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The staff at Home Hardware & Variety knows all about animals—they sell chickens, ducks, lizards, chinchillas and more at their store in Overton, Nev.
Overton is also home to the county fair, so store staff, with the help of a few vendors, hosted a livestock seminar as part of their customer appreciation event last fall.
“Our Purina rep talked about showmanship of different animals,” store owner Randy Tobler says. “She goes through what an animal should look like when it’s shown at the fair—what judges are looking for and what you should look for in an animal you want to buy.
“It’s informative, it helps our customers who are planning to show animals and it brings in more traffic to our store,” he says. “This is our second time doing this event. We had about 85 people show up, which is pretty good for our small town.”
The seminar was held on a Thursday, and store staff offered other events on Friday and Saturday as part of their customer appreciation event, including a beekeeping seminar, a visit with the Blue Buffalo pet food rep and classes on organic gardening and pest control.
“We have a customer who raises goats, and she brought in baby goats and answered questions about raising them,” Tobler says. “And we sell fabric here, so we had someone come in and teach some basic sewing classes.
“We had quite a few classes going on, but we were still surprised at what a good turnout we had,” he says. “It’s a great opportunity for us to meet our customers and make sure we’re carrying everything they need.”
