Milam County Historical Commission
Milam County, Texas
Milam County, Texas
Butts Dry Goods ending 82-year run
by Mike Brown - Reporter Editor
Rockdale Reporter - October 9, 2014
Store survives Depression, ‘Big Boxes’ on quality
Newton Butts smiles, because that’s his nature, then almost apologizes: “My office is really too small to sit down and visit, just grab a chair and we’ll go to the back.”
So the interview takes place at the end of an aisle surrounded by stacks of Redwing and Justin boots, Levi jeans and the cultural debris of the 82 years Butts Dry Goods has served Thorndale and beyond.
It’s closing in a couple of weeks. Butts, 86, is retiring after 60 years in the downtown Thorndale landmark, continuing a tradition started by his father, L. G. Butts, who opened the store in 1932.
It survived the Great Depression and three decades of the Walmart “Big Box” era and drew customers from far beyond Thorndale. That’s a tribute to a couple of traits which may not be the keystones of marketing in the 21st Century—quality and character.
“We had quality items and we did that on purpose,” Butts said. “We wanted to have things people couldn’t get at the other stores.”
And character? Butts hired Chet Westmoreland of Luling to oversee the closing sale.
Westmoreland said the sale has gone better than any he’s seen in 24 years in the business and doesn’t hesitate to name the reason.
“It’s Newton,” Westmoreland said. “It’s the respect people have for him and this business he’s built up over the years.”
COTTON SACKS - L. G. Butts opened the store in 1932, taking half of what had been a restaurant and putting a dry goods store in the front and a tailor’s shop in the back.
“By the time I was 10, I was working here,” Newton Butts recalled. “Back in the tailor shop sewing cotton sacks together. I got 10 cents for each sack. I’d sew 10 of them together and get a dollar. I thought that was pretty good money for a kid.”
But the store by itself wasn’t enough to make it through the Depression. “What saved us was the garden plants my father grew outside,” Butts recalled. “It was pretty rough until things picked up during World War II.”
Butts graduated from Thorndale High School in 1945 and went on to Texas A&M, graduating in 1949.
He came back to Thorndale to teach and also took on just a few athletic duties.
Butts was athletic director, head football coach and girls basketball coach. Oh, and he was also elementary principal.
(He coached the Bulldogs for four seasons and posted a 15-23-1 record).
CAREER CHANGE - His life was altered in 1954 when his father had a heart attack.
“I originally came in to run the store while he recovered,” Butts recalled.
After the elder Butts got well, father and son became partners and operated the business that way until L. G. Butts passed away in 1969.
“Those first years were really a boom time,” Newton Butts recalled. “Alcoa had just come in. It was right at the end of an era in which downtown Thorndale was at its peak. We had car dealers, grocery stores, a theater, lots of businesses.”
(In 1948, L. G. had expanded Butts Dry Goods into the other half of the former restaurant building and the business assumed its present footprint.)
For 60 years, through good times and bad, Newton Butts has been behind the counter, and virtually every other square inch of the store.
He grins again. “Let’s see. I’ve unlocked the doors in the morning and locked them up again in the afternoon,” he said. “I’ve done the ordering, the selling, the bookkeeping and the janitoring. I’ve swept the sidewalk in front many times.”
It’s well known around Thorndale that most of those were six-day work weeks. But Butts, typically low-key, can’t let that pass. “I did get to taking Thursdays off,” he clarifies.
SERVICE - What never “took off” in six decades was service.
“That’s one place where we could out-do the big stores,” he said. “We could give everyone the personal touch and that’s what we tried to do.”
Virtually all of his Thorndale customers, and most of his Rockdale and Taylor ones, didn’t even have to tell him what they wanted to buy.
“I pretty much knew what they were here for after a while,” Butts said. “But we also got a lot of people from all over Central Texas,” he added.
Special orders were another key facet of the store. “We’d try to get it for you,” he said. “I believe that kept the people coming back.”
