Small town small business pulling through the hole of high costs

Shoppers feel the effects of inflation when they get to any checkout counter, and small business owners feel the same thing when they’re manning their own. It’s also because of big box stores, or the rise of online shopping, that some small businesses are struggling. Yet Moody's Hardware in Spring Hill is managing to stay afloat with places like Home Depot and Walmart just 10 minutes down the road.

Though they still face challenges. Career advice website, Zippia, reported that Kansas has the third highest business failure rate in the country. The Spring Hill chamber of commerce told me that fact is reflected in the businesses here.

Sharon Mitchell from the chamber said they’ve had less than 10 retail stores open in the last five years and less than five of those weren’t franchise stores. Mitchell hopes that gets better when the city population reaches 10,000 people.

Moody's Hardware store opened in spring hill last year. Manager, Hunter Kessler, told me that when they were building the cost of wood tripled.

Olivia Acree-KSHB

“We expected it, and we tried to plan for it, but there's really only so much you can do, and at the end of the day, I mean, the prices for lumber almost tripled at one point, I think, and so that definitely ate into our budget and we had to work around that very creatively,” said Kessler, Moody's Hardware manager.

They’ve made it out of the hole of high costs and are celebrating one year in business.

Olivia Acree- KSHB

“We can't compete with the big box stores on all levels. We certainly can't have the amount of inventory they have; we try really hard to match or beat their prices, but we can every single time beat them in customer service. That's almost always what you'll hear from our customers is that they love that they come here, they're always greeted, they always have somebody to help them,” said Shiloh Little, Moody's Hardware owner.

Zippia also reported that one of the top reasons for small business failure is lack of market need. Like having Home Depot just minutes down the road. Little says it’s the service and the store fine-tuning their offerings that keep people coming back.

“The only things that really have changed for us is just, you know, continuing to change our inventory and kind of cater to what the people want and what the people need,” said Little. "I wouldn't say a whole lot has changed. It's just more maybe adapting to, you know, how things change in the economy and the community itself.”