Sedona Main Street Program nominates
the Buffalo Don Corral for AZ Main Street 2008 Best Small Scale
Project.
“Buffalo” Don Thompson purchased the “Great Red Earth T-Shirts”
business and inventory from the previous owner of some 20 years. The
store was sad and the inventory tired and unchanged. In order to
occupy the space, Thompson had to get a Certificate of Occupancy from
the City of Sedona. The building’s electrical and plumbing did not
meet city code, but after placing an electrician on the job, the store
was allowed to open with a temporary CofO. Immediately, Don upgraded
the electrical system and the plumbing system, including adding
emergency lighting with batteries.
Now is an important time to introduce
“Buffalo” Don Thompson. Buffalo Don is a decorated WWII veteran and
very successful grocery chain owner, buffalo rancher and still owns a
bottled water company. Now in his 80s, he was bored and decided to go
into the t-shirt business in Sedona’s tourist core of Uptown. His
daily “uniform” is a bright red cowboy hat, red kerchief style tie,
white dress shirt, black pants and cowboy boots and a jacket. No one
in town has ever seen him dressed differently. He is a memorable
figure.
The store he chose to buy is small,
only about 350 square feet of retail on the first floor and 350 square
feet of storage and administrative space on the second floor. After
dealing with code issues, the next move was to paint, replace the
ragged carpet with red carpet (Buffalo Don says red so all his
customers get red carpet service), and to build a new checkout
counter. Over the first year, he and his co-owner, Lynn Karl also
re-arranged the store and added more floor racks. The final part of
the transformation of this little store was exterior signage. First,
at the door is a cut-out of a cowboy’s profile painted in Buffalo
Don’s signature colors. Next, a colorful wall-mounted sign with the
Buffalo Don corporate logo was installed above the storefront. These
two signs are oriented perpendicular to the building and thus visible
from the public sidewalk and highway. In addition to the renovations
to the retail space, the second floor space was painted, custom
shelving for inventory built, and new carpet put on the stairs.
These improvements and Buffalo Don’s
personal presence in the Uptown Mall plaza and his regular forays into
the street and public sidewalk to engage visitors has had a positive
impact on his own business and on those of his neighboring
storeowners. At any time you visit, you will most likely find Buffalo
Don visiting with people or posing for a picture with them in the
Mall. The Buffalo Don Corral prides itself in selling only items made
in North and South America with no overseas imports, and this has been
an attraction for the store. The store also offers discounts to
locals, and military personnel – past or present.
And, while the location in the center
of the plaza might have been a difficult location for some shop
proprietors because its’ storefront and products (no matter how
enticing) do not face the public on the main sidewalk through town.
With renovations, new signage & its new perpendicular placement,
strategic inventory decisions and Buffalo Don’s and Lynn’s personal
touch with visitors, the Buffalo Don Corral has experienced a 600%
increase in volume since the day the store opened in January 2007. In
addition, they offer space to the Sedona Historical Society to sell
some of their items and 100% of those sales go back to the Society.
The Buffalo Don Corral spent just over
$23,000 on the renovations and signs for the store. We tip our hat
off to Don for turning this sows ear into a red cowboy hat.
Photo (pdf) Attachment