“We are so grateful to all those customers for their patronage over the years,” he added. “You don’t make it this long without having so many loyal customers.” To put that in perspective: For the last 35 years, Butts Dry Goods has survived with Walmarts just 12 miles away to both the east and west.
He kept up with massive changes in technology. “First it was credit cards,” he recalled. “And, you know, I’ve gotten pretty good on the computer.”
But he has stayed with some of the old “tried and true” ways he learned from his father.
“We’ve always had open accounts,” he said. “From my father in the Depression right to the last few weeks here.”
(An open account is continuing credit extended to a customer by a merchant.) That’s a way of doing business, based on trust, that has become almost extinct. “On that, we’re pretty much the last of the Mohicans,” Butts joked.
Didn’t he ever get burned by people who didn’t pay their bills.
“Oh yes, lots of times,” Butts said. “We just figured that was part of the cost of doing business. But most people paid up.”
‘RETIREMENT’ - Now what? What does Butts plan to do without coming down to the store every day?
“Go crazy, I guess,” he laughed. “No, I think I’ll just try to stay out of my wife’s (Tinker’s) way.” In fact, Butts seems more concerned about his customers’ future than his own.
He, of course, has gotten a lot of feedback since word got out that’s he’s closing the store.
“One long-time customer came in and went ‘Newton! Where am I gonna buy my Levis?” Butts recalled, shaking his head.
“I didn’t really know what to say.”
Maybe it’s best left to an outsider to put Butts Dry Goods in perspective.
Westmoreland has been dealing with going out of business situations for a quarter century but he clearly thinks this iconic establishment in Thorndale is something special.
“The quality and reputation of this place just stands out,” he said, looking around at the ever-dwindling supply of merchandise on the shelves. “I know this is the last one of its kind in Central Texas.
“I honestly didn’t know places like this still existed.” For a few more days.
MB
.
by Mike Brown - Reporter Editor
Rockdale Reporter - October 9, 2014
Store survives Depression, ‘Big Boxes’ on quality
Newton Butts smiles, because that’s his nature, then almost apologizes: “My office is really too small to sit down and visit, just grab a chair and we’ll go to the back.”
So the interview takes place at the end of an aisle surrounded by stacks of Redwing and Justin boots, Levi jeans and the cultural debris of the 82 years Butts Dry Goods has served Thorndale and beyond.
It’s closing in a couple of weeks. Butts, 86, is retiring after 60 years in the downtown Thorndale landmark, continuing a tradition started by his father, L. G. Butts, who opened the store in 1932.
It survived the Great Depression and three decades of the Walmart “Big Box” era and drew customers from far beyond Thorndale. That’s a tribute to a couple of traits which may not be the keystones of marketing in the 21st Century—quality and character.
“We had quality items and we did that on purpose,” Butts said. “We wanted to have things people couldn’t get at the other stores.”
And character? Butts hired Chet Westmoreland of Luling to oversee the closing sale.
Westmoreland said the sale has gone better than any he’s seen in 24 years in the business and doesn’t hesitate to name the reason.
“It’s Newton,” Westmoreland said. “It’s the respect people have for him and this business he’s built up over the years.”
COTTON SACKS - L. G. Butts opened the store in 1932, taking half of what had been a restaurant and putting a dry goods store in the front and a tailor’s shop in the back.
“By the time I was 10, I was working here,” Newton Butts recalled. “Back in the tailor shop sewing cotton sacks together. I got 10 cents for each sack. I’d sew 10 of them together and get a dollar. I thought that was pretty good money for a kid.”
But the store by itself wasn’t enough to make it through the Depression. “What saved us was the garden plants my father grew outside,” Butts recalled. “It was pretty rough until things picked up during World War II.”
Butts graduated from Thorndale High School in 1945 and went on to Texas A&M, graduating in 1949.
He came back to Thorndale to teach and also took on just a few athletic duties.
