A longtime staple in Southwest Washington, The Farm Store in Chehalis is under new partial ownership.
A little over a month after Jason and Katherine Humphrey officially took ownership, the pair said they plan to change little at a store with nearly a century of history.
“From the feed and agricultural portion of the community, it’s kind of been a pillar,” Jason told The Chronicle Tuesday. “And I wanted it to stay there, to stay like that.”
The Humphreys purchased their stake from Tom Cristin, a longtime employee who joined local farmer Dave Fenn to buy the store in 2004. The sale officially closed Sept. 1.
“As Tom was retiring, and Tom has done an amazing job running the store, and I think he’s offered to help us learn. I mean, this wasn’t just dumped in our laps. He’s a great guy,” Katherine said. “So that’s been a little bit of a comfort because we’re kind of out on a limb right now buying half this store.”
“Tom spent his whole working career here, basically. It was his first job out of high school, and he worked his way up from warehouse guy to salesman to owner, and he kind of guided this ship and created a great business,” Jason said. “So we thank him for that, and we want to continue his good work.”
The store dates back to 1927 when it was known as the Lewis-Pacific Dairymen's Association, before it was later sold to West Farm of Seattle in 1968. In 2004, Cristin and Fenn joined to purchase the store to keep the business locally owned, a tradition the Humphreys wanted to maintain.
“We wanted it to stay locally owned, and not necessarily become a chain of some sort, I think, was pretty important to both of us,” Jason said. “And I think the community’s better off because of that because the profits of the business, and everything, stay here instead of getting shipped out of the community.”
Though they are new to The Farm Store, the Humphreys are not new to agriculture. The pair met at Washington State University, where Jason studied veterinary medicine and Katherine earned a degree in crop science.
“We want to certainly be service-oriented, and I think that’s going to set us apart from our competitors, is being able to provide knowledgeable service and being able to provide them the products that they need,” Jason said. “So that’s kind of going to be our key focus.”
Jason said the store will also start a series of educational workshops with rotating speakers to provide additional service to customers.
While the pair have a farming background, Katherine said there's been a “steep learning curve” with learning to operate the store.
“We have a really great staff here, people who know their jobs and what to do,” Katherine said. “I think we’ll tweak things along the way. We’re always looking to change things for the better, but right now we’re focused on learning the business.”
Though the store is located in Chehalis, The Farm Store services a variety of customers throughout Southwest Washington. With so many products on the shelves, Jason said it’s been an adjustment to work with so many new vendors.
“I helped do inventory one day and I was like ‘Wow, I didn’t know we had this,’” Katherine said.
The Farm Store in Chehalis is located at 561 W. Main St.
“It was just really important to us that it stayed local. We’re real big supporters of local businesses, local agriculture,” Katherine said. “And hopefully with good customer service, we’ll compete with the big boxes.”
