COMPETITIVE Intelligence By Carla Waldemar
Buffalo stampede u ca a the kid out of Buffalo, but you can’t take Buffalo out of the kid. And that kid, Sam Olson, is the poster child for that town of 400, which barely merits a dot in the far (and empty) northwest corner of South Dakota. Sam was born there. He left just long enough to get a degree in business entrepreneurship from Black Hills State University, with which came the predictable Dad question: Now what “My dad was a contractor, so I always thought I’d end up working for him no concrete plan,” Sam allows. Well, if the kid had no idea, his dad felt free to supply him with one. At 77, the owner of the town’s hardware store was ready to retire from the business that had hardly changed over his 47 years on the spot, other than ripping pages off the calendar. “It presented an opportunity. Interested ’ asked my dad. Want to help us take this on ’” Well, why not “I had zero experience, knew nothing about a POS system (or anything else). I had no idea. But I learned real quick.” Dad put up the cash and Sam the labor. “I was basically an employee, but could build that into ownership. I’d always know that I’d never leave’-leave Buffalo. So I came out, looked at the store, and thought, Why not ’ I was young and bulletproof
Y
BUFFALO HARDWARE owner Sam Olson has overseen an ambitious expansion that has the business packed into four city blocks.
