OT Home a change of pace for Monsons
Published Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Photo by Tom Hintgen
Click to enlarge.
Three years ago Dewey Monson worked as a lineman for Great River Energy and lived with his wife, Linda, in New York Mills. She was employed in quality control for Industrial Finishing Service in Deer Creek. Now, three years later, they own and operate Ottertail Home Center.
“We both were looking for a change in our lives, and we’ve found it here in Ottertail City,” Dewey said. “We been here for 21⁄2 years and things are going well.”
Dewey and Linda pride themselves in customer service that goes beyond what many business people offer — including free deliveries and free estimates on home and other building projects, to name a few.
“Our business philosophy is simple: to provide the highest quality products and service after the sale,” Linda said. “We want Ottertail Home Center to be second to none.”
Staples at Ottertail Home Center include lumber, building materials, paints, electrical items, plumbing materials and what Dewey terms “most things needed for the contractor and do-it-yourselfer.”
Stores such as Ottertail Home Center were once as much a part of American small-town culture as the drug store soda fountain and local church. In small towns in Otter Tail County, other parts of Minnesota and across the nation they supplied items such as fasteners, keys, locks, hinges, wire, chains, plumbing supplies and tools.
Ottertail Home Center still does that — and much more.
People in Ottertail City and the surrounding area appreciate the Ottertail Home Center staff as people they can turn to for advice. In other small towns all across the nation, larger complexes called building materials centers have driven many of the old mom and pop type lumber-hardware stores out of business.
“Here in Ottertail City we still have a niche in being able to help the contractors and the do-it-yourselfers,” Dewey said. “We want to maintain that type of relationship for people who come here for our products and service after the sale — for many years to come.”
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