Kennewick's Farmer's Exchange closes after 100 years of service to the region

KENNEWICK, Wash. – After a century of serving the region a downtown Kennewick business is closing its doors.

Over the weekend the Farmers Exchange in Kennewick made a post on its Facebook page. After 100 years of being part of the Tri-cities the shop is shut up tight until a liquidation sale.

Customers who have been coming here for decades heartbroken about the closure.

“Oh, I've been coming here since the 80s. Just sad to see him go.” a customer said.

Owner Chris Ingersoll said the closure isn’t just the end of business but an end of a family legacy.

“Well, when my grandfather owned it, I grew up here and he passed away in 21. He had asked me at the time before he passed away if I'd consider buying the store and you know, I was glad to do it,” Ingersoll said.

What has kept him going Ingersoll said is the people he and his family served daily.

“My favorite part of being here has been the customers and the sense of community around here. So many people have been shopping here for decades. They knew me when I was little, they knew my uncle when he owned it, they knew my grandparents when they owned it and it's just a sense of being connected to the community and the people down here and the history down here,” Ingersoll said.

Ingersoll’s customers said they have always felt Farmer’s Exchange to be something someone could turn to at any time for help.

“You can find people that you can talk to that give you advice of what to use when you have problems and they have a good variety and it's more than going to a box store and so it's just sad to see and plus the service on equipment. You know, I'm not sure where people are going to go now.” a customer said.

As to why the decision to close comes after a century, the cost to keep the doors open is becoming too much of a risk for Ingersoll.

“Well the economy's been pretty rough the last few years and you know, with a smaller businesses that operate on pretty tight margins. It just became unsustainable.” Ingersoll said.

For anyone who still has their mowers at the service center Ingersoll said they will be calling people to get something scheduled to return them. He also says he is working on trying to do a liquidation sale and will be posting the information about it on social media in the upcoming days.

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