Quincy businessman back home at True Value

38-year-old business under new management

QUINCY - For Daniel Gates, taking over the business formerly known as Royer's True Value is like a homecoming.

Gates, you see, started working for longtime Quincy businessman Merle Royer at the business when he was in high school.

"I started in September 1984 and I got a lot of experience, learned a lot of things about the business, learned about the way Mr. Royer handled the business," Gates said. "How to treat people, how to greet people, how people want to be treated. It's all about the service, it's all about the relationships. It's just how you would want to treat people, or how you would want to be treated by other people. That was a huge one, it's always about respect."

Gates said he enjoys the aspect of retail which involves solving people's problems.

"It's all about the relationships, it's all about the service and those are huge factors in the way I'm put together," he said.

Graduating from Quincy High School in 1985, Gates worked for Royer's for 13 years, then left to manage another store in Quincy. He managed that business for 10 years.

When Royer decided to retire, he offered the store to Gates.

"I was very surprised," Gates said. "For one, it was a huge compliment to me and it was a huge surprise. I was perfectly happy doing what I was doing at the other store, had a great job, loved what I was doing and it just hit me out of the blue."

A resident of Quincy for 34 years, Gates took over ownership of the 38-year-old business, located at 23 E St. S.E., and now called Gates True Value, on Sept. 20. Gates said the change has been in the works for 11 months. He has left the other business, he said.

Gates said Royer remains in Quincy to take it easy and spend time with family.

At the moment, Gates said he is swamped with things to do.

"It was kind of sudden," he said. "I've got basically to learn a whole new store. I'm going to personalize it and make it mine."

That includes cleaning out the office, reorganizing and pricing products.

"Just make it shopper-friendly," Gates said.

The number of employees at the business has not changed, Gates said, but he has brought in some new people from his previous location.

"I know customer service is number one," he said. "That is what they do, and it is a huge, huge impact on a business, having the correct employees. Everybody that's here is top-notch, number one."

Gates expects to decrease the size of the automotive department at the store.

"There's no sense in us being in competition with three very well done automotive stores in town," he said. "We can better serve the community, the community's still basically a farming community, (so) I want to bring in some farming products, some animal health things, some pet food, some farm animal food. Grant County Fair is huge around here, so we need to take of the 4-H and FFA kids with sheep food, pig food."

Beginning in November, the store will extend its hours and be open on Sundays. The hours will be from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.

Gates feels at home in the Quincy area.

"I don't want to go anywhere, I don't want to do anything else," he said. "I want to live here in town, I want to be in retail."

Gates aims to turn the business into "the one-stop shop" for Quincy, where customers can get their problems solved.

"I want them to stop off, have a cup of coffee if they want, hang out and talk to the folks that work here, talk to me and feel like they are at home as well," he said. "I can't be everything to everybody, but what I do, I want to do it really well."

For more information, call 509-787-4431.