can see some of that dropping away again as we get to below $3 corn and $8 beans, but there won't be any real farm acres left idle here!

Paul
 
WE see that here too. Everyone knows who has farmable land that may come open to rent or buy.

Rick
 
There used to be land like that around here - small 1-2 acre plots that were not "worth" farming but the high price of land ended that. Now that creek, ditch or the tree line that broke that half acre out is straightened or cleaned up so it can be farmed with a larger plot. With land costing $5000 to $10,000 an acre nobody is going to pay taxes on unproductive dormant land.
 
(quoted from post at 10:08:40 01/06/16) A family living off of 160 acres? Didn't that end around 1955?
Click to expand...

Still had families making a bare living off of that here in the mid 70's. In fact the average farm around here was between 160 and 200 acres at that time.

Rick
 
I agree we farmers are more efficient, and many have gone to disk cutters instead of sickle mowers and round balers instead of small square -
less parts to buy, less to sell, less to stock. I do agree with you that there is less merchandise to handle as you say.

Was just driving down Broadway in town and though of the old farm supply store dad would take me to when I was about 5-8 years old. He
would get 3 plow lays and the bolts, I remember him getting a replacement socket for his Truecraft socket set, he wore out the 9/16. I still have
that set, in its metal case. The ratchet has held up....

Anyhow, it was sold and converted to a CPA office, building is still there. Parking for about 8 cars if you really squeeze, building looks smaller
than a house of today with 3 stall garage. But it held everything dad used to farm, the consumables.

Runnings started up in town, built a metal building down by the railroad tracks. Wow was there room in there! And stuff! That got converted into
a school, now business offices. Runnings moved to an old HyVee store, then to a bigger old Randall's grocery store, and just a couple years
ago moved to the not so old empty Kmart store. Their sporting goods section is bigger than the entire first store building; and their first building
was several times bigger than that old farm supply store dad took me to before in was in school.

Stuff changes, that's the only thing we can count on.

I have an old Vermeer round baler. Dealership is 50 miles away. None of the Runnings, Mills, TSC, etc stores in visit carry teeth for it. But the
one Runnings store up near the dealership does.

They stock what they sell. That is what it comes down to.

Paul
 
(quoted from post at 10:08:15 01/06/16) Wow, you can't find an acre around here not being farmed. Property taxes in my county are close to $50 an acre, no one is going to let that sit idle. There is a lot of CRP on marginal land, maybe you are calling that idle, but anything allowed to farm is farmed and thrn some! Rent is $200-$250 an acre so e even higher, what retired person is dumb enough to let the land sit idle?

Never heard of such a thing?

Had 2 people try to steal the road ditch hay from me this year, we are even 'farming' every bit of the road ditches to get hay around here. Most get 2 cuttings from the road sides.

Just can't believe anyone lets land lay idle. And especially the past 5 years, crop prices were so high, they were plowing up grass plotted out and set up for city streets, plowed from curb to curb and planted each block if the various cities left thrm.

I can see some of that dropping away again as we get to below $3 corn and $8 beans, but there won't be any real farm acres left idle here!

Paul
Click to expand...

Paul I don't know the current land rent prices here but the amount of land that has come out of CRP over the last 3 years is amazing. We had 2 pieces, one 40 and the other 160 that came out of CRP just this past year within one mile from where I sit. And everyone of these guys are planting every square inch they can. And a fair number don't even have livestock as I said before. One family farm that now milks 500 head doesn't bale hay. Everything is chopped and bagged. They have a bunker for corn. They feed with a TMR and a loader. But another neighbor is tilling well over 1000 acres and doesn't own any livestock. The face of farming has changed.

Rick
 
(quoted from post at 10:28:29 01/06/16)
(quoted from post at 10:08:15 01/06/16) Wow, you can't find an acre around here not being farmed. Property taxes in my county are close to $50 an acre, no one is going to let that sit idle. There is a lot of CRP on marginal land, maybe you are calling that idle, but anything allowed to farm is farmed and thrn some! Rent is $200-$250 an acre so e even higher, what retired person is dumb enough to let the land sit idle?

Never heard of such a thing?

Had 2 people try to steal the road ditch hay from me this year, we are even 'farming' every bit of the road ditches to get hay around here. Most get 2 cuttings from the road sides.

Just can't believe anyone lets land lay idle. And especially the past 5 years, crop prices were so high, they were plowing up grass plotted out and set up for city streets, plowed from curb to curb and planted each block if the various cities left thrm.

I can see some of that dropping away again as we get to below $3 corn and $8 beans, but there won't be any real farm acres left idle here!

Paul
Click to expand...

Paul I don't know the current land rent prices here but the amount of land that has come out of CRP over the last 3 years is amazing. We had 2 pieces, one 40 and the other 160 that came out of CRP just this past year within one mile from where I sit. And everyone of these guys are planting every square inch they can. And a fair number don't even have livestock as I said before. One family farm that now milks 500 head doesn't bale hay. Everything is chopped and bagged. They have a bunker for corn. They feed with a TMR and a loader. But another neighbor is tilling well over 1000 acres and doesn't own any livestock. The face of farming has changed.

Rick
Click to expand...

I've heard of some big dairies that have very little acreage, but buy all the inputs, milking 3000+ cows. Mostly with foreign money, but they have problems with manure disposal. One guy near here pumps manure over a mile to his own treatment plant! I heard some folks were upset that he got some government money to build the plant.
 
Tanker I think it has to do with fast moving items vrs shelf setters. Look at dog food vrs clutch discs for old tractors. Which is going to sell??? So if you run a store what would you put on the shelf???
 
Paul and others,the numbers are the FSA quotes,not mine,yes some are CREP acres,but most I'am seeing is 150-200+corn and 60-70 bean ground.Plus a few good decent farms have been put back 100% into trees by angry older people because they(renters) didn't farm the way they liked or the way DAD or Grandpaw did.Maybe it is dumb,but it is their land and their money and if they are happy,IT IS NO ONE ELSES BUSINESS what they do or don't do.As far as the Farm-Fleet thing,The BEAN COUNTERS took over.TSC stores until the 80s were mostly dingy hole in the wall stores,but they had M&W-DMI-JD Power Blocks type things that a lot of main line dealers didn't carry,but look at them now(bright shiny white buildings)and no tractor parts.Rural King same only bigger stores.End of story.
 
(quoted from post at 13:54:38 01/06/16) Tanker I think it has to do with fast moving items vrs shelf setters. Look at dog food vrs clutch discs for old tractors. Which is going to sell??? So if you run a store what would you put on the shelf???
Click to expand...

I think I kinda said that just used different terms. But yea that's what it has come down too.

Rick
 
Paul
You bring back memories of my time in N.U. You must be referring to Bob Eichinger's store. He sold lots of stuff there, even had muffler/tire shop in basement.
And Don Morris' Cafe in front. About 15 x 20 feet, with gas pumps. Big cafe, had horseshoe shaped counter, could seat about 10 or 12 at a time. Remember a judge having afternoon coffee break, said the sign reads "Home cooking". Don told him-"Dxxx it Bill, if you want home cooking, go home to eat".
Seems somebody in state health dept thought it unwise for him to do cooking, serving & pumping gas, so took out gas pumps.
Left the area in 86, still get back occasionally to visit.

Willie
 
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