A Centralia staple originally founded in 1927 as Pioneer Feed and Seed, Pioneer West Garden and Pet Center recently relocated from its old location on North Tower Avenue in downtown Centralia to the Centralia Outlets.
While it was a combination pet and animal feed and supply store that included a large garden nursery section at the old North Tower location, the business has downsized and refocused on selling only pet food and supplies — although a small selection of house plants is still for sale.
The Chronicle met with Pioneer West owner Vincent Bakich on Wednesday, April 30, to find out what prompted the move and where he hopes to take his business next.
While, in recent decades, conditions on North Tower Avenue have been deteriorating, to include an increase in retail theft, those weren’t the only reasons for the move.
“That side of town became less busy. So, when we took over in 2013, we’ve been looking for a new location,” Bakich said. “Because if you didn’t know about us, you probably weren’t going to find us. A lot of locals shopped there, but we were off the beaten path. It’s not something that was really generating a lot of foot traffic and new business.”
The North Tower location was an acre and a half, giving them plenty of room for the garden nursery. Unfortunately, Bakich couldn’t find a space large enough to justify keeping Pioneer West’s nursery.
However, it wasn’t necessarily a bad problem to have.
“There’s a lot of work involved in a nursery, in terms of keeping plants alive and all that fun stuff,” Bakich added.
While the new location at Centralia Outlets is a far cry from an acre and a half in size and the nursery is gone, Bakich said he’s already been seeing the benefits of being there.
“We’re very excited about it. There’s a lot of people I think that, this (Centralia Outlets) is all they know about Centralia. They come down to the outlets. They stop by, swing in here and shop, maybe have lunch at Country Cousin or something like that, and then they head on their way and never even make it to the old downtown area,” Bakich said. “So we’ve met a lot of new customers here that never would have found us otherwise. There’s pros and cons to every move, but the pros have been really positive and, so far, outweighed the cons.”
For those who still miss Pioneer West’s nursery section, Bakich recommended his customers check out another locally-owned business, Kaija’s Garden & Pet in Chehalis.
“When Pioneer Feed and Seed was originally founded, they didn’t have much of a nursery at all. Very, very small, maybe a couple things in it. It wasn’t until they moved to Tower, that they started having a much larger nursery there. And while I recognize that it’s frustrating to have lost a nursery, it’s also not something we’ve always had … It would’ve been awesome to remain the everything-for-everybody (store). Sometimes that’s just not really feasible.”
Despite losing the nursery section and associated supplies, the move has given Bakich the opportunity to now expand his pet food and supply selection.
He added the actual retail space he has now is similar in size to the indoor retail space at the North Tower Avenue location.
Additionally, the loss of the nursery and larger business space has reduced his own business costs — and when that factor is combined with the influx of new customers, Bakich is seeing stock sold more quickly and is now able to begin lowering prices because of it.
“Now we’ve moved over here, I’ve been able to reduce a bunch of my prices and really become a lot more competitive with Amazon, with Walmart, with Chewy,” Bakich added. “... And I’ve got a lot more price reductions coming.”
He added he has a lot of flexibility with suppliers and, if a customer wants a specific pet food or supply he doesn’t currently carry, he can special order it.
“I have some pet foods that I bring in for one person. I have three or four customers that, they’re the only ones that want that particular food. I get it for them because I can do that,” Bakich said.
While he doesn’t keep live pets in the store, either, he can coordinate with suppliers for people looking for pets such as gerbils, hamsters, snakes and lizards.
“My goal is to have pet owners around here have a place that is dedicated to pets where they don’t have to pay exorbitant prices and they don’t have to drive all the way to Olympia to get that stuff,” Bakich said. “I don’t have the space that a Petco has, so I can’t have everything on hand all the time. But if you’re willing to give me a little bit of time, I get deliveries regularly and I can special order just about anything you want. And when I special order it and am not having to store it here, I can get a pretty darn good price on it for you.”
Pioneer West’s new location is at 1324 Lum Road in the Centralia Outlets shopping center. It is open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Bakich added they will soon be open until 8 p.m. daily when Centralia Outlets extends its hours later this month.
For more information, message the business on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/PioneerWestGardenPetCenter.
