"Farm & fleet" stores

[pseudo3d]

I was unaware of the existence of two large chains in the Midwest (large as in the size of their stores), "Fleet Farm" (formerly Mills Fleet Farm) and Blain's Farm & Fleet.

What are these stores like as far as competition goes? They seem to be basically super-sized Tractor Supply Company (the size of Walmart Supercenter stores or larger, with some even exceeding 200k square feet) stores with some extra features like firearms, toys, and some hardware items, but other items like food and beverage seem lacking (the late "The Andersons" stores seemed to have a large merchandise mix).

[bayford]

I'm most familiar with Fleet Farm. For decades, it was a family operation (hence the Mills formerly in the title), but was sold to private equity in the last decade. Although it's a decent operation, it has kind of a "jack of all trades, master of none" feel to it. The stores are like a mashup of a Division 1 Walmart, a Lowe's (or, more specifically given the region, a Menards), an Ace Hardware, a Tractor Supply, a sporting goods store, and an automotive center. They have a grocery department that is most notable for selling a wide assortment of bulk nuts and candy at reasonable prices. A lot of locations operate a detached gas station and convenience store, for which, when you make a purchase in the main store, you'll receive a coupon for a few cents off per gallon of gas. The new ownership also introduced a rewards program that gives extra discounts and special deals.

My favorite reason for going there is for gardening purposes, especially to visit their garden center and outdoor greenhouses in the spring. Their pricing on live plants tends to be somewhat high, but they carry a much wider variety than any other chain retailer with a garden center.

[bryceleinan]

We have a bunch of those type of stores on the West Coast, biggest chains are Coastal and C-A-L Ranch (recently merged), Wilco Co-Op in OR/WA/CA, North 40, D & B Supply, and the various Big R Franchises. All of those chains outside of Wilco are part of Mid-States Distributing, https://msdist.com/members/ ,which is sort of a co-op. C-A-L Ranch used to be a True Value distributor (like Wilco), however, I think they might be switching to Orgill, based on what I saw at the Reno store. Our local Big R (no relation to other Big R chains and Coastal (formerly Big R) is a Do-it-Best store.