Coulee City business expands into Moses Lake

Manager finds jet ski regulars upon making move

MOSES LAKE — Actually, the commute from Coulee City is not all that bad.

That's according to Mark Sanderlin, manager of the new Family Powersports Center in Moses Lake, which opened Nov. 1.

And he should know.

Sanderlin makes the trek daily with his wife, who is working on opening her own new business in Moses Lake.

"It makes it nice — we commute together," he said with a grin.

Sanderlin said the move to a bigger community has been a year in the making. The Family Powersports Center, he explained, is a sister store to Larry's Auto and Marine Supply in Coulee City. Sanderlin's father and family took over that business about eight years ago.

"We were wheat and cattle ranchers in Coulee City," he recalled. When Sanderlin's father's partner died, he sold his half to the children, and went into an auto parts supply store. It advanced to power sports supplies to supplement the store, which took off.

"Coulee City has a population of like 650 people, so mainly just getting here to where the people are," he said of the reasons to make the move. "It's hard to bring people to Coulee City just because of the drive, so we really concentrate on pricing, customer service and getting people in the door."

Sanderlin is the lone employee of the Moses Lake store, although he said that a serviceman from Coulee City will be arriving before spring.

The store offers Ski-Doo snowmobiles, Sea-Doo watercraft and Bombardier ATVs, along with accessories and clothing to accompany the sport, he said.

"There isn't any Ski-Doo or Sea-Doo dealer for miles away," he said. "People that do have that product and need service, parts or anything, or they want to upgrade to a new machine, they've had to travel until now."

As such, Sanderlin said that people have been happy to see him arrive in town.

"It seems that I have some usuals that come in, which is great," he said. "I really enjoy seeing those people come back in."

Sanderlin said that the business is also taking in some trades.