Spa, stove store finding success after fiver years in city

Starcher family balances different fields in face of rising demand

MOSES LAKE — For Hot Spring Spa and Leisure, five was the magic number.

The family-run business opened in Moses Lake in 2000, when Gene and Patricia Starcher and their son Keith followed their other son, Kevin, to town.

Kevin said he was trying to buy a hot tub in Moses Lake, looking around the then-available businesses.

"I called my dad, who'd been doing it for years, and said, 'OK, these are my choices.'" Kevin recalled. "He said, 'Don't buy one from those, they're pieces of garbage.'"

Gene advised against purchasing anything but a Hot Spring spa.

"You just believe what your father says," Kevin said. "You just don't argue."

Unhappy with his job at the time, Kevin called up shortly after and suggested opening a store in Moses Lake.

"It just happened," Kevin said. "It was just a matter of doing the paperwork and getting the small business loan and everything — it's like it was meant to happen."

The Starchers are enthused about growth within the area, which translates into a positive outlook for their own business.

"Once you make it five years, you've made it, and this last year has just been absolutely wonderful for us," Kevin said, noting that in the first few years, the family questioned whether it had found what it was looking for. "Now, most definitely. It's just to the point where we're so busy, it's disgusting."

"We're real pleased," Patricia said. "It's finally come around."

The family moved from a 10-year-old, similar business in Montana, Patricia said.

"Basically, you've got to cover both sides of the field," Keith explained. "Spas aren't enough to just keep you in business. Spas and stoves, we've found that the contrast between the two helps out financially."

In addition, most people looking to remodel or rebuild their homes are often looking for either a stove for the room or a spa to go outside on the new deck, or something along those lines.

While spas have essentially become digitized, stoves still have pipes, off-sets, angles, ventilation and even gas lines to deal with, Keith said, requiring the Starchers' business to keep up on its knowledge for both aspects.

Hot Spring Spa and Leisure covers, roughly, a 60-mile radius, Keith said, reaching Ritzville, Coulee Dam, Odessa and Othello. In addition to Starcher family members, the business employs three to four people, and is considering beginning a new crew to meet with increased demand.

Keith said that demand for spas has increased, as the products cross the line from luxury to necessity for many customers.

"Hydrotherapy is huge in the medical industry, it's picking up steam because people are loving that hydrotherapy thing; it eases their body and mind," he said. "Anymore, they're really for health reasons, a lot of people are getting them."

Those health reasons include arthritis and sore backs.

The business has also experienced a surge in demand for wood pellet stoves this year, thanks to high gas prices.

"The manufacturers that we carry, everybody fell behind in their wood pellet products in the manufacture side because they got hit nationwide across the board," Keith said.

The stove business starts picking up about August, and this year has lasted through December, while spas fluctuate depending upon the economy.

"Stoves this year has been keeping us more in business than the spa side," he said, attributing the August pick-up to more and more contractors becoming aware of the business.

Keith said he enjoys making people happy with what they're buying and making sure the job is done right.

"It's fun helping people," he said, citing a recent expose on national television news about customers frustrated the service they receive from retailers. "That's one of the things we've always enjoyed, is customer service."

Many people operate under the misunderstanding that they can automatically operate their fireplace upon moving into a new house, Keith said, advising chimneys should be inspected.

"Anything over 15 years old, you're running that, 'Is it still in decent enough shape to use?' especially when it comes to wood stoves," he said. "Wood stoves are probably the most dangerous out there because people abuse them so much."

Hot Spring Spa and Leisure also offers chimney cleaning and inspections. Keith said many people also don't understand the cleaning concept.

"We don't make the chimney new. We clean it, get all the creosote that is loose and can come out, out of it and then make sure that the pipe is still in good working order. Trying to clean creosote out of a chimney 100 percent is pretty much impossible once it's been in there," he said.

Creosote is the resulting byproduct of sap or pitch in pine or other types of wood when burning in a stove or fireplace.

"A lot of people will burn treated wood, and sometimes they don't even realize it's treated," Keith said. "That kind of stuff can create more creosote than you actually are ready for. Good quality wood is good to burn."

Keith suggested that those people who use their stoves frequently should have them cleaned and inspected once a year to ensure that they stay in working order, whereas those who are "weekend warrior, once in a while for looks" types should do so every two years. Gas products should be inspected yearly, he said.