By Mary Alice Murphy

Charles Kelly, owner of the Silver City Sears store, and his daughter Melissa Kelly, who runs the store, spoke to attendees at the first Gila Economic Development Alliance Roundtable held in several months, because of the holidays and the legislative session.

Charles Kelly gave a brief history of the store. "It started a long time ago as a catalogue store on Hudson Street, owned by Bill Moore. April Muñiz worked for Bill. When Sears offered the new concept Hometown stores, April went for it and moved the store to its present location on Pope Street. In 1993, it became a Sears Authorized dealer store until 2001."

"I used to go in and look at all the tools," Charles Kelly said. "I used to tell April: 'If you want to get rid of the store let me know.' In 2001, she said: 'You can have it'. I told her if the bank would approve financing, I would buy it. The bank went for it and here we are. It's been up and down, just like most businesses in Silver City, but I'm really excited about the changes going on. We've invested in our store lately. We invite you to come in and look at the new exciting products. I'll turn the show over to my daughter, because she runs it."

Melissa Kelly said the store requires a lot of hard work and dedication, "but we have a great group of employees, who have been with us for a while. We have not much turnover. It's a franchise business, with help from the corporation. We do what we do for the community."

"We completely redid the floor plan," she continued. "We have new innovative appliances and the store."

Melissa Kelly said the Sears store is always in a battle with Sears.com and with stores like Lowe's in Las Cruces. "I want to remind you that we price match. We carry the top 10 brands of appliances and you have three different ways to pay. You can pay by Sears credit card, layaway or you can use our Lease It program, which gives you completely new appliances. We have new tools, new appliances in the store. "

She said if a person makes a purchase in another Sears store, the prices will be the same as the ones in the local store, and the same promotions are in all Sears stores at the same time. "If you see something somewhere else, give us a call. If we don't have it, we can get it quickly. We receive new merchandise Tuesdays and Fridays. If you place an order in a Sears somewhere else, we likely will be the one delivering it."

Priscilla Lucero, Southwest New Mexico Council of Governments executive director, asked if the Sears could do state contracts.

Melissa Kelly said Sears owns every piece of merchandise in the store, but "we can probably work around that. "

Lucero said if a request for proposal is released, "you can respond, and we evaluate your bid and, if chosen, you can be part of the state contract system."

"We will certainly work on it," Melissa Kelly said.

Lucero said Sears just needed to be aware of RFPs, if the store is listed as an approved entity.

Charles Kelly said: "Over the years, we have served local governments, which have bought through us. We can work with local governments."

Melissa Kelly noted that if a purchase of an appliance is made out-of-town, "you're then working with someone out-of-town if something goes wrong. If you buy local, we take care of it, right now."

Arlene Schadel, Gila EDA member, asked the Kellys, as business owners, how they keep the purchases local.

"It's attitude; it's hustle," Melissa Kelly answered. "I'm working 24/7. I'm always open to questions. We have to be out there promoting."

Charles Kelly said the community has to continue to grow. "If the community were to grow 2 percent to 3 percent a year, it would keep things going. People are moving away, dying. We need people to replace them. Ten or so years ago, the word got out that Silver City was a nice place to live, and people moved in. We have to do that again to keep it going."

Jeremiah Garcia, Gila EDA chairman, said everyone in the room is in the business industry. "When construction was booming, people bought at Sears. It's true that we should buy locally and keep the money here and then look at how all of us are growing. We've declined."

Ron Hall, District 3 county commissioner, said the county needs to analyze what works and make the county grow.

Paul Leetmae, owner/manager of Lawley Automotive, said he has recently met a lot of new people who are moving in. We are seeing houses bought in the $200,000 to $300,000 range. As community people, we need to make sure we refer them to local business owners. Mortgage brokers are telling me most people are moving here because of weather where they are from and because of our nice climate."

To Melissa Kelly, he asked what brands have Wi-Fi capability. She listed the brands, including the Sears store brand Kenmore. "Samsung is the fastest growing right now, and yes, they have Wi-Fi. Everything today is about energy efficiency. You can use a smartphone to start them. They have digital displays. Kenmore has Kenmore Connect, so over the Internet, you can figure out what's wrong with the appliance."