Butts was athletic director, head football coach and girls basketball coach. Oh, and he was also elementary principal.
(He coached the Bulldogs for four seasons and posted a 15-23-1 record).
CAREER CHANGE - His life was altered in 1954 when his father had a heart attack.
“I originally came in to run the store while he recovered,” Butts recalled.
After the elder Butts got well, father and son became partners and operated the business that way until L. G. Butts passed away in 1969.
“Those first years were really a boom time,” Newton Butts recalled. “Alcoa had just come in. It was right at the end of an era in which downtown Thorndale was at its peak. We had car dealers, grocery stores, a theater, lots of businesses.”
(In 1948, L. G. had expanded Butts Dry Goods into the other half of the former restaurant building and the business assumed its present footprint.)
For 60 years, through good times and bad, Newton Butts has been behind the counter, and virtually every other square inch of the store.
He grins again. “Let’s see. I’ve unlocked the doors in the morning and locked them up again in the afternoon,” he said. “I’ve done the ordering, the selling, the bookkeeping and the janitoring. I’ve swept the sidewalk in front many times.”
It’s well known around Thorndale that most of those were six-day work weeks. But Butts, typically low-key, can’t let that pass. “I did get to taking Thursdays off,” he clarifies.
SERVICE - What never “took off” in six decades was service.
“That’s one place where we could out-do the big stores,” he said. “We could give everyone the personal touch and that’s what we tried to do.”
Virtually all of his Thorndale customers, and most of his Rockdale and Taylor ones, didn’t even have to tell him what they wanted to buy.
“I pretty much knew what they were here for after a while,” Butts said. “But we also got a lot of people from all over Central Texas,” he added.
Special orders were another key facet of the store. “We’d try to get it for you,” he said. “I believe that kept the people coming back.”
“We are so grateful to all those customers for their patronage over the years,” he added. “You don’t make it this long without having so many loyal customers.” To put that in perspective: For the last 35 years, Butts Dry Goods has survived with Walmarts just 12 miles away to both the east and west.
He kept up with massive changes in technology. “First it was credit cards,” he recalled. “And, you know, I’ve gotten pretty good on the computer.”
But he has stayed with some of the old “tried and true” ways he learned from his father.
“We’ve always had open accounts,” he said. “From my father in the Depression right to the last few weeks here.”
(An open account is continuing credit extended to a customer by a merchant.) That’s a way of doing business, based on trust, that has become almost extinct. “On that, we’re pretty much the last of the Mohicans,” Butts joked.
Didn’t he ever get burned by people who didn’t pay their bills.
“Oh yes, lots of times,” Butts said. “We just figured that was part of the cost of doing business. But most people paid up.”
‘RETIREMENT’ - Now what? What does Butts plan to do without coming down to the store every day?
“Go crazy, I guess,” he laughed. “No, I think I’ll just try to stay out of my wife’s (Tinker’s) way.” In fact, Butts seems more concerned about his customers’ future than his own.
He, of course, has gotten a lot of feedback since word got out that’s he’s closing the store.
“One long-time customer came in and went ‘Newton! Where am I gonna buy my Levis?” Butts recalled, shaking his head.
“I didn’t really know what to say.”
Maybe it’s best left to an outsider to put Butts Dry Goods in perspective.
Westmoreland has been dealing with going out of business situations for a quarter century but he clearly thinks this iconic establishment in Thorndale is something special.
“The quality and reputation of this place just stands out,” he said, looking around at the ever-dwindling supply of merchandise on the shelves. “I know this is the last one of its kind in Central Texas.
“I honestly didn’t know places like this still existed.” For a few more days.
MB
.
All Credit for this article
goes to Mike Brown
and the
Rockdale Reporter
goes to Mike Brown
and the
Rockdale Reporter
One last boot display for Newton Butts who has shown many in the past 60 years
Photo by Mike Brown - Rockdale Reporter
.
.