Family Center Farm & Home
Owners: Jef and Raylene Walker and family
Location: Rolla, Mo., and seven other locations
Company History and Philosophy: “I’ve been working at this my whole life,” Jef Walker grinned while sitting in his office in Rolla. “My parents, Vernon and Kay Walker started their first store 35 years ago in Harrisonville, Mo. There are eight stores now and it is still all in the family, with my brother, Jay Walker, his wife Dawn, my sister Joy and her husband, Bill Mills, my son Logan, daughter Shayla and two nephews, Keith and Blake Mills and of course, my wife, Raylene.”
Products and Services: “We have everything you need for the farm and home, with an emphasis on clothing. We have work clothing, but also fashionable clothing for the whole family. We have the largest boot collection in the area as well as saddle and tack and we even take trade-ins on the tack,” explained Jef. “We also offer lawn and garden equipment and a large selection of outdoor power equipment and of course, we service the equipment that we sell. That means we have a huge parts department and sell portable storage buildings.”
How do you set yourselves apart from your competitors?
“We offer the hard-to-find stuff, with more variety and a bigger selection in each department. We also try to make sure we have people in each of those departments who know what they’re talking about in terms of the merchandise we have for sale,” he said.
Story and Photo by Laura Valenti
