Dealers cleaned out of snow blowers as winter rages on

By Joseph Cyr
Staff Writer
    HOULTON — Chances are, if you did not already purchase a snow blower, finding one might be more difficult than winning the lottery.
    With a couple feet of fresh snow falling on the County in recent weeks, there has been somewhat of a rush for snow blowers in the Shiretown. The Houlton Pioneer Times conducted a poll of four area retailers that specialize in snow throwers — Sears, Duff’s Service Station and the Light House all of Houlton and R.C. Logging in Smyrna — which revealed all five were sold out of the popular snow-clearing machines.
    A slow start to winter had most retailers nervous about their ability to sell their inventory. Early in the winter, southern Maine and New Hampshire were the recipients of higher amounts of snow, and therefore there was greater demand for the machines in those areas.
    “We didn’t have a lot of people looking for them early on this winter,” said Bart Dunn, owner of Sears in Houlton. “They sold well in what we call the pre-season, and then we had about 20 that just were not selling, so we shipped a bunch down to Ellsworth.”
    That left about 10 machines at the Sears location on the North Road and those were quickly scooped up prior to the last storm. Selling out of stock by late-January/early-February is the goal for most retailers as thoughts quickly start turning to the spring season and lawn mowers.
    “We are usually trying to wind down on the winter items by the end of January,” Dunn said. “Since we are a smaller store, we can’t send unsold inventory back. So if I have 30 snow throwers left over, they are going to be sitting outside my store all year, which I don’t want. So we try not to have too many left. We could probably get some more and sell them, but I’m no going to take the chance.”
    Tom Duff, owner of Duff’s Service Station on the Bangor Road, had similar results.
    “It picked up quite a bit in the past two or three weeks to the point where we are pretty much out of snow blowers,” Duff said.
    Dave Tidd of the Lighthouse on Bangor Road, which specializes in Ariens snow throwers, said his supply of new machines has been cleaned out for a couple of weeks now, but it was not from selling to people in the local area.
    “We got snow too late up here in the County,” Tidd said. “We shipped what we had down to New Hampshire. Up here, if you don’t get snow early, people try to get by without spending money.”
    Shipping machines to other areas is not uncommon, Tidd said, but the volume to which he had to send machines south was unusual. As part of a “dealer network,” retailers are able to send machines to areas that need them more, and can also receive machines if there is great enough demand.
    Ross Crandall of R.C. Logging on U.S. Route 2 in Smyrna, which specializes in Husqvarna snow throwers, said he was a bit nervous at the start of winter, as sales were extremely slow.
    “At one point, I was looking to pedal some of them south,” Crandall said. “We carry about 12 to 15 each season and we were able to sell them all locally.”
    An added perk of selling machines locally is that the retailer is more likely to get additional business in the future through repair and maintenance services, Crandall said.
    “You hate to send your merchandise out of the area, but sometimes you have to from a monetary standpoint,” Crandall said. “Up here, once you get by the middle part of January, if you have not moved your product, you are going to be stuck with it for another year.”
    Most of the dealers in the Shiretown have already shifted their focus to spring, and have started bringing in lawn mowers and barbecues.
    “That’s what we are all looking for now, the light at the end of the tunnel,” Crandall said.