Editor’s note: Answering The Purcell Register’s five questions this week is Allen Eubanks, former business owner in Purcell and a member of the Purcell City Council.
Q. You earned a chemical engineering degree from Tennessee Tech. How did you end up in retail hardware?
A. I was exposed to the Ace Hardware Cooperative business model when I participated in the Dream Ace contest back in 2007 (a reality contest whose winner received a fully stocked store in the Houston area!) While I did not win the contest I did go far enough in the contest to be required to write a business plan for a retail store giving me a deeper understanding of the retail hardware industry and the potentials of owning an independent hardware store.
Fast forward five years to where I found myself at a crossroads in my career. A career that had afforded me a 25+ years in engineering and operations management in corporate America.
At that time opportunities presented themselves that enabled me to pursue a lifelong dream of owning my own business. And as I began to step through those doors of opportunity more doors of the Ace Hardware business opportunity presented themselves. As a result on October 30, 2012 Lisa and I opened Purcell Ace Hardware and the rest is history as they say.
Q. What brought you to Oklahoma?
A. We moved to Oklahoma in 1998 with my job as a production manager for a manufacturing company in Pauls Valley. I was promoted to plant manager in early 1999 where I remained until 2012.
Q. What was your favorite part of running an Ace Hardware Store?
A. Outside of working side by side everyday with my wife Lisa, getting to know the folks in the Purcell area that had became customers, calling them by their name, being able to answer their “hardware” questions and helping them solve their “hardware” problems.
Q. What was the most challenging part of running an Ace Hardware Store?
A. The retail environment presents a variety of challenges to operators as everyone in the sector will tell you. Maintaining employees, customers and relative products all have their associated challenges.
At the end, the challenge of solving inventory issues due to the COVID supply chain disruptions, chasing the ever changing price increases brought on by those same issues and diplomatically passing those increased costs onto our customers had become the primary daily or if not hourly challenge. That is what made the job “hard.”
Q. How have you enjoyed serving on the Purcell City Council?
A. The primary reward has been the process of getting to know more of our city residents and employees. These folks are our community and its strength. I have found that helping them find solutions to meet their needs and desires ultimately makes our town better for everyone.
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