It was sad to read about the closure of all Peavey Mart stores across Canada. Over their almost 60-year history, there were few country residents who had not visited the uniquely rural lifestyle stores if they were anywhere nearby. Sure, they were mostly hardware stores and were probably put out of business due to severe competition from giant regional hardware and building supply stores. But they also sold a lot of unique stuff like fence posts, cowboy boots, salt blocks, barbed wire and myriad animal feeding containers for chickens to cattle. The list was enormous; keeping track of the ever-changing inventory must have been daunting.
Your sentimental writer was quite familiar with Peavey Mart, having worked next door at a feed and vet supply store in a previous life. It wasn’t just any Peavey Mart either it was the very first of its kind, and it was built in Dawson Creek, BC. At the time, it was called the National Farmway store and was part of a redevelopment project in 1967 that included a much-enlarged grain elevator complex, feed mill, store and veterinary supply operation. It was a busy operation and was intended to be the prototype for similar developments at other National Grain locations around the prairies. But alas, fate intervened, and within a few years, the concept went in a different direction, particularly at its birthplace in Dawson Creek.
Around 1974, the feed mill burned down and was not rebuilt, which saw a lot of business in the BC Interior and Okanagan being lost. Then, in 1975, Cargill Grain bought out the National Grain Elevator company and all its assets, including the Farmway Stores. Cargill was not interested in the retail Farmway stores’ operation and sold them to the Peavey Corporation of Minneapolis. The name was subsequently changed to Peavey Mart. The new entity then opened new stores across the west, which were later sold to Canadian owners who then bought out several similar rural hardware store chains in eastern Canada.
At one time, there were over 90 Peavey stores across the country. Interestingly, Peavey Mart bought out Tractor Supply Stores (TSS) in Ontario, which was a sizeable chain of American rural lifestyle stores that still operates across the USA. TSS stores in the US were less of a general hardware store; they catered more to acreage dwellers, hobby farmers and the well-heeled horse hobby industry.
It’s hard to know what caused the demise of Peavey Mart – it might be a declining rural, farmer, rancher population, or fearsome competition from big box hardware stores. Amazon probably played a part, or maybe it was unfortunate business and management decisions or all of the above. It’s the bit-by-bit losses that kill small-town businesses. Ranches and farms get bigger – instead of buying ten blocks of cattle salt at a local Peavey Mart, they get a ton of blocks for a discount directly from a distant wholesaler. One of the unique aspects of the Dawson Creek Peavey Mart and adjacent feedstore and elevator was that it was located directly on the Alaska Highway. That location brought in business from American agriculture-connected folks who were returning to Alaska from the continental USA. They would load up on farm and livestock supplies that were much cheaper in Dawson Creek than in remote Alaska.
Most folks are unaware that Alaska has a small commercial-sized ag industry in a few valleys near Anchorage and Fairbanks that supply fresh dairy products, eggs and poultry to the local population. The Yukon and the Alaska Highway had some cattle ranches, numerous hobby farmers, hillbillies, hippy communes, off-the-grid homesteaders and other such denizens who came into the Dawson Creek BC Peavey Mart and adjacent feed store for their last stop, sometimes only once a year.
Some other interesting customers were outfitters who spent thousands on supplies and feed for their pack horses used on hunting expeditions. Tons of feed were sometimes flown to remote hunting lodges. Other unique customers included dog sled racing folks who bought dog-related equipment and dry dog food pellets by the ton. In the winter, they would pull in with large trucks loaded with frozen livestock and roadkill that would feed their multitude of mongrel sled dogs. It was also a stopping point for over-enthusiastic adventurers determined to complete the 1,500 miles to Anchorage on bicycles, by horse or by foot. It was all interesting times for those of us hanging around the old Dawson Creek Peavey Mart.
Will Verboven is an ag opinion writer.
