A One-Stop Shop at Upperville Farm and Feed

A One-Stop Shop at Upperville Farm and Feed

By Linda Roberts

Zack Wakeman’s desk is squeezed in between boxes of newly arrived merchandise and the baby chick holding area, which is complete with heat lamps for a soonto-arrive special order of chicks. At the Orange Madison Cooperative, better known to locals as the Upperville Farm and Feed, Wakeman’s office has the look of belonging to someone who spends most of his time outside helping customers.

“Hi, how are you?” Wakeman, the store and warehouse manager, says while holding the door open for a customer. He’s definitely perfected the art of multi-tasking, often answering the store phone or his cell phone while stopping to help load purchases or answer a question from Leslie Blischak or Alan Hogan, the store’s other two full-time employees. His two part-time employees are Travis Deifendeifer and Ashley Morris.

Zack Wakeman (front), Alan Hogan and Leslie Blischak at the Upperville Farm and Feed Store.

Photo by Linda Roberts

Zack Wakeman (front), Alan Hogan and Leslie Blischak at the Upperville Farm and Feed Store.

The five stores, Upperville, Front Royal, Orange, Louisa and Madison, which comprise the cooperative, have a directive to stay as local as possible while keeping costs down in a time when nearly everything has seen spiraling.

“Our goal here at Upperville is to make this a one-stop shop, especially on the equine side,” said Wakeman. In addition to a variety of horse feeds, he also plans to stock a wide array of equine, barn and pasture supplies that include grass seeds.

The store’s second showroom, adjacent to the feed holding area and steps away from the main office, includes livestock and gardening supplies, bulk seeds, and hardware for the farm and home.

“We have a super supportive community,” he said, adding that the store interacts with its customers in a number of ways—staging Saturday farmers’ markets from April to October, a quarterly tack swap and sale for equine owners and purchasing poinsettias from Liberty High School’s horticulture department for the holidays.

Blischak is the store’s “plant lady” with a charge to order the highest quality plants she can locate from various nurseries. In addition to annual and perennial flowers, there’s a large quantity of shrubs, ornamental, fruit and hardwood trees ready to plant.

A major part of the cooperative’s business is delivery, particularly to the area’s farms and barns. Wakeman estimates a large trailer load of just shavings for bedding stalls goes out once a week. The store’s customers are serviced by the cooperative’s delivery team, but as this area of the business increases, a goal is to have its own delivery unit to more efficiently serve clients.

The Upperville cooperative brings to market a full-service line of merchandise that offers the store a well-rounded customer base. According to Wakeman, clients can also find fencing supplies, bulk mulch, square and round bales of hay, fence paint, stall mats and even wood stove pellets, along with farm implements and fence paint in five-gallon and 55-gallon sizes.

"Our customers like the slower, hometown feel and service that Upperville offers them,” said Wakeman, who grew up on a beef cattle farm and graduated from Virginia Tech before entering agriculture-based employment. “Community is key to the success of our continued growth.

Clearly customer-focused, Wakeman is comfortable on the sales floor or out on the lot helping his clients find what they came in to purchase, or suggesting other options.

The Upperville Farm and Feed is open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays.