Build Local, Buy Local

Tips and know-how from longtime Northern Michigan building-supply pros.

by EMILY TYRA

Time travel a moment with us: It’s 1963 in Benzie County, Michigan. The shiny new A&W opened a year ago, serving root beer floats car-side in Frankfort. Up the road, the screens at The Cherry Bowl Drive-In have played flicks under the Northern stars for just a decade. The Platte River State Fish Hatchery in Honor is well on its way to becoming Michigan’s salmon hatchery headquarters. Meanwhile, quaint village homes and cottages are popping up in town and on the shores of nearby Crystal and Platte lakes, and family fishing cabins are getting fixed up to welcome another season on the banks of the river.

Earl and Shirley Soderquist, a couple in Honor, recognized a need in their community: a local supplier of building materials and hardware products for contractors and DIYers. Honor Building Supply was born in 1963 (as well as their fourth daughter).

That daughter, Mary Rodriguez, is now vice-president/ owner of Honor-Onekama Building Supply alongside her husband, Doug Rodriguez. “I am grateful for what my parents founded and so very proud to be able to carry on the family business. All the blessings we have received have far outweighed the difficulties.”

Indeed, though big box stores have put immense pressure on independent, family-owned building supply stores across America, this local supplier in Benzie (and now Manistee) County has persevered: 2023 rings in 60 years in Honor and 25 in Onekama. “Now more than ever we believe buying local builds a stronger community for all of us,” shares Mary.

Here, a few close-to-home reasons why it’s worth hitting up an independently- and family-owned building supply company rather than the big guys:

Continuity in customer service: A local business carries a strong personal commitment to the outcome of projects as well as their longevity. “My parents led this business to success on the foundation of honesty and integrity,” says Mary. “They also taught us to treat our employees the same way.” Members of their teams have served the local community for 20 and 30 years.

Familiarity with product: With long employee tenure comes deep knowledge of products and proper applications, so you get a project right the first time. After witnessing decades of his customers’ deck installations, Doug intimately knows how treated lumber and first- and second-generation composite decking performs in the Northern elements. He’ll share what he’d choose at his own home, and for you, depending on locale.

Knowledge of what questions to ask the DIYer: “With decks, garages and pole barns, instead of spitting out a plan that is not what they really want, we ask, ‘Where is it going to be on your property? Do you want windows? Where do you want your doors?’ Even the placement of a doorknob: with experience comes questions back to the customer.”

They know the builders: “We cater to the professional contractor, but anyone can walk in,” Mary says. Bonus: “Our sales team is in constant contact with contractors who went to school or learned on the job. Perhaps a customer has some drainage issue on his roof,” explains Doug. “We have a good relationship with professionals so we can ask, ‘Hey, what would you do in this case?’”

They are hands-on kitchen concierges: “The difference here is that we physically go out and measure,” says Mary of their kitchen sales team of two. “Kitchens are complicated, and if it’s your kitchen, you want this attention to detail.”

In the end, what inspires Rodriguez and team? “A business built on a foundation of knowledge, service and integrity makes a difference,” she says. “Remember when a handshake meant something? It still does, here.”