Anyone who has not heard where the phrase, “Good enough, just isn’t,” must not have listened to a radio commercial in Northern Arizona for a long, long time.
That tagline has been used since the turn of the century, when Steve Sischka, an owner and vice president of Olsen’s Grain, was driving on Goodwin Street in Prescott and saw a billboard about how good a football team Prescott had that year.
“I had an ‘ah-ha” moment, seeing that sign. Our slogan just came, popped into my head, and we’ve been using it ever since at all six of our stores,” Sischka said.
And Sischka is emphatic that the slogan is more than just a slogan.
“Our employees – all 85 of them throughout our chain – are advocates of that philosophy. We are genuinely serious in our belief that the most important product we can offer is satisfying our customers with quality service and quality merchandise.”
The chain has grown from a small store in Chino Valley that generated about $150,000 annually when it began. Now, six different stores produce millions of dollars collectively while increasingly providing job opportunities and contributing substantially to the economy of the communities where they are located.
In addition to the original store in Chino Valley, Olsen’s Grain is located in Prescott, Dewey/Humboldt, Clarkdale, and has two stores in the Flagstaff area.
Commitment to Customers and Communities
A recurring and consistent theme from store management seems to be that providing excellent customer service and giving back to the community are at the heart of the success of Olsen’s Grain.
For instance, Christi and Warren Hubbard are co-managers of two Flagstaff stores. One is located on Steves Blvd, the other on North Hwy 89.
“We’ve been with Olsen’s for 17 years, and we totally support the company mantra of ‘Good enough just isn’t.’ We’ve got a great employee team in Flagstaff. They are problem solvers when customers come in with questions, no matter whether the questions are about pets or livestock. And we’re all active in the community – The Chamber of Commerce, service groups, schools.”
That same attitude was expressed by Sischka when he spoke of the stores in Clarkdale and the Quad Cities area.
“We spend a lot of time training our employees. We really focus on their paying careful attention to the needs of our customers. We also want them to be aware of needs and concerns of the greater community so they can be a part of making our communities prosper,” he said.
Prescott resident Linda Carillo, who has worked for Olsen’s for several years, says she often observes her colleagues exhibiting a desire to serve customers.
“I can’t think of any of the employees I know who don’t like helping people who come in the store to fill their needs,” she said.
A customer at the Prescott Store, retired Prescott resident Steve Rampoldt, responded to a question from the QCBN – “Why do you come to Olsen’s?”
Rampoldt pondered, then grinned, “Because it’s my dog Moses’s favorite store.”
He explained that he named his pet “Moses” because he found the dog wandering in the outlying wilderness near Prescott. “I took him to Olsen’s to get some pet food, and Moses loved the place.”
It is not unusual to see dogs wandering the aisles at Olsen’s, their noses picking up on scents of grain, hay and various pet and livestock food.
Eleven-year-old Julianna Aranda and her family from Yarnell, some 33 miles south, had traveled up the winding road just to get some pet food.
“We like coming here. Everybody’s so friendly,” she said.
Company is a Family-Owned and Operated Business
Sischka has been with Olsen’s grain since 1980, when he and his wife, Kathy, weary of corporate life in California, returned to Kathy’s home community in Central Arizona. Kathy is the daughter of John and Ann Olsen, who founded the original Olsen’s Grain in Chino Valley in 1979.
Founder John Olsen, now retired but still active in the Quad Cities area, had grown up on a farm in Colorado. During World War II, Olsen was in the Navy, stationed in the South Pacific. After being honorably discharged, he returned to what is now Colorado State University, where he earned a degree in agronomy and certification to teach vocational agriculture.
In 1951, he and his wife moved to Chino Valley, where he and two partners started the 2,000-acre JCL Ranch and developed a farm and cattle feedlot.
True to his belief of being involved and giving back to the community, Olsen served on the Yavapai County Board of Supervisors, as chair of the business-growth advocate Northern Arizona of Governments, and now is on the Board of Visitors for Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott.
Anticipating population growth, with its concomitant need for livestock and pet feed, Olsen and his family started their first store. They kept expanding as more and more people moved to Central and Northern Arizona.
Management of the stores has remained within the Olsen family. Olsen’s son, Mike, and his wife, Sherrill, managed the store in Chino Valley. Another son, Dan, and his wife, Barb, joined the business in 1982 and handled store operations in Dewey. They later supervised construction of stores in Clarkdale and Flagstaff.
Management now is vested in the Olsens and Sischka.
A few years ago, they hired Rick Thomas to serve as the district manager for all six stores.
Sischka, who had married an Olsen daughter, Kathy, brought his expertise gained as a sales and marketing executive with the Carnation Corporation while in Southern California. Sischka also earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Portland and a master’s of international management from Thunderbird School of Global Management. It was in Phoenix where he met Kathy, who then was studying at Phoenix College.
Sischka, like the rest of the Olsens, is actively involved in the community. A member of Rotary International, he serves of the Board of Trustees for Yavapai Regional Medical Center and is directly involved with Central Arizona Partnership.
“All of us affiliated with Olsen’s have a strong belief in and a commitment to the communities where we live, no matter if it’s Flagstaff or Clarkdale or here in the greater Prescott area,” Sischka says. “We honestly believe we can make the places where we live better than ‘just good enough.’” QCBN
By Ray Newton
Quad Cities Business News