A Zamzows History

The remarkable story of Zamzows Inc. starts with Grandma Z. She was born Carmalita House on March 19, 1897 in rural Knox County, Missouri. Her mother named her after a character in a book she was reading. Perhaps reading that book had taken Carmalita's moms mind off the four years of drought her family had suffered through in Missouri and, when relatives returned from a place called Idaho with tales of booming fortunes in the town of Boise, Carmalita's dad said, "Thats it". He held an auction and sold the farm. The House family was moving.

 

On March 10, 1902, just nine days shy of her fifth birthday, the train finally pulled into Meridian, Idaho. Mr. and Mrs. House, five year-old Carmalita, and her three year-old brother had just traveled over 1,500 miles in a railway car known as an "immigrant car". Everything the family owned, including a live cow, traveled together!

Once in Meridian, the family made its way to Boise by wagon to find a place to live so Calvin House could start look for work, which he soon found. Calvin saved his money, and was soon able to purchase an eighty acre farm on the corner of Ustick and Locust Grove Road in Meridian. It was there that Carmalita spent her formative and most memorable years and would meet her future husband Gus Zamzow.
August Lewis Gus Zamzow was born January 6, 1894 in Hayfield, Minnesota. When he was just nineteen years old he and his brother Carl embarked on an adventure that would change their lives forever. His eldest son, Bernie, tells the story this way:

"As young men, my dad and his brother wanted to leave home and work for themselves. Theyd both worked in Minnesota and the Dakotas and whatnot. One brother had already gone west and was living in California. I guess he told them how great it was and, being young men, they decided theyd go to California. So they hopped on a train, "riding the rails", they called it, and they got all the way to Idaho. When the train finally stopped at the station at Meridian, they were hungry and my dad said, "Ill run downtown and get us a sandwich or something." It was about a half-mile to the store and Dad made it back just as the train started to pull out. He ran as fast as he could but didnt get back onboard! Uncle Carl tried to pull him on to the train, but he couldnt make it and Dad was left stranded in Meridian. Fortunately, being an aggressive sort of a guy, it didnt take him long to find work and lodging."

Before we go any further you may be wondering, so what is the origin of the name Zamzow anyway? Actually, very little is known about the origin of the name Zamzow, which, according to Grandma Z, is properly pronounced Zam-zoe. However it appears Zamzow was actually the name of a town in Germany. Little is known about Zamzow, Germany beyond a map which shows it that Bernie Zamzow acquired while in the Army during World War II. According to the young soldier who gave Bernie the map and was also named Zamzow, the people who lived in this town were named Zamzow and lived on the higher ground, but grew their crops on the lowlands. Zamzows co-founder, August Lewis Zamzow, was born in 1894 in a small town near the Wisconsin border, but was the only one of his three bothers to be born in the United States. Thus, it is highly possible that his family hailed from Zamzow, Prussia, immigrated to U.S. and settled in the upper Midwest, as did many other German immigrants at the time.

Upon arriving in 1913 to Meridian, Idaho, Gus Zamzow went to work for the widow of a farmer who lived southeast of town. The farmer's son brought Gus into Beams Bakery in downtown Meridian where Carmalita House was now working. Following frequent visits to the bakery, Gus and Carmalita were married in the parish house behind St. Johns Catholic Church in Boise on February 10th, 1915. The Zamzow name, having arrived in Idaho two years earlier, was now a family of two but it wouldnt stay that way for long. The Zamzow family grew with the addition of five children; Bernie, Dorothy, Stanley, Margaret, and Evelyn.

In October of 1928, Gus Zamzow moved his family to their dream home, a 40 acre farm located at the corner of Franklin and Cole in Boise, now the site of Sundance Dodge and The Plaza Suites Hotel. One year later, on October 29, 1929 the United States went into the Great Depression. The farm market collapsed and farmers couldn't get a decent price for their crops and other agricultural products. Bernie was in junior high school then and recalls that during the Depression, things were bad from 1929 to 1932, and seemed to get worse after that. There wasnt a price for any of the produce, milk, or pigs that we raised. Dad was discouraged Bernie remembers that his dad was a friend of J.M. Dodds, a banker from Meridian who talked Gus into buying a small feed store at the corner of Fairview and Liberty in 1933. It was called the Snodgrass Mill.

