Taking time to help

Tool Time Supplies, a family-run business in Grand Forks, provides good old-fashioned advice along with service and rentals

(L to R) Leigh Starchuk, Greg Starchuk and Ken Andrews are on the front line at Tool Time Supplies. — Photo courtesy Sue Finnigan, Rolltop Editorial Solutions

So, your mid-life-to-retirement job as a millwright falls out from under you as Canpar in Grand Forks closes its doors for good.

“That hit home," said Leigh Starchuk. “As a matter of fact, it hit more than 100 homes around here.”

Starting from scratch in 1997, Grand Forks resident Greg Starchuk built his business, Tool Time Supplies, over the next decade. In 2007, he seized the opportunity to expand, moving Tool Time across the street and adding an auto parts function.

“Sometimes, I don’t know whether this is a gift or a curse," said Greg. "But I guess I’m just one of those guys who can’t stand doing nothing.”

The Starchuks went on to add another 1,000 square feet to the 3,200 they assumed after moving to what had been a Napa Auto Parts shop on Third Street in Grand Forks. This growth serves as a testament to their success; alone, however, that evidence would fall short in describing the thinking behind that success.

“Early on, we decided to add a small equipment repair service and an auto parts component to the pre-existing rental core," said Greg. “Ken (Andrews) here pretty much takes care of the parts ordering, I take care of most repair work. After all, most of what I repair is similar to the equipment we rent out.”

That leaves Leigh to manage the inevitable paperwork, customer telephone calls and a good deal of the work described as “other duties.”

Offering a bit of history with your rental

The considerable improvement in customer traffic at the new Tool Time location seems to have improved even more with the addition of a top-shelf display of bygone-era tools of every description, many of which had been gathered and stored by Greg for years.

There’s very little dust on an ancient fenceline puller Greg takes down from its place of honour on the shelf. It looks simple enough: a cam-operated clasp to engage the wire, a pulley to accommodate off-line pressure and a ring to which a line or cable of any length can be attached.

“You’d be surprised at the range of problems this gizmo can solve,” said Greg.

Most modern pullers, it seems, are made to operate only on straight fencelines and are effective only over the length of the ratcheting mechanism that applies the pressure. Trusting people, these Starchuks—they still rent the antique model.

“They’re right where they belong,” said Leigh, countering a suggestion that the tool collection would look really good against the living room wall of their home.

The Starchuks live “as far up the North Fork as you can be and still have electricity.” Greg takes pride in having selected, configured and installed a generous home backup system there.

“I can’t resist any challenge that can be described as mechanical,” he said, while noting that his children—Elliott, 10, and Olivia, 7—“will never have to trek to the outhouse in the dark of winter" like he did.

Business-savvy decisions

Grand Forks is a community that boasts a near-desert summertime climate, so residents need to water if anything is to grow. Blowing out irrigation systems is one job that regularly takes Greg out of the office. During winter, there’s plenty of equipment awaiting repair, routine service or overhaul. Sticking to pretty much the same type of engine is a conscious decision too, since doing otherwise could quadruple the shop's parts inventory.

These are considerations and decisions you’d expect of such a business as the Starchuks', but it was when they identified the need to promote the advantages of renting rather than buying equipment that the Starchuks went looking for a solution. To cut the story short, it walked through the door in the person of Erika Domeij, owner and publisher of The Communicator, a Boundary-based advertorial publication with a distribution of 2,000.

In a publication that seems aimed at anyone but the "grease 'n' gears" contingent, Tool Time’s column—a collaboration of the Starchuks and Domeij—is the talk of the town. Along with the presentation of folksy lifestyle events and shop talk related to specific problem-solving exercises, Greg includes advice to people who have their own equipment—and problems with that equipment.

Why would you do that? I asked. Why wouldn’t you just wait for the inevitable result that occurs when people store their machines over the winter without draining the fuel out of the gas tank?

“Never crosses my mind,” said Greg. “When we present ourselves as people whose focus is on the satisfaction of other people—our customers or not—we mean it.”