Do it Center

By Yiorgo

Taylor’s Do it Center, from its inception as the Fuel, Feed and Building Supplies in Virginia Beach more than 90 years ago to the 21 neighborhood Taylor’s Do it Centers today, have flourished and remained true to their beginnings. The old traditional values of excellent service, cleanliness, and product knowledge, to mention a few, are all alive and well at the stores, making them thrive. Add to that the four generations of Taylors actively engaged in the everyday running of the neighborhood stores; no wonder the community’s needs—the number one goal—are always achieved.

It was in 1927 that original founders James Jordan, Audie Fisher, Edward Hardy and Willard Ashburn raised $1,750; soon after that, Robert Taylor got on board and the business of Fuel, Feed and Building Supplies was born. They quickly began to supply and deliver building materials by horse cart. As the town of Virginia Beach grew, so did the company, and later they added Mobil fuel oil to the products they supplied.

Surfing in Virginia Beach in the 1960s became very popular, and a young Hobie Alter met with an equally young Dawson Taylor, who in turn agreed to sell Hobie’s new line of fiberglass surfboards at the Fuel Feed store on 19th Street. Thus they were one of the first Hobie dealers on the East Coast, and Fuel Feed helped sponsor the first Surfing Carnival in Virginia Beach—now known as the East Coast Surfing Championship.

Also in the 1960s, Dawson Taylor, Jimmy Jordan, and Chick Jordan—the sons of the founders—along with Marshal and Audie Fisher, joined together and in 1965 opened the very first “home center” in the region at Princess Anne Plaza and joined the True Value hardware cooperative.

The next several decades saw tremendous growth. By the late ‘70s, the company left the Virginia Beach boardwalk and opened stores in the

Hilltop, Kempsville, and Haygood neighborhoods. It was in 1990 when the decision was made to leave True Value and affiliate themselves with more than 3,800 other independent hardware and building supply retailers across the country and around the world and joined Do it Best Corp.

Taylor’s Do it Centers continue to be a family affair, with all three of Dawson’s sons following in their father’s footsteps. Their oldest son, Bob Taylor, became company president, but left in 2001 and became CEO of Do it Best Corp., Taylor’s buying cooperative. Joe Taylor is the company’s current president and CEO, and Russ Taylor serves as vice president/operations manager.

I talked with Joe Taylor recently about being elected chair of the 12-member board of directors for Do it Best Corp. and about Taylor’s Do it Centers in general. When asked about his recent election to the Do it Best board, Joe said, “I was very fortunate. I was selected secretary my second year, vice president my third year, and here I am, chairman now, and it’s cool.” Joe continued, “I’ve chaired many boards, and this one is the best. It is quite an honor because it’s in my business, in the field that I love, and I get to look out for the needs of all my fellow members. That is pretty neat.”

The Do it Best concept is simple: a co-op representing members buying items together. They combine their purchase needs so they can buy and distribute better. The more you buy from a company and the more efficient you are, the co-op enables you to get rebates on your purchases. Do it Best provides a lot of inventory and services to help businesses thrive and grow. As Joe said, “We have large distribution centers with quick turnaround on products within a day or two. We can react quickly, especially during hurricanes and storms, much faster than big boxes like Home Depot and Lowe’s. It’s a relationship, a great partnership that has helped us grow our business to what it is today.”

Since then, Taylor’s has added locations on Colley Avenue and Little Creek in Norfolk, at Great Bridge in Chesapeake, Poquoson, Moyock, NC, Bennett’s Creek in Suffolk, and at Marina Shores and Courthouse in Virginia Beach. In 2016, Taylor acquired Pleasants Hardware with eight locations in Richmond, Virginia.

When asked about those early growing years, Joe reflected on the 1980s—it was a scary time for the company because that’s when the big-name hardware companies opened up in Virginia Beach. “I remember reading that when the two biggest boxes, Home Depot and Lowe’s, started, one of the two places

Being from this area and a frequent shopper at Taylor’s Do it Centers, I remembered when they were True Value. I asked Joe why they no longer decided to associate themselves with True Value, especially since 1990 was during a recession when they moved. Joe was very forthright with his answer. “It got to the point that they were not efficient anymore. How efficient your co-op is determines your rebate, and with True Value it had dwindled to so little that it had us looking at another co-op.” According to Joe, “Do it Best is so darn efficient with no long-term debt, runs a tight operation, and gives us a nice healthy rebate, and especially when we have a lot of stores as we do, we count on that rebate to help us grow. We put a lot of money into that switchover, but it where the war broke out between the two was Virginia Beach, Virginia. We did a lot of soul-searching about how we were going to survive. We always get asked, ‘How do you compete against the big boxes and stay in business?’ Honestly, it’s been easy to compete, thrive and grow. We have gone from five stores in 2000 to 21 stores today, so it has been a great story.” was our best move.”

As a delighted Taylor’s customer, it was a great move. And as for Joe, he was quick to add, “There are plenty of customers that want the convenience that neighborhood shopping with our unique niche categories has to offer. When you come into Taylor’s, you expect customer service and we make sure you get it.”