Spring 2018 Hardlines Strategies

CUSTOMER PROFILE

Heading North New Mexico Retailer Adds Second Location

And, you’d be hard-pressed to miss another view along New Mexico State Road 68: Randall Lumber and Hardware. The business is easy to find with its location in the historical district of Taos and on the town’s main street. Longevity plays an even larger role in the community. When you’ve been helping build a town since before that town was incorporated, people tend to know who you are. Now, nearly a century after its opening in 1921, the company has expanded to a second location on the north side of Taos. The move has helped Randall Lumber and Hardware, which knows the importance of preserving history, to continue to look to the future. “We have a lot of old characteristics in our store that are important to us. Our old wooden floors in the front, our archive of vintage tools on the walls—we are old in that sense. But our business philosophies, they’re not old at all,” says Hilario Serrano, director of retail operations and marketing. Stepping Out Randall Lumber and Hardware was founded by Elisha and Erna Randall, who began the company as a logging business New Mexico, sees plenty of beautiful scenery along the way. It’s hard to miss the colors and landscape of the Southwest as the road climbs higher and higher. A nyone driving into the mountain town of Taos,

Hilario Serrano, left, director of retail operations and marketing for Randall Lumber and Hardware, stands with co-owner Paula Randall-Ervin, right.

before adding hardware, paint and building supplies in the subsequent decades. Today, the business stands out as the oldest lumberyard in northern New Mexico, with the third generation of the family now running the company. Paula Randall-Ervin, her brother David Randall and her brother- in-law Britt Bland bought the business from Paula and David’s father, Charles Randall, and his brothers, John and Merlin Randall, in 1997. Randall Lumber and Hardware wasn’t in a hurry to step into a new location. But when a site became available, there was really no reason not to expand, Serrano says. With that kind of history and reputation in the community,

The second location, situated on the north side of Taos at the foot of the mountains containing the Taos Ski Valley resort, isn’t meant to take the place of the first. Instead, its purpose is to help reach the new homes and farming communities north of Taos. “The north side is definitely where the growth is coming in. We have new homes being built in that direction, as well as established communities,” Serrano says. “And you have the Taos Ski Valley. There’s a lot of demand on the north side

that we need to be involved in.” The new Randall Lumber and

Hardware store is in a building that used to house a feed and agriculture retailer, so it’s well-suited for its new business.

6 Spring 2018 • Hardlines Strategies