In 1945, according to the Enterprise Tocsin, Sunflower Lumber Company had “begun to take shape on Highway 82 at the corner of Faisonia Avenue” and W.A. Hunter of Inverness had been hired as a new employee. Over the next three-quarters of a century, the building supply company would continue to fill area contractor and homeowner needs.
Standing tall on Highway 82, the business would change hands and keep chugging along.
The legendary store has now “expanded” as the purchase and renovation of the next door building that has housed a grocery store, a pawn shop and a sporting goods store is nearly complete.
Bigger and better with 3,200 square feet of store space, the new location offers easier access for customers to come and go and mingle in the store. The Smiths had purchased the building back in 2014 with the one day plan to expand Sunflower Lumber Company. Nearly a decade later, that plan has come to fruition.
“We still have a desk to build in my office and we have some pallets of stuff to set up. But, for the most part, we are in here. Once we figured out we could make a sale and answer the phones at the new location, there was no turning back.” Brady Smith, co-owner said. “In March, people were asking when our grand opening would be. I would tell them October. They would look at me kind of crazy. But we are busy and wide open with no end in sight. It’s been a good busy. But it just makes things go slower. We couldn’t shut down doing day to day operations to focus fully on construction/layout. We had to keep our customers going as well.”
No grand opening has been planned as of yet. In the meantime, Brady and his Sunflower Lumber staff continually check on the pulse of construction and homeowner needs and steers its inventory and services to meet those needs.
“Robert Bennett sold it to Fletcher Duke and he upgraded and updated and brought in computers and made it a home center market and spruced things up,” Brady said. “We kept the home center aspect and as building has decreased in the Delta, we had to change our format and model to specialize in different things here and there. We’ve all added things to meet the needs of our customers and keep our customers shopping local.”
Smith hasn’t set a grand opening of the new space but every day is an adventure in the “new” store and customers are loving it.
“We’ve more than doubled our space and we are all on the same level (the old store was multilevel thus making it hard for elderly and handicapped people to shop the entire store). We are more ADA compliant. A lot of our customers are getting older and I was really excited to get it compliant and help them access our store,” he said.
With more space, Smith is working to help customers, not overload them with too many choices.
“Sure, people need a variety but new store systems want you to put up all these different varieties of the same thing that will do the same job. I stick with what we know works best. I don’t feel like we need to carry 20 different hammers. We consolidate it down from 20 to the top six sellers.”
Having more space, he’s been able to bring out items that previously didn’t have shelf space. And once the new space is totally settled in, there are plans to add more parking space by tearing down the front part of the old building. They’ll continue to use the larger space for storage. With decades of experience in the field, the Smiths and their staff offer their knowledge and know-how to each and every customer.
“We have mostly home hardware – not tractor parts,” he said. “You can come in and get your light fixtures, anything with electric, plumbing, saw blades, hand tools, fasteners. We even cut keys and can make the programmable keys with chips. We mix paint, cut glass, chain and rope. We also carry whatever feed you need for animals. You’re not just a salesclerk here, you have to be knowledgeable on the products.”
Sunflower Lumber still maintains their foundation – the lumber yard where construction materials are cut to order.
“It’s probably 10,000 to 25,000 square feet,” he said. “We have a saw room and dedicated space for framing and finish materials and all of the trim. We do have some specialty items. We’ll stock some cypress in the spring and summer. We have some specialty woods for cabinetry – one of the few in the Delta.”
Sunflower Lumber carries plenty of yard tools and supplies with rakes, shovels, pruning shears, fertilizer, pine straw and mulch. With delivery trucks coming throughout the week, Smith can find products that he doesn’t keep in stock but customers want. For those who don’t want to “shop online,” Smith can look up your item and have it in the store as soon as the supply chain allows.
“If somebody comes to me and says, ‘Hey, Brady, I need this’ and shows me what it is, I can search through my suppliers and do special orders. We can order guns as we have an FFL license. And now we are stocking guns, ammo and pistols! We keep mostly “A” sellers (.22 rifles, 12 gauge shotguns, 308 rifles, 30-06 rifles, .38 special revolvers to name a few),” he said. “We do a little bit of everything up here. I use my suppliers as my warehouse. I’m able to have 80,000 things if you can wait on it. Sunflower Lumber was Amazon before Amazon ever came about!” Brady said with a laugh.
Each year, Smith works to add something new for his customers as he sees/hears the need for it.
“We listen to our customers’ wants and needs and if we hear something that we think we can sell or have a source for, I don’t mind trying anything once to keep a customer from having to drive out of town to get something! I like keeping our money local as much as possible. We want to be your convenience.”
Many folks recognize Brady’s voice as once the voice of Indianola Academy football on the radio. He also spreads his support around town in sponsoring teams and sports programs.
“We donate to everything it seems like, but this is my area and I’m going to support them, because they support me,” he said.
Brady has been “wrapped up in maroon and white” since his youth and the Mississippi State Bulldog alum first learned construction from his father with a summer project during high school with a couple of friends.
“It was probably a 400-square foot tenant house that we tore down and rebuilt. My dad jokes and said it took us all summer,” Brady said. “I guess I’ve always had building in my blood. But here we are strictly retail sales and we can recommend a carpenter, a plumber and an electrician. When we bought the lumber yard one thing we promised our customers is you keep coming to us, we’re not going to steal your leads. Everybody understood that and appreciated us telling them that up front.”
