Price matching outside the box

Vince and Kristina Clarkson, owners of Hudson’s Appliance Center Outdoor and More, work hard to make their clients feel welcome and at home when they come into either of their two showrooms in Paradise and Chico. It’s not often that you venture into a home store looking for a refrigerator and come out with a new appliance along with new friends, but I feel like this happens a lot at Hudson’s. The Clarksons' warm, friendly personalities pull you in and inspire confidence in the fact that they are going to help you decide on the best product for your home while finding you the absolute best price they can.

Vince and Kristina are highschool sweethearts who were born and raised in Paradise. Following highschool, they married, and Vince enlisted in the Marine Corps where he spent 10 years in active duty. Their time with the military would take them to southern California and Arizona along with Vince’s three deployments around the world.

In 2014, they moved their family of four back to Paradise to take over the running of Hudson’s from Vince’s father which started over 55 years ago. In 2018, six months before the Camp Fire, they opened up an additional store in Chico. Vince says, “We opened up a very small satellite location just to get our feet wet in Chico and see how the market was going to be for us. That was temporary. This was our goal—to buy and to build a much bigger, nicer store.” This beautiful brand new showroom in south Chico enables them to feature their products in a fresh and expansive way. Refrigerators and ranges are set in among cabinets and countertops. Patio furniture sits next to a roomy spa while outdoor kitchens, complete with built-in grills and mini refrigerators, allow customers to get a feel of how they’d look at home. Previously, they were only able to display about 10 percent of their available inventory. Now that they carry so much more than just appliances, having this 5,000 square foot showroom allows them to easily share their product availability with the community. In addition to home appliances, they carry patio furniture, outdoor kitchens, barbeque grills, spas, and even mattresses. “We’re really geared towards more of a home store which is why we rebranded ourselves as ‘Hudson’s Appliance Center Outdoor and More’ to showcase that we do more than just appliances now.”

Kristina shares that they started branching out from appliances about eight years ago at the Paradise store, with barbecue grills and premium American-made coolers. After the fire, the Clarksons learned that the furniture store in Paradise wouldn't be reopening, and as the community began rebuilding, they decided to expand more into patio furniture, adding mattresses and bedding to their inventory as well. She says, “I think our biggest forward move was duplicating what we had in Paradise down in Chico. It was well received, and we were already pulling a lot of customers from the surrounding areas up to Paradise, so adding a store down here was just easier for the consumers coming from other areas.”

One thing that they’ve continued to focus on at both locations is their commitment to price matching. Kristina says, “That’s our biggest push. It has been for almost nine years now. Letting the customer know that you can still shop local without spending a penny more. You’re going to get better customer support and more product knowledge as well.” In addition, if the customer doesn’t want to spend an entire day going store-to-store to compare prices on a product they’re interested in, the staff will go straight to Home Depot, Lowe’s, and Best Buy to see if it's on sale and offer the exact same sales price, ensuring the customer always gets price matching. In addition to their dedicated sales staff, Hudson’s employs full-time installers, service technicians, and warranty service representatives in order to better serve their customers. They service everything they sell and process all of the warranties themselves. Vince explains, “We don’t do warranty work for Lowe’s, Best Buy, or Home Depot because if we were to accept calls for warranty work for them, our inherent customers would be four, five, or six weeks out for service calls. We only do warranty work for our customers which usually means a week turnaround time for service. Sometimes it’s even faster if, say, it's a refrigerator, and they’re losing food, we try to squeeze them in and take care of them within a few days.” They pride themselves on providing continued customer service past the point of purchase.

The Clarksons share, “Our staff is just amazing. They’re able to run the show without us, but they don’t have to because we are still very much involved.” Both Vince and Kristina can be found at either the Chico or Paradise showrooms, building those community connections.

Hudson’s focuses on selling quality American-made products. They sell the major brands of appliances: Amana, Whirlpool, Maytag, KitchenAid, GE and Jenn-Air. They are the platinum Traeger dealer in the Northstate and have an extensive inventory of their wood-fired grills along with a great selection of accessories. The showrooms offer a variety of Orion brand coolers for outdoor activities, and all of their patio furniture features Sunbrella fabrics for durability and weather resistance.

Go and check out Vince and Kristina Clarkson’s new showroom at 587 Country Drive in Chico, take a look at their Instagram, @Hudsons_Appliance, or find them on Facebook and see what locally owned and operated Hudson’s Appliance Center Outdoor and More has for your home.