 

Upon buying the business they changed the name to Zamzows Coal and Feed. Buying the store eventually required returning the family farm to the bank, but his parents took their core values with them when they started Zamzow's Coal and Feed and that both he and his brother Stanley were also well-schooled in these values: Honesty was one of the first things. In a nutshell, you have to be worthy of your customers: you must service them, treat them properly and be honest with them. If you dont, you wont grow. The 1930s and early 1940s were lean years, not just for Zamzows Coal and Feed, but for the whole country. The nation was coming out of The Great Depression and Boise's local economy was still not that good.

 

Both Bernie and Stanley had been helping out at the store after school and during the summer, but the store needed another full time employee. So, in the late 1930s, during his senior year at the University of Idaho, Bernie voluntarily ended his college career and returned home to help his parents at the store. During his three-and-a-half-year stay in Moscow, Bernie met his future wife,

Helen. When she finished college, her employer transferred her to Boise where, by chance, she attended a dance and ran into Bernie. The two friends became reacquainted, and in 1939, they were married. Bernie remembers how he and his brother, Stanley, first got involved in their parents operation:

"In those days, I think parents depended upon their children to help and we just kind of grew into it. I was away at school most of the year and helped in the summer time. My brother, who was in high school at the time, would work evenings and Saturdays. We just grew into it. Being young, we always had ideas on getting more business. We kept adding different products and became a Purina dealer. That added to our volume of business and we just kept growing a little at a time."

In the 1940s, both Bernie and Stanley enlisted in the military. When World War II was over and they returned, their dad was ready to have them take over the operation completely. There were several pivotal events in Zamzows Inc.'s early history in which Bernie and Stanley played an instrumental role. The State of Idaho decided to widen Fairview from two lanes to four and make it State Highway 30. That meant Zamzows had to give up the frontage property where the stores gas pumps were. The State didnt want to compensate Zamzows for the loss. After some intense wrangling with the State, Bernie finally secured a substantial payment. The loss of Zamzows' frontage land, as well as the stores gasoline revenue, would be made up by this payment. Plus, Zamzows was now located on the major Highway between Mountain Home and Nampa. The State of Idahos infusion of cash was sorely needed and allowed the company to pay off all of its debts, and have some capital for expansion. According to Bernie, where to expand was a major decision:

"We had to decide whether to stay in the feed business or get into the fuel business. At that time, we were coal dealers too, so we were debating whether to go into the oil business. People were starting to convert from coal to oil and we had a chance to buy a little oil distributorship in Boise. We ultimately decided to stay in the feed business and purchased the Meridian Feed Mill in 1953."

But first, Zamzows expanded into the little town of Eagle in 1950. While the second Zamzows store was successful, Eagles population was only about three hundred people. So, when the opportunity to buy the Meridian Mill presented itself, Zamzows shut down Eagle to concentrate on the bigger opportunities that the larger facility would offer. The population of Meridian was a little over a thousand when Zamzows bought the mill in 1953. Boise was only 39,000 people. By 1953, the Boise areas economy, as well as the general economic outlook for the nation, was much improved. Bernie sensed it was a good time to expand, and so he doubled the size of the Meridian Mill and added all the latest in modern milling equipment. That proved to be a very smart move. According to Bernie the economy each year seemed to be getting better and we were aggressive.

"We changed our milling operations and added a steam roller to our mill. Then we put in a pellet mill and molasses machine so we could keep up with the times and give our customers, primarily farmers and dairy farmers, the products and services they wanted. As the community grew, we grew along with it."
In fact, the expansion of the Meridian Mill in 1957 proved to be a major step in Zamzows' growth. Then in 1960 another store was purchased - the small Kuna Mills in nearby Kuna. Bernie's brother, Stanley Zamzow was dispatched to run the new Kuna operation, while Bernie oversaw the Meridian Mill and long time employee Les Tinkum managed the original store on Fairview store. For whatever reason, and after several years of running Kuna, Stanley decided to leave the company, and his brother Bernie bought out his brother's shares and became the primary owner of the company.

The three stores, the original Fairvew store, Zamzows Kuna Mills, and the main feed manufacturing plant in Meridian comprised Zamzows operations until 1970. Each year the company's business expanded, and sons Jim and Rick were becoming very active in operating the store. In 1970, sons Jim and Rick convinced their father Bernie to tear down the original Zamzows store building at Fairview & Liberty and build a brand new Fairview store. It was immediately successful. Then, in 1978, Bernie sold Zamzows Inc. to his two sons, Jim and Rick. Zamzows history from approximately 1970 to the present comprises the The Second Forty Years of Zamzows History, which follows this article.

