Brantley’s Western Supply: Changing Tack, Changing Tech, Changing Tax
Brantley’s Western Supply, located in Rainsville, originally started in 1980 when Peggy Brantley and her husband Johnny moved to the area from Dothan because of Johnny’s job with TVA. When they arrived, they realized there was not many local businesses serving the needs of people that owned, rode, and showed horses, Peggy explains:
“We moved up here and there wasn’t anywhere to buy horse tack, so we just started a business.”
They started out with a store in Section, then moved to their current location on Highway 35 in Rainsville in 1997 when 35 was expanded into a four lane and the road went right through where their Section location once stood. Today, Brantley’s also employs Lisa and Chelsae and sells a wide variety of boots, western and square dance apparel, jewelry, and horse tack.
Peggy spends most of her time with the business, but also enjoys reading (her favorite authors are Grisham, Patterson, and Bill O’Reilly), sewing and crafting (square dance items, t-shirts, and jewelry), and gardening. She says Johnny’s favorite pastimes are mowing and golfing. They attend Nazareth Baptist Church.
Like any other small, locally owned business, Brantley’s has faced its share of challenges and had to make a lot of changes over the years, both in the items they sell and how they sell them. For one, fewer people own and show horses than did when they started out. Back then there were several show arenas around the area and people always needed new equipment to support their hobby, but owning and caring for horses got more and more expensive, most of the arenas closed down, and younger generations turned to other hobbies. Because of this they had to change up their inventory, focusing more on boots and apparel.
The biggest change that Peggy has seen in her time running the store has undoubtedly been the rise of the internet and the ability to shop online. When they started, few could have imagined that online shopping was just around the corner, and none would have believed what a big business it would become, with some estimates saying that more than one billion people have bought items online.
Brantley’s has had to change the way they do business dramatically to keep up. Now they do almost half of their business online, but even so, it is impossible to keep up with the big guys. Just keeping up with day-to-day operations at their storefront and their online orders is a monumental task.
“When the ability to shop online kind of launched it was good, but now our biggest competitor is Amazon.”
Amazon in particular has brought with it a lot of problems for small businesses like Brantley’s nationwide. With the rise of e-commerce, the fact is that fewer people are willing to travel even to a nearby small business when they can shop online and have their items come to them instead. Another factor is that many small businesses like Brantley’s are required by their suppliers to sell items at a certain price point, but every day Peggy sees the same items being sold for less online:
“Our manufacturers enforce a certain price point, I don’t understand how people are able to get around them, or how they can afford to.”
Perhaps the issue most often brought up regarding Amazon and other big e-commerce businesses is taxes. When purchases are made at brick and mortar businesses, the businesses must collect taxes for local governments as well as the state, but online shopping is different. Until now, businesses have not had to pay sales tax for orders unless they had offices or warehouses in the state where the purchaser lives. But now that is changing.
Alabama’s state government has created a new program where Amazon and other e-commerce sites will collect an 8% state sales tax and send that money to Montgomery. There, the majority will stay with the state government in the general fund, and what is left over will be divided up between local governments based on population. This means that some of the money might have a chance of making its way back to your local community, but if you spend it here, most of it never leaves.
Local business owners reinvest in the economy of their community not only through the taxes they must collect, but by employing members of their community, donating to local causes, and shopping at other local businesses, where the cycle continues. To Peggy, these are the most important reasons to shop locally.
“We spend our money here and pay taxes to the police force, fire department, and schools. If you shop with a big retailer or online, where is the profit going?”
You can use the Native Rewards app to support the local small business community! You get great deals and a chance to win money every time you shop with local businesses like Brantley’s!
Get it here: http://onelink.to/99h4ts
