An old scale and glass gas pump can be seen among the thousands of hardware items for sale at J.B. Sandoz, Inc., the second oldest business in Opelousas. (Gazette photo by Raymond Partsch III)
By: RAYMOND PARTSCH III
Managing Editor
OPELOUSAS — Can I help you with anything?
That straightforward and simple question shouldn’t necessarily provoke an emotional response, but in an era where customer service has largely disappeared from retail outlets, it is a question that can still surprise you.
A warm welcome isn’t the only kind of surprise one will find when walking through the doors at J.B. Sandoz Inc., the second-oldest business in Opelousas.
“My daddy never preached it but you always understood that is what he wanted,” fourth-generation owner 61-year-old Neil Sandoz said. “My daddy wasn’t talkative person but he was one that believed that you shouldn’t be told to do things like that because you are an adult. You are supposed to ask people how they are.”
Neil’s great grandfather J.B. Sandoz purchased the Perrodin Opera House located at the southeast corner of Main and Grolee Streets in downtown Opelousas in 1878. Sandoz would remove the second-floor terrace, add a wing to each side of the building and relocate the steps. J.B. Sandoz Inc. opened up and sold housewares on one side and wagon, buggy and bicycle parts on the other.
Sandoz’s store would become a destination place where people in town, and those living outside of town including those in Ville Platte which was at that time part of St. Landry Parish, would come and pick up everything they needed for that week or month.
“In the old days you went to the hardware store to get everything,” Sandoz said. “They didn’t have all of these other places like today. Saturday was the day that you would hitch the horse to the buggy and go to town. It’s hard to believe in today’s age but back then and all way through the Great Depression that was the way.”
The original wooden structure would eventually be replaced by the businesses current building, a brick structure built in the 1950’s that featured for many years a distinctive green, brown and orange neon marquee.
That well-known sign was damaged by a hurricane a few years ago.
The establishment, which has passed from one Sandoz to another (starting with J.B., his brother Robert, then to Sidney Sandoz Sr., Sidney Sandoz Jr. and his son Neil) has remained independent for nearly 150 years.
“Were not a normal size small town hardware store,” said Sandoz, who uses the largest independent family-owned hardware wholesaler. “We are rather large for the town but were not associated with national chains. Lots of people say that you have to associate with those big companies so you can get everything that you need. That has never been the case for us.”
It doesn’t take long to notice that J.B. Sandoz is not part of a chain, that is largely due to the array of antique items that are display throughout the building.
There are plenty of the typical hardware items down the aisles, such as paint cans, garden tools, pipe fittings, nails and bolts and even an entire section for housewares such as pots, rolling pins and stoneware. But there is also an old cast iron counter scale, three glass gas pumps (including one that has an old Daily World advertisement for the store asking people to guess how many pennies is inside a pump), an old wooden wagon and even a French closed carriage from the 1870’s.
Not to mention displays of antique tools on the walls around the customer service-checkout counter, and even older display racks or containers being used to house modern items.
“My dad and my oldest sister would go to the markets in Dallas for gifts,” said Sandoz, who remains active with the business despite being paralyzed from a motorcycle accident more than a decade ago. “They got a lot of the ideas from there. Those old gas pumps for example. You don’t see them anymore. My daddy bought them up and redid them and just displayed them inside the store.”
Added employee Barbara Pitre, “What we do here is customer service mixed with all of the older stuff. By selling new stuff in an old atmosphere it kind of keeps that old small-town feeling inside the store.”
The other unique aspect concerning Sandoz is the fact that everybody chips in regardless of how long he or she has worked there or what department is their speciality.
“We never really had a specific title at the store,” Sandoz said. “My daddy and I always hated to do that kind of stuff. Once you give a title to someone it hurts someone else. Everybody in the store waits on people no matter who you are.”
According to Sandoz, it is that kind of customer service that has kept generations of people coming back to his family’s business.
“I think after they find out that we know what we talking and that we want to help them with what they need, they come back. That’s what we have always done.”