By BECKY THOMAS
Staff Reporter
Dow Excavating owner Wayne Dow has expanded his business into landscape materials. Dow Landscape Materials opened across from Sears on First Street in Cheney last week, offering topsoil, bark, rock, compost and more.
“Nobody has this in Cheney. They've sprung up all over the West Plains, but we're just trying to provide a service where there is a need here for Cheney,” Dow said.
Dow has run the excavating business since 1992, but it was known as Wally's Excavating since the late 1960s, when Dow's father began the business using equipment from his Cheney-area farm to remove stumps from lawns and provide other small services. Dow changed the name last year, saying that many of his customers didn't know the business's history.
“My dad's been gone since '98, people still call me Wally and that generation that knew my dad are getting older,” he said. “It was kind of time for a change.”
Dow Landscape Materials is leasing the small white building that formerly housed a U.S. Fish and Wildlife office, and materials are stored between concrete barriers behind the office. While the landscape materials business is a new venture for Dow, he said he's sticking to the core value that he said has made his excavating business a success: treat people well and they will tell their friends.
“That's how you survive through a bad economy is word-of-mouth reputation,” he said. “Treat people fairly, treat people right.”
Dow said local residents have been supportive of a landscape materials business in Cheney, and he has tried to keep prices at or below similar outlets on the West Plains.
“I looked around and I try to keep my prices down. They're very competitive and very reasonable for people,” he said. “I want to provide a service and a good quality product at a decent price.”
The business currently sells soil, bark, compost and rock by the yard and delivery is available. Dow said he will likely expand his offerings in the coming weeks and months.
“We're trying to bring in some more decorative rock, stones and just different assortments and varieties of that kind of stuff,” he said. “We have some ideas for a couple of weeks down the road, you just can't do it all at once.”
Dow Landscape Materials is currently open Wednesday and Thursday from 1-5 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and by appointment Monday and Tuesday. Dow said the hours will likely change as he gets a sense of when people shop. He said the business would be open throughout this coming Memorial Day weekend. For more information, call 939-4879.
Becky Thomas can be reached at [email protected].
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