The Sears Hometown Store in Ontario is ‘here to stay’

Published by admin on Wed, 10/24/2018 - 4:26pm

John and Trisha Harris have owned the Sears Hometown Store in Ontario, Ore., since April. The store is locally owned and operated and is not connected to the Sears Holding Company. John said the store is one of 700 independently owned stores with the buying power to offer lots of name brands at competitive prices. With John and Trisha are Danni, left, and Kaylee. Photo by Steve Lyon
By: 
Steve Lyon
Sears Hometown Store in Ontario, Ore., may carry the Sears name on the sign, but the retailer is locally owned and operated and has no relationship to Sears Holding Corp. or the recent bankruptcy filing.
 John and Trisha Harris are the owners of the Ontario Sears Hometown Store. The store is licensed to sell Sears products, along with a wide range of other national brands at competitive prices and with the best warranties around.
 “We are a totally separate business,” Harris said last week.
 The Harrises have owned the 8,000 square-foot Ontario, Ore., hometown store since April and own another one in Moscow, Idaho. There are 700 Sears Hometown Stores across the country with their own company CEO and supply chain. With that many owner-operated stores, there is tremendous buying power and that is good for customers.
 Business is good at the Ontario Sears Hometown Store, which sells major household appliances, along with Craftsman tools, beds, televisions, microwaves, home and garden and more. The appliance line includes the famous Kenmore brand and more, including GE, Amana, Maytag, Whirlpool and Kitchenaid. The new flatscreen TVs carry the Samsung brand and there are Bosch electronics as well.
 As an independently owned Sears Hometown Store, Harris is in charge of the pricing on products. What’s more, he can order and receive items faster than other dealers – as in delivery to the store that is two weeks faster. 
 “And we carry more appliance brands than any of my competitors,” he said.
 John previously worked for Sears from 1999 to 2004 and at one time worked for the company in Seattle and Boise. More recently, he worked for Truckstop.com, a software company, until the job was moved to Boise. 
 At that point, he wanted to be his own boss and had some money to invest. He did his research and when the opportunity came up to buy the Ontario store, he jumped on it. John and Trisha, who have three daughters, live in Weiser and make the short commute to Ontario daily.
 Harris said ownership is one thing and management is another. The last owner of the Ontario store lived out of the area. He and his wife are in the store full-time, and he is a stickler for attentive customer service. If one of the half-dozen employees is busy, John or Trisha step in to see that every customer that walks through the doors is taken care of quickly.
 “You’re going to get help here. It’s a whole family thing,” he said.
 Through their business, John and Trisha are big believers in giving back to local communities and schools. They donated four tickets to last weekend’s BSU football game to Weiser Middle School for a fundraiser. The school raffled off the tickets and used the proceeds for the WMS football team.
 The store has also donated to Payette High School athletics, along with Nyssa and Ontario high schools. The Harrises pledged $1,250 to the Emmett High School Huskies for touchdowns. The store also supported the Make-A-Wish program, among others. 
 The store is located at 2441 Southwest 4th Ave.

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18 E. Idaho St.
Weiser, ID 83672
PH: (208) 549-1717
FAX: (208) 549-1718
 

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