MacGregor Home Centre - MacGregor Homegrown Business
Do you have a renovation or new building project on the horizon, and are looking for a supplier? Are you in need of some new tools or hardware to help with your newest project? Are you looking for some animal feed, specialty items, or freeze dryer rentals and are starting to get concerned with the sheer amount of travel and time that it will take to find new businesses that do each of these things?
What if I told you, that to get all of that taken care of and so much more, all at prices and with expertise that is second-to-none, you didn’t even have to leave MacGregor?
This week for the MacGregor Homegrown Business highlight, I talked to Dan Zacharias, the owner of the MacGregor Home Centre, the store that both does it all, and more importantly, does it all well.
Tell me all that the MacGregor Home Centre does specifically?
MacGregor Home Centre Ltd is your one-stop-shop for everything from nuts and bolts and cookie sheets all the way up to renovating or even building your castle. What do we do specifically? That is a long list:
Let's start the building supply part of the store. We have anything you will need for either a renovation or a new build. We have everything from lumber siding to shingles to plumbing, electrical and flooring.
Then let's look at the hardware side of the store. There we carry a large assortment of items, including power tools, hand tools, and also nuts bolts and screws.
We also are a paint store, carrying a large assortment of Benjamin Moore paint in sizes ranging from pint-sized samples to make sure you love the colour you choose, all the way to 5-gallon pails. With over two thousand colours to choose from, with many different finishes, we are sure to have the right paint with a quality you can be sure will last for years.
We are also a Masterfeeds dealer with feed for all of the common animals in the area on hand and can special order for those not so common animals as well.
We have a few specialty items that are out of the ordinary for a store like ours, as well. We carry Blackstone grills which have become my favourite piece of cooking equipment at home (if we don't use it once a day, it is because we use it twice).
We also were introduced to freeze dryers about a 1 1/2 year ago and now deal Harvest Right freeze dryers! With this technology, 97% of the nutrition and all of the taste of your food can be made to last for 25 years without the need for refrigeration! We have ours going almost 24/7 at home.
And if that is not enough, we also special order almost anything that we don't have in stock.
I guess to wrap all that we do together, at the MacGregor Home Centre, we stand by the slogan “If it's not illegal or immoral, we will sell it!” We may not be a big box store, but we can supply what they have and at a competitive price, too.
Tell me the story of how the MacGregor Home Centre began.
Our story starts in 1988. My father Henry Zacharias had been building houses and kitchen cabinets for a number of years in the area and had a desire to instead become a "store man" (sounds better in German, come ask me sometime). And so, after some searching, he found a "mini-mall" for sale in MacGregor. After purchasing it with a friend, he opened a hardware and feed store in the back corner, not more than 5 or 600 square feet in size. I was in grade 9 at MCI at the time, and "worked" (looking back now, I'm not sure I was much help) after school and on weekends with him. Slowly, as tenants moved out of the "mini-mall," he would expand his selection and in time added the lumberyard in the back.
How has running the MacGregor Home Centre gone over the years?
I have been part of the store since its beginning in 1988, with the exception of a 5-year stint when I worked for a vet clinic while also trying my hand at home construction (both ended up being valuable experiences as they gave me some insight into the value of the products I look to sell). I have seen many changes from the store as it grew from the small corner hardware area to filling every corner of the building with products for sale.
In 2011, when my Mom started getting sick, dad told me that I needed to manage the store so he could concentrate on other things, and so it was that in 2012 he sold the business to my wife Elma and I. We currently have six people employed and are excited to see what the future holds!
Why was the Home Centre started in MacGregor?
Why in MacGregor? MacGregor is the best place in the world (well almost)! Growing up in Sidney and Austin and being here my whole life, this is simply put, the place to be. MacGregor and the whole area have very friendly people that have supported us very generously over the years. As such, it goes without saying that the MacGregor Home Centre has and will continue to support the many fairs, tournaments and school events the town has as well as the Agricultural Museum.
How has COVID impacted The MacGregor Home Centre?
COVID-19 just showed up out of the blue and has impacted the MacGregor Home Centre as a result. To make sure things stay safe, we have ramped up our cleaning protocols and have set lines on the floor so that everyone can keep the physical distance they require.
The people from MacGregor and the surrounding area have supported us well during the pandemic (many ‘honey-do’ lists are now long since completed) and as a result, we have even had some of our departments increase in sales. Other areas of the store have decreased significantly, but all in all, we have not experienced the major negative impact that many others have. We thank the Lord for that.
Any additional details that would encourage people to help out the MacGregor Home Centre now?
I would like to thank the people of MacGregor and the surrounding area for their support during the pandemic, and also want to encourage you to continue to shop locally. We want to be here for you in the future, so come on in and give us a chance to help you before you drive and waste your time and fuel just to find out that you could have bought it right here at home for a similar (or sometimes better) price!
Final note. If you have read this article and bring me the password, “MacGregor Chamber” you will receive a free freeze dryer cycle rental, a $20.00 value!
As a member of the Castle Building Centre’s Group Ltd. Co-operative, the MacGregor Home Centre is proudly independently owned and operated.
Open Weekdays 9 AM to 5:30 PM
Saturdays 9 AM to 2 PM
1 (204) 685-2234