Dec. 26, 2005
 
RETAILING: Tractor Supply Store Coming in March to Beckley's Raleigh Mall; At Long Last – A Tenant for Montgomery Ward Space
 
By David M. Kinchen
Editor, Huntington News Network
 
Beckley, WV (HNN) --- Just in time for spring, a new unit of the Tractor Supply Co. chain is slated to open March 22, 2006 in the long vacant Montgomery Ward space at the Raleigh Mall here.
 
Tractor Supply has 562 stores in 34 states from California to Connecticut – including nine stores in West Virginia: Summersville, Parkersburg, Martinsburg, New Martinsville, Clarksburg, Follansbee, Weston, Wheeling and Keyser. Most of the chain's stores are in the Midwest and South. The Brentwood, TN-based chain focuses on the needs of ranch and farm owners, including those with the kind of country properties common to much of West Virginia.
 
The Montgomery Ward store space is being remodeled to fit the needs of the supplier of hand and power tools, farm equipment, Carhartt and other brands of work clothing, pet and large animal feed and seasonal property maintenance equipment like snow blowers and lawn mowers. I’ve personally visited a Tractor Supply store in Dunnellon, Marion County, FL and found it to be an ideal source of supplies for suburban and rural homeowners, farmers and “hobby farmers.”
 
According to the TSC web site, http://www.mytscstore.com, Tractor Supply Co. (NASDAQ: TSCO) was started in 1938 “by Charles E. Schmidt Sr. of Chicago, who established a mail order tractor parts business. By 1939, it had grown into a successful retail store in Minot, North Dakota. Today, we are one of the largest retail chains in America which serves full and part time farmers and ranchers, hobby farmers, rural homeowners and contractors….Whether you're caring for a backyard, or a "back 40", we have the products and services to help you get the job done.”