By the time the 1970s arrived, almost 40 years of Zamzows history had already taken place. It all started in 1933 when Gus Zamzow purchased The Snodgrass Mill and renamed it Zamzows Mill. In the early 1940s the store changed its name to Zamzows Coal and Feed. The original feed store had several tall old-style gas pumps that had to be removed so that Fairview Avenue could be widened to four lanes, paved, and renamed Highway 30. This moved the store right to the edge of the Highway, so the original hanging neon sign that read Zamzows Coal & Feed had to be taken down. It was moved to the Meridian Mill in the mid 1950s. An artificial front was then added to the original Fairview building giving it a taller, more modern 1950s look. The new addition also added several feet of space to the store allowing for a recessed entryway and two large display windows. Since the new neon sign couldnt hang over the road like the old one, the new sign on the Fairview building fit flush against the front of building and simply said Zamzows Purina Chows, reflecting the major role Purina now played in the companys business. In fact, the Purina Checkerboard was painted both on the front and on both sides of the Fairview building, and in Meridian. Once Highway 30 was opened, shops and businesses sprung up and Fairview became the major East/West traffic corridor.

 

THE NEW FAIRVIEW STORE

The companys second 40 years really started when Jim and Rick went to work for the company and convinced their Dad to build a new Fairview store. Even though they both helped out at the store in the 50s and 60s, both Jim and Rick had other career opportunities besides working for their dad. In high school, Jim had the chance to work for a local farmer who offered to give him the farm if hed just work for him several years. Jim was flattered by the offer but decided attend BoiseJunior College instead. Bernie had always encouraged both of his boys to work elsewhere. That way they would gain other work experience and see what it was like to work for someone other than their dad. Jim worked at Brass Lamp Pizza, and Rick fought fires and worked for retail stores such as Buttrey Foods. After Jim finished two years at BJC, he enlisted in the Air National Guard. Rick did his stint in the Guard too, but enlisted right out of high school. When Jim finished college he got an offer to go to work for J.J. Newberry stores in Minneapolis. Jim visited with his college counselor who pointed out that, if he ever did want to take over Zamzows, he needed to learn the business while his father was still there to teach him. If he waited too long, there would be no way his dad could pass on the principles of the business. So, Jim went to work for his dad at Zamzows. Rick then returned from his Air National Guard Basic Training and attended the University of Idaho for one semester. He then returned to Boise, joined Jim at Zamzows, working thirty hours a week, while going to BoiseState as a full time student. In 1970 Jim and Rick finally talked their dad into building the new Fairview store. They could see the writing on the wall. BoiseValley was growing. Plus, Fairview Avenue between Curtis Road and Cole was the new center of commerce in Boise and Zamzows was located right in the middle of it. To build the new Fairview store in 1971, Zamzows had to purchase the Twilight Motel on the adjacent property located east of the original building. When Zamzows bought the Motel they had to inform the residents who lived there that they would soon have to move so the building could be torn down to make room for the new store. There are some great stories about the Twilight Motel that involve some of the more colorful residents who lived there, and their reluctance to leave! For a time, the old store building remained standing in front, while the first new structure to be occupied was the just-completed warehouse out back. The old building was finally demolished on November 27, 1971, and the new store opened in January of 1972. With the new store came a new sign with a new spelling: ZAMZOWSspelled with no apostrophe. This new spelling would be more inclusive representing more than a single store but a chain of stores- that while still owned by the Zamzow family, was ultimately there to serve the public.

 