She went on to say that the store could get anything that Sears carries, except for batteries and eyeglasses. "We stock parts for lots of tools and all appliances."

Garcia asked about service for appliances.

Melissa Kelly said a nationwide shortage of service technicians makes it a challenge. "We have two contracted service technicians, about to be three, with Sears. We can help you get service."

Schadel asked how many employees the store has. "We have six, including me, and not including my dad. He's the owner and business guy."

Christine Logan, New Mexico Economic Development Department regional representative, noted that last year, New Mexico lost population for the first time since 1967.

Leetmae said he has run advertising for technicians. "I talked about the Polar Vortex and getting away from it by coming to the Southwest."

Lee Gruber, co-owner with her husband David Del Junco of Syzygy Tileworks, said she likes to speak positively. "Last month at the Visitor Center, we had more people than any prior month over the past three years. Gas prices are lower and the weather has brought many people here. It requires a measure of patience. There is always a cycle in economic growth, up and down. We have remarkable advertising collaboration going on among the chambers and the Arts and Cultural District. There was a 15-page spread on Silver City in New Mexico Magazine. Except for the population of 100,000, it was right on. We're working on taking the piece and using it. There are incredible things going on."

"We were mentioned in Psychology Today," she said. "A writer was a mess and she came down. She took a meditation class at Lotus Center and the Qi Gong class the next morning. She wrote a nice piece about how relaxed she felt in Silver City."

Lucero pointed out that the last census had huge issues with enumeration of the population. "I go to the water districts and they show no decrease in water connections. In fact, they are seeing small increases, which means homes are being constructed. If a person purchases a home, they pay for a water connection."

Mike Trujillo of First American Bank said the bank has just gotten its first construction loan in four or five years. "I expect they will buy appliances. Mortgage rates are low. A 15-year fixed is at 3 percent; a 30-year, at 4 percent. Although the Fed says it will raise interest rates, there is still a window of opportunity to take advantage of the rates."

The new president of First Savings Bank said his bank has seen some increases in business activity in the past year. "I moved from Las Cruces. You have more non-profits than I've seen anywhere. Non-profits are an industry here. Although I moved here in July, and I don't have a lot of history, it seems that things are on the rebound."

Michelle Nice of Wells Fargo said the bank has seen a lot of mom-and-pops opening over the past couple of months.

Sean Ormand of 1st New Mexico Bank said he is seeing opportunities, with businesses building up cash, so they can buy property. "When someone moves from California or New York, the one thing they struggle with is that we don't have the demand here. For houses, appraisals are difficult. We have to work to get the price and appraisals aligned. We need to continue to bring in tourism, but also make it attractive for businesses to come or start."

He said, as part of the New Mexico Partnership, "we market the state. We have great potential companies to come in, especially to Albuquerque and Rio Rancho and to Las Cruces and Santa Teresa. A rising tide floats all boats. I do understand the trepidation of companies to commit."

A representative of Western Bank said they have four construction loans, and some existing businesses are purchasing new equipment. "This is pushing us to promote each other."

Melissa Kelly said she has seen a few out-of-town people coming in. "We need to put our heads together and promote the community and see people move in. There is opportunity coming in. There are people coming in. We need to invest in each other. I just came back from extensive training on the new appliance innovations. The week of April 20-24, we will hold a grand re-opening, with hot dogs and sodas. The big event will be Friday, April 24. We are open 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Monday through Friday; Saturday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. We want you to see the facelift we have done for you, the customers."

Charlie Kelly said Sears is being promoted as America's Appliance Experts. "They're right. Every employee had mandatory training on the appliances."

Melissa Kelly said: "We have to keep up. Knowledge is key in competition. We have the brands, the knowledge, the service and the price."

Schadel complimented Sears on its excellent customer service.

The rest of the meeting, which had reports from community representatives, will be covered in a subsequent article.