BLYTHEVILLE -- Ronnie Fondren wrapped up his service with the United States Army on a Friday in 1970, took the weekend off and began a job in his family's hardware store on the following Monday.
Outside of military service, Fondren has devoted his working life to the hardware store, a staple on Main Street since 1960.
Typically customers can find Fondren in the store six days a week. He's almost always joined by his brother Joe, a retired firefighter. Joe's son Scott works four days on, four days off at the local steel mill and spends his downtime helping around Blytheville's only remaining hardware store.
Locals figure that Fondren's Hardware is the third-oldest family business in Blytheville. Hubbard Furniture has been operating for a century. Hays Grocery opened in Blytheville in 1935.
Fondren's 86-year-old mother, Corrine, still works at the business she opened with her husband 56 years ago. She has been encouraging her sons to sell the store for years. They're trying, but Ronnie Fondren says interested buyers are often scared off by the amount of work involved in running the store.
"People these days want the benefits and no work," Fondren said.
Fondren's Hardware was among the Blytheville stops during a recent Delta bus tour of small businesses by Maria Contreras-Sweet, administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration. Contreras-Sweet visited Fondren's and the others as part of a trip intended to draw attention to federal programs that assist small businesses.
Shortly after arriving in Blytheville, Contreras-Sweet delivered remarks on the "resiliency and grit" shown by local small-business owners. Those remarks or something similar were likely delivered at each stop along the tour of Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana. But her words rang especially true in Blytheville.
Population there and in neighboring Gosnell has dropped a combined 9,300 since 1990. Between 2010 and 2014 the population declined nearly 6 percent.
Eaker Air Force Base closed in 1992, and the community has had a string of less-than-ideal circumstances since. Even the presence of a major employer like Nucor Steel only helps so much. Many plant workers go to town only for work. They maintain permanent residences in nearby communities like Jonesboro, Dyersburg, Tenn., or Hayti, Mo., and either commute daily or live in Blytheville only during their on-days at the plant.
Retail sales make up about $206 million of the economy in Blytheville, compared with $36.8 billion for the entire state.
Which makes even more notable the longevity of a place like Fondren's, 311 W. Main St., and Kream Kastle Barbecue, 112 N. Division St., or the uptick of success enjoyed by Day's Clothing.
Greg and Beverly Rogers purchased an existing menswear store at 322 W. Main Street in December 2014. They've added a handful of women's items to what has traditionally been a men's-only store.
Customers, Greg Rogers said, are routinely driving from Tennessee and Missouri to shop at Day's, which carries Vineyard Vines, Southern Tide and other brands that I can perhaps best describe as "fraternity preppy." Day's also carries some outdoor brands in addition to dress shirts and other menswear that the store has been known for since 1969.
Prom and wedding season are the largest drivers of sales, followed by Christmas, typically a strong time for both mom-and-pop retailers and global behemoths like Wal-Mart.
Sales have grown between "20 and 30 percent" since the Rogerses purchased the business with $345,375 in capital obtained through Farmer's Bank with assistance from Arkansas State University's Small Business and Technology Development Center. Last month was the store's best since 2013, and there are days when the shop is reporting sales as high as before the last recession.
Greg Rogers' father retired from the Air Force in the early 1980s. After briefly living in Jonesboro, Rogers returned to Blytheville to work at the steel mill. He left such work behind at age 46 and is now putting his full attention into operating the business on Main Street.
"I've always been the one to look for different routes, different ideas," Rogers said. "We're both very, very energetic. We have good days. We have bad days. We have some days we can't understand."
Both the perseverance of Fondren's Hardware and the vision behind Day's Clothing are encouraging to Blytheville Mayor James Sanders. Plenty of other businesses have decided to leave Main Street or abandon the town all together, but believers remain.
"Often people are so focused on the major industry, big-dollar companies, but you also need places that can offer comfort and a meeting place," Sanders said. "A very vital downtown shows the interest a community has in its own city. We're thankful for people who are still showing interest."
If you have a tip, call Chris Bahn at (479) 365-2972 or email him at
cbahn@nwaonline.com
SundayMonday Business on 07/10/2016