C&V revs up for big move

Longtime operation has Nov. 1 target date

MOSES LAKE — Just because C&V Auto Sales and Service is going to get bigger, don't expect it to lose sight of its hometown standing.

"The one thing we've always had here that I would like to guard against when we move into a bigger facility and get 'bigger' is that we're pretty low-key and we're pretty hometownish," owner Rich Childress explained. "A lot of my people here know our customer base on a first-name basis. When somebody comes in, maybe the family has bought two and three cars here, there's generational buying. And so it's kind of a special club, special bonding that goes on with our base here."

As his business gets bigger, Childress doesn't want to lose that special relationship with those customers.

He said the decision to pick up and relocate his business to 12174 NE Frontage Road E has been one long in the process. He had been talking with land owner Dave Sparks for several years, observing as James Auto Center made its own move. The new C&V location would be next door.

"I kind of feel that as we move towards more of a consumer-driven market, it's important that we update our facilities as much as we can," Childress said, adding that he and Sparks finalized their agreement at the beginning of the summer. "But he had a lot of faith in me going out there, because he started building the facility without really some kind of commitment from us. Maybe he knew something I didn't know, I guess."

Sparks will operate as landlord of the property.

"Our plans are to try to move the first of November," Childress said, adding that it's a target date and subject to change. "Sometimes targets are early and sometimes they're later."

The present facility belongs to Childress' father, Jack, who opened the operation with partner Larry Vankeulen in 1958, after opening an independent garage in 1953. Rich Childress came back to Moses Lake in 1976 and joined the business after attending college at Central Washington University and six years of teaching in Kirkland. Six years ago, he bought his father and Vankeulen out.

The move, Childress said, will allow him to represent the company whose vehicles he sells "much better" than he already does.

He remembers that it used to be possible to stock the hot automotive lines of such companies, but right now manufacturers are quickly producing vehicles, with newer models constantly arriving.

"So now everything in their line-up is a desirable piece of equipment," he said.

Customers are more big-box-oriented, too, Childress said, explaining that they want to see a larger selection. He feels such a desire is appropriate, and added he sees Grant County as expanding, which means the number of people interested in the products he sells is also getting larger than it was 20 years ago.

"Trying to keep up with the marketplace, you have to represent the car or the truck," he said. "The facilities are one way to represent. What's going to really help out too is in the servicing end of it, the parts end of it. My service department and parts department, I kind of outgrew that about 15 years ago, and I've just been trying to make do. I'll be able to take care of people a lot better, their normal routine maintenance needs as well as their warranty needs."

While C&V employs 15 people, Childress said he will hire more people, particularly in sales, a necessity from the get-go. The rest of his new hires will be dictated by the business, he added.

"I've got to sell more cars," Rich said of making the move, "because there's no sense in moving out there and selling the same number of cars."

The business will also expand its hours.

"A new sales experience that's different from down here, without losing that home flavor," Childress said he hopes to offer.