YOUNGHOUSE DISTRIBUTING CO. INC.: LOCAL DISTRIBUTING COMPANY PROVIDES CUSTOMERS WITH THOUSANDS OF ITEMS

Candy gave E.C. Younghouse a sweet start, but it was novelty items like the hula hoop in the late 1950s and the Rubik's Cube in the mid-1970s, that gave his company the even sweeter smell of success.

Younghouse, president of the Younghouse Distributing Co. Inc., in Cape Girardeau is an expert on fads to fireworks, party goods to school supplies and toys to fishing tackle.

The Younghouse company, a family business, is a wholesale firm known throughout the Midwest for its wide variety of goods.

"You never know from one year to the next what you'll be selling," Younghouse said. "It's that kind of business. We may have a completely different line of items next year, or the year after."

The company wholesales items to drugstores, hospital gift shops, convenience stores, truck stops, flower and gift shops and other retail stores, schools and churches within a 200-mile area.

"Even farther sometimes," Younghouse said. "We do a couple of big shows each year, which brings us orders from as far away as Texas and Indiana."

In addition to wholesale, the company has a local retail outlet, but Younghouse points out that wholesale business accounts for more than 85 percent of annual sales.

The Younghouse business got its start in 1949, with the purchase of the old Perkinson Wholesale Candy Co., which was on Broadway in downtown Cape Girardeau.

Perkinson Candy Sales was established by W. L. and Norma Perkinson in the early 1920s and was on Water Street a number of years before moving to the 100 block of Broadway.

"The candy business was a highly competitive one," Younghouse said. "At one time early on, we were buying boxes of candy bars for 80 cents and selling them for 83 cents."

It was only good economic sense, Younghouse decided, to add some new, hopefully more profitable, products.

"We added a few novelty, souvenir and gift items," Younghouse said. "That was about 1951."

Things haven't been the same for Younghouse Distributing since.

"Over the years, we've changed and expanded our inventory many times," he said. "Some things have stayed, like party supplies, certain school supplies and toys.

Over the years, the company family tree has expanded, too. E. C. Younghouse is president; his wife, Mildred, is secretary; a son, Robert, is vice president; a son, Fred, is treasurer and general manager; and a son, Dan, who lives at Nashville, Ill., is a salesman. A grandson, Jonathan, 16, son of Fred Younghouse, helps on occasion.

E. C. Younghouse is also photographer for the company, taking many of the pictures that appear in colorful brochures used by salesmen.

In addition to running the business and keeping a finger on the buying pulse of his clients, Younghouse also keeps a finger on the public pulse of Cape Girardeau County. He will retire as county commissioner this year after serving on the board for six years.

Younghouse is also involved in real estate. In 1985, he started developing an area at the intersection of Independence and Sheridan, which has evolved into Independence Square, a complex which now includes several professional offices and a restaurant. Prior to that, he was president of Georgell Investments, which included a northeast portion of Town Plaza Shopping Center.

Younghouse Distributing has expanded a number of times.

The company moved more than 20 years ago to its present site near the intersection of Interstate 55 and Highway 74. It has expanded twice.

In 1984, the company added a 2,800-square-foot structure. The latest expansion came in September 1991, with the addition of a 7,500-square-foot warehouse facility.

The company has also expanded its territory over the past decade, from about a 100-mile radius to a 200-mile radius.

"That's a long way from the 25-mile area we covered when we first started," Younghouse said. "We used to call on a number of small stores throughout the immediate area. But, as we watched more and more of our customers disappearing, we started adding more lines and expanding our territory."

Without counting, Fred Younghouse says the company handles literally thousands of items -- as many as 8,000 to 10,000 of them, including 250 to 300 different kinds of fireworks.

"A number of items are designated for retail only," he said. He serves as sales manager and is involved in purchasing.

Most items, however, are for the wholesale trade.

"Although our lines may change from year to year, we have a number of items that are always available," Fred Younghouse said. "Small toys are always good. So are greeting cards and racks, school supplies and batteries -- we sell a bunch of batteries."

Sporting goods are also big items. The company carries a big line of fishing equipment -- rods, reels, hooks, line and sinkers. It also stocks some hunting supplies.

Although nothing has come close in popularity to the fascinating frustration of Rubik's Cube -- a mathematical puzzle named after its inventor, Hungarian architect Arno Rubik -- and the "waist-ballet" of the hoola hoop, Younghouse said some "staples" of American home and school life never go out of style.

These include fireworks for the Fourth of July holiday, kites in the early spring, Christmas items and gifts, crepe paper and pomps for holiday and school parades and much more.

"There's a lot of hard work involved here," E.C. Younghouse said. "You have to keep up with what's hot and what's not."

This can be accomplished in a number of ways, keeping good rapport with customers, attending buying and selling trade shows and keeping up with inventory and how it moves.

Younghouse keeps his inventory on computers. Until a few years ago, however, tracking was done by counting by hand.