BUSINESS NEWS
Coast River Business Journal
Meet the Merchant
Jack’s Country Store
Tom Downer, president
26006 Vernon Ave., Ocean Park, WA
360-665-4989
Could you introduce yourself?
“I’m Tom Downer. I’m president of Jack’s
Country Store and we’re situated in Ocean Park,
Washington.”
Great. So could you tell me a bit about the
history of the store?
“We are the oldest continuing retail business in
the state of Washington.”
Wow. When did it start? And how did your
family become involved?
“The store was started in 1885, which is four
years before Washington became a state. And the
founder was actually a driver for the owner of the
stage line. The stage line ran on the Ocean Beach
back in those days. The business was started in Oys-
terville by a man named John Morehead. The busi-
ness remained in the hands of his family members
until 1969, when my parents were the first ones to
buy the business who were from outside of the fam-
ily. So we’ve been here since 1969.”
How has it changed over the years?
“We started with the structure that had 1,575
square feet of sales floor. We now have more than
16,000 square feet of sales floor. We’ve added on
to the structure numerous times and we’ve acquired
additional real estate numerous times and right now
our total building coverage is approaching 30,000
square feet.”
When did you start getting involved in the
business?
“I had little choice. I was 16 years old when my
parents bought the place and they needed a labor
force.”
What was it like for you back then?
“Ocean Park was a much smaller place. It was
very quiet around town in the wintertime. But
Ocean Park has grown significantly in the past 50
years. There’s lots and lots of buildable real estate
in the vicinity so we see a rather steady stream of
people who have vacation homes or cabins and then
they continue to improve those and turn them into
second homes, then they turn them into permanent
homes. In the past year, we’ve seen an enormous
conversion of what had been vacation homes into
primary residences.”
What has that meant for the store? Have you
been getting a lot more traffic than back in the
day?
“We’ve been on a steady pattern of growth for
many, many years, but the rate of growth in this past
year is something we haven’t seen in 25 years.”
Oh, really? Is that because of the pandemic?
“Yes, largely because of the pandemic. We’ve
done some other things as well. We’ve always
looked for opportunities for growth and our busi-
ness model is to focus on what I call functional, util-
March 2021 • 9
Interview by Emily Lindblom elindblom@crbizjournal.com
ity merchandise, rather than so much of the touristy
items. So with our wide range of sources of supply,
we were able to stay ahead of many of the trends in
the markets. For example, we never ran out of toi-
let paper. We came awfully close but we never ran
100% out of toilet paper.”
Yeah. Good. And that was because you have a
wide range of sources?
“We deal with nearly 1,000 vendors on a regular
basis, so we were just very well situated for impro-
vising when it came to the sources of supply and the
means of fulfilling the needs for customers.”
How else has the pandemic affected the store?
“It’s not strictly because of the pandemic, but the
pandemic certainly contributed to us having fewer
people wanting to join the workforce in an environ-
ment like ours. We struggled to maintain adequate
staffing this past year. Even though we were des-
perately seeking additional help, we were forced to
actually abbreviate our hours of operation. But the
net result was we were able to give our entire staff
some very big bonuses.”
That’s nice you were able to do that even
though you faced those challenges.
“Early on there was such a panic. So we turned
out a little statement that reads, ‘Thanks to our com-
munity, this business has survived burning to the
ground three times, two world wars, stock market
crashes, isolation when the clamshell railroad quit,
the Great Depression, the eruption of Mount St.
Helens, Y2K, 911 and the Great Recession.”
That’s amazing.
“The Y2K panic actually turned out to be a train-
ing session for us. We didn’t know that the lessons
we learned 20 years ago were going to be as valu-
able as they were this year. You’re probably not old
enough to remember the Y2K panic?”
I was pretty little back then.
“All the computer programmers were using two
digits for the year. There was this widespread fear
that all the computers were going to crash effective
midnight, December 31, 1999 because it was going
to roll over to ‘00.’
It lit off a firestorm of preppers and there were
runs on guns and ammo, on shelf stable foods. At
the time, we were selling a line of kerosene lamps
that was the high-demand item. I happened to meet
a guy whose business is in Amish country in Ohio
and he had built his store as the non-electric super-
store. He had the rush like nobody else anywhere
in the world and I learned a lot from that man, his
name was Jay Lehman.
So this spring, when we saw there was a rush
on garden seeds, we started thinking forward. Okay,
what’s next? And of course, it turned into canning
supplies. It turned into the vinegar, the salt, the
sugar, you know, everything that would go with
home canning. There were lots of those gambles we
took and very fortunately for us, we didn’t get hung
on any of them.”
Yeah. Well, what are you looking forward to
for your store in the coming year?
“We’re still on a very strong growth trajectory.
CATE GABLE/CHINOOK OBSERVER
Tom Downer, owner of Jack’s Country Store, has played an important role during the pandemic,
doing things like providing free potatoes to those in need.
Of course, we’re always focused on having what
people need, rather than trying to sell them some-
thing they don’t really want.”
It seems like the store offers a huge variety of
things. So what are some examples of that?
“We stock more than 250,000 different items.
We have a full-line grocery with fresh meat, fresh
seafood, produce, bakery and deli items. And we’re
a full-line hardware store as well. We’re extensive
in plumbing and electrical as well as paint, garden,
housewares. We have some clothing and we do quite
a bit in the way of sporting goods. We manufacture a
line of razor clam digging equipment. We manufac-
ture an oyster knife. We sell gas and diesel. We have
a project underway right now where we’re putting
in new underground fuel storage tanks. We’re soon
going to be offering high-flow diesel and non-etha-
nol gasoline to our fuel islands.”
Alright, is there anything else you want to
add about it being a family business?
“My daughter is active in the business. She’s
our general manager. She’s third generation and her
husband also works in the business.”
What is that like for you, having grown up in
the business and then now having your daughter
and her family be part of it?
“I’m very pleased that she made the choice. It’s
one of those things where a parent shouldn’t be try-
ing to decide the child’s future but is very pleased
when the kids decide that they want to participate
and relieve the parents of so many of the headaches
and challenges that come down the pike every day.”
What else do you want people to know about
yourself?
“I’ve always been very active in the commu-
nity. I served as a volunteer firefighter and EMT for
many years. And I’ve also been on the board of the
local fire protection district for close to 30 years.
I’m vice president of the Ocean Park Area Cham-
ber of Commerce. I’ve served on numerous com-
mittees and groups, I’ve been very active in a lot of
civic matters and I’ve followed in the footsteps of
my parents who did the same. We are always trying
to support the community that supports us.”