County Seat celebrates 25 years in business years ago
By ROWENA PLETT
Staff writer
Brad and Jeannie Wildin had been married about four years when, together with Jeannie's brother, Steve Widler, they decided to purchase Oelschlager's Furniture Store at Second and Main in Marion. The Oelschlagers had owned the business for 20 years.
At the time of purchase, the Wildins had a six-month-old son, Josh. Brad worked at Donahue Corporation, and Jeannie operated a beauty shop on Main Street in Marion where Phoebe Holdeman now has her insurance agency.
Through ingenuity, hard work, and ability to change with the times, The County Seat, as they named the business, has survived for 25 years and continues to prosper.
The store was purchased on June 1, 1978. It included the adjacent building to the west, which formerly was an implement dealership and was being used mainly for storage.
The store was selling some floor covering when the Wildins took over, and that part of the business began to expand, so they renovated the west building and moved the furniture over there.
Brad kept busy installing carpet, Steve managed the store, and Jeannie was a stay-at-home Mom.
It wasn't long before they began bidding on commercial projects. They carpeted a bank in Augusta, library in Ashland, and public housing in Coldwater, to name a few.
In 1982, the partnership was dissolved, and Jeannie began running the store. By that time, Josh was four and one-half and daughter Clark was almost three years old.
The economy entered hard times and furniture stores began going out of business. Therefore, in 1984, the Wildins decided to liquidate the furniture and concentrate on flooring.
The couple also sold Zenith TVs and VCRs. VCRs were relatively new and it was difficult to sell them. So the couple came up with an ingenious idea. They decided to take in 150 videos for rent. Customers would rent the videos and rent-to-buy the VCRS. When they brought them back, they often bought the VCRs.
That was the beginning of the movie rental part of their business. They had expanded the videos to 500 when Quick Flick opened a store across the street in the former Peter Pan Ice Cream Store, now a part of Marion Health-Mart.
In 1989, Jeannie invited Quick Flick to set up business in the carpet store, saving rent and utility costs. Quick Flick gets a share of the rentals. Jeannie estimates the store carries about 2,000 tapes, and now has 220 DVDs. The store also share inventories with the Hillsboro Quick Flick.
"The Quick Flick business proved to be a good traffic builder for us," Jeannie said. "The video was a small-ticket item which brought people into the store and helped sell carpet."
When Josh and Clark got older, they helped with video rentals. Josh also was good at selling carpet. Clark, who had a natural business sense, became Jeannie's "right hand" in the video store. "I loved that," Jeannie said. "Everything always was done."
(Now, Josh is a vocal music teacher and Clark is about to graduate from college with a degree in business. She is married to Marion police officer Josh Whitwell. They have two sons: Jordan, 3, and Jacob, 1.)
In 1987, the Wildins sold the west building to Western Associates.
While focusing on floor covering, they added sales of Oreck vacuum cleaners. The nearest dealership was in Wichita. In addition to selling new cleaners, they continue to have customers from all over the area who come to buy bags and belts.
They recently added a carpet cleaning business which is doing well, according to Jeannie. "We've had some really good jobs and satisfied customers," she said.
A new ceramic tile display at the front of the store was created when the Wildins saw a trend toward permanent flooring rather than floor covering.
"We're still here and we're still evolving and changing to meet current demand," Jeannie said.
The County Seat continues to provide interior decorating items throughout a wide area of central Kansas.
Neva Hett is a full-time store clerk. Kayla Barrett and Breona Smith are video clerks. Sub-contractor Mike Fredrickson was trained by Brad 15 years ago and works with the business as a sub-contractor, along with Rod Steele.
Like most people who operate their own business, the couple put in a lot of hours, but they enjoy what they do.
Jeannie said it's fun to be able to help people pick out products to improve their environment and then to see the end result:
"Whatever the product, whether it be a new floor or clean carpet, we take pleasure and pride in having happy customers."
