BUCHHEIT STORE CHAIN STRESSES TEAMWORK, PERSONAL SERVICE

Shortly after Rudy Buchheit opened the first Buchheit farm and general merchandise store at Biehle in rural Perry County, he established a wagon wheel as the company's emblem.

The hub represents teamwork pulling together to make the business work. Buchheit's philosophy was, and remains: If a spoke is missing, a wheel doesn't work, and if employees aren't pulling together as a team a business will not work. In short: It's tough enough to make a business work with teamwork; without it, it's impossible. (The Buchheit wheel has 11 spokes, representing the number of children the founder and his wife produced.)

Teamwork and a lot of other things apparently are working well for the privately held Buchheit chain of stores. Rudy Buchheit opened the Biehle store in 1934 at the height of the Great Depression. The family now owns five stores, including two others in Missouri (Perryville and Herculaneum) and two in Illinois (Sparta and Jacksonville).

And now builders have broken ground for the newest, to be located along Highway 61-34 near Interstate 55 in Jackson. The 60,000 square foot facility will open sometime this fall, certainly by Thanksgiving, according to Tim Buchheit, company president and a grandson of the founder.

In addition, the company has expansion projects under way at two stores.

What kind of impact will the Jackson facility have on the community? Well, a $1 million payroll the first year should have some impact.

The goal of Buchheit stores, according to Buchheit, is to supply the rural dweller with everything he needs, and to that end their services include: The contracting and home improvement division; the farm section that includes lawn and garden, yard shelters, swings, goldfish ponds and tack; and the general merchandise division that includes everything from automotive supplies, hardware, clothing and toys to, well, you name it, including some less common items such as grandfather clocks, sausage stuffers, meat grinders, beer- and wine-making kits and muzzle-loading firearm replicas. In fact, the stores advertise more than 65,000 items, and Buchheit says that number is low.

And other goods and services are continually added, just as Grandfather Buchheit added to his inventory based on requests and suggestions from his customers ant family.

The variety of merchandise and services brings Buchheit into competition with national chains. What about the nation's largest retailer, Wal-Mart, which is erecting a super center just down the road from the new Buchheit location?

"I think we complement each other," said the company president. In fact, the Perryville store is located in a former Wal-Mart structure. One area where they will not compete: groceries. While the Biehle store still sells groceries, the other stores do not.

Buchheit thas a full-time buying staff that meets with sales representatives and travels to trade shows, always seeking ideas for new, appealing goods.

"Then we also belong to several buying groups that have several thousand stores, which gives us buying power and the ability to keep costs down and to compete with large chains," Buchheit explained. The be Buchheit stores have stressed customer service since Grandfather Buchheit began the first facility with a $200 loan. His motto: Rule 1. The customer is always right. Rule 2. When in doubt, refer to rule no. 1. Tim Buchheit said that tradition continues.

"We try to create a family environment, which leads to long-term employment," he said. "Your people: That's What makes a difference. We spend a lot of time on training. Every year we seem to spend more money on training." The company encourages employee participation through a system of suggestions and rewards. The suggestions have to make an impact in the employee's area. "Then we look at it and see if it can be applied elsewhere. It makes them feel a part of the company. "The be result: Last year about 1.5 suggestions per employee.

In the busy contractors' division, "We have everything you need to build a house and supply it," Buchheit said. "You can bring in your plans and we'll put them on a computer and tell you what you need and where it will go. It's a good service for the homeowner and especially for the contractor. They can call up and say, hey, send me a floor plan out, and well just send out the piece of it that they want."

At the Biehle store, they are taking the home improvement service one step farther, testing a process by which a draftsman does the actual house design.

Including Jackson, the company will employ about 700 persons.

The Buchheits are aware that Cape Girardeau's residential growth is occurring mostly on the north side. With Jackson's growth also spiraling, they believe the new store will be in an ideal location.

The company tries to promote managers from within, but finding people with the necessary experience is tough, according to Buchheit. The Jackson manager, Pete Rabbitt, was the manager of an existing store.

There are advantages to having the stores in fairly close proximity, such as joint advertising and the transferring of personnel.

Before the idea was fashionable, Grandfather Buchheit was adding lines, doing his best to make his store a one-stop shopping environment. Sometimes new lines occurred by accident. Once, Tim Buchheit remembers, "We were adding on to the store and somebody asked if we would sell the lumber we were using." They did, and lumber sales were added.

The Biehle store burned in 1986. The family rebuilt and about a year later began the expansion with the opening of the store at Sparta. Tim's father, Kenny, is chairman of the board. Four other sons, a daughter and their mother are also involved in the operation.

Tim Buchheit likes the Wal-Mart concept of locating in America's smaller cities, and expects Buchheit to keep expanding in that direction.

Does that mean expanding beyond this region?

Yes, certainly. "There seems to be a real movement to get back to rural America, to country living. Everybody is looking for land. It used to be, the American dream was to own your own house. Now it's's to own a house and some acreage. 'We feel the timing is right. We offer a clean, competitive, easy-to-shop-in store."

One point still to be decided: Is it Buchheit's or simply Buchheit, as in The Buchheit Store? "I don't know," Buchheit said. "Someday we'll have to decide."

Always something....