THE ROARING 70S NEW LAWNS AND NEW PRODUCTS

In the early 1970s, Boise was growing and changing from a rural to a suburban community with many new homes and subdivisions. Many of these new homeowners needed to plant a lawn, put in a garden, raise some livestock animals, and feed and care for a few pets. Zamzows was the perfect store for all of their needs, and Jim and Rick Zamzow had extensive knowledge on these subjects and were soon considered to be the areas experts. Zamzows brought in the best national lawn and garden brands such as Scotts and Lilly Miller and soon became the areas biggest dealers. The Scotts 5-Step Lawn Program was first introduced by Zamzows. It was in the early 1970s that Jim and Rick discovered one of the first of many new products Zamzows was to introduce to the TreasureValley. Because so many people were planting new lawns, Jim and Rick had been going door to door to new homes handing out samples of their new product Soil Aid which was rich old composted bark from the Boise Cascade Lumber Mill in Emmett. This is not the same thing as Soil-Aid today, in that this was rich deep-dark compost that also offered some of the same decorative benefits of todays regular-grind bark. In the1950s, 60s, and early 1970s many Boise homes were still heated by coal or heating oil. Since Zamzows was in the bulk coal and fuel oil business, so delivering soil-aid during the spring and summer was the perfect use for their coal trucks that sat idle during the summer. Zamzows did a booming business selling and delivering coal and fuel oil until they went out of vogue. As new products and opportunities presented themselves, Jim and Rick introduced them to Zamzows customers. Not only was Zamzows a pioneer and the one of the first in the nation to offer Soil-Aid as a bulk ground cover for new lawns, flowerbeds and landscaped areas, but Jim Zamzow discovered the Weed Eater! In the late 1970s, Jim Zamzow took his family to the Oregon coast on vacation. Driving back, they stopped near Bend at a little town called Sun River. The kids were small at the time and Jims wife Faye had made some tuna sandwiches for the trip. They stopped at a park to eat and let the kids play for a minute. It was there Jim observed a new product in action. I noticed a park maintenance guy trimming around some lava rocks. He appeared to be using a long-handled trimmer like the ones we sold with a big blade on the end of it. I watched him trim and I told my wife, You know, that guy is the best with that tool that I have ever seen. He is getting close enough to those weeds to trim them yet hes never hit the rock once! I couldnt believe it! Anyway, we sat there and ate our sandwiches until this fellow stopped for lunch and leaned his machine up against a rock. I went over to look his tool to check his blade and see how badly it was worn and there was fishing line where the blade should have been! No wonder hes not getting any sparks! At first, I was frustrated because I hadnt thought of it myself, but then I thought, What a great idea. I wrote down the name of the tool (it wasnt Weed Eater, by the way) and, while we never did sell that particular brand, Zamzows was about to get into the line trimmer business. Until then, the stores had been selling battery-operated hand trimmers which used a back-and-forth motion. Those were an improvement over the old scissors-style hand trimmers but this was something completely different. The trimmer Jim had seen in Sun River was being marketed only to professional users like park departments. Jim had first seen the trimmer in the late 1970s. Six months later, while in Hawaii on a short vacation, he saw an ad for a Weed Eater brand trimmer that had just been introduced for sale to the general public, but only in specific markets. So Jim called the store that had them. I asked where they bought Weed Eaters and was told there was no distributorship; the Texas Company making them was selling directly to stores. I contacted them when I got home to express our interest in handling their product. There was only one model at that time. It was big, green and had a horsepower motor. How do you market a brand new product that no one has ever seen? Jim's plan was to introduce it to folks the same way hed first seen itin action! Better yet, let people experience it for themselves: When we got the first Weed Eaters, we set one up and took customers next door to the old motel and let them trim weeds around the trees. It worked! We sold one to almost every person who tried it. In fact, we probably demonstrated it a hundred times before we had someone who didnt buy one! People were that excited about it. The phrase Its time for a new Weed Eater is still used all the time and virtually everyone whos been at Zamzows for any length of time has heard the Weed Eater story. As a result, Zamzows is always looking for the next Weed Eater. Zamzows found it this time in the pet food category.

 

PIONEERING PREMIUM PET FOODS

Since the company began in 1933, Zamzows has pioneered a lot of dog and cat foods. Grocery store dog and cat foods were not all common in the 1930s and 1940s. The company was a pioneer in bringing in Purina Dog Chow, Wayne Dog Food, BlueMountain, and a few others. But the most significant product category Zamzows pioneered is Premium Pet Foods. Using the latest scientific formulas, Zamzows had been making their own animal feeds since 1933. However, Zamzows Feed Mill in Meridian didnt have the sophisticated equipment required to produce commercial pet food. Making dog and cat food required a multi-million dollar plant with an extruder which squirts out pressure-cooked pet food in small nuggets. Purina started the trend in 1950 when they introduced the first pressure-processed dog food. Other companies quickly followed. Zamzows did make a pelleted dog food in 1974 for farm dogs which sold quite well. But Jim and Rick were looking for something better. In the early 1970s, Hills Science Diet was selling scientifically-formulated dog foods exclusively through veterinarians. The Hills Pet Nutrition Company goes back to 1943 when Dr. Mark L. Morris, Sr. believed certain diseases in pets could be managed through carefully-formulated nutrition. When a blind man named Morris Frank asked Dr. Morris if anything could be done to save his guide dog who was suffering from kidney failure, the result was a pet food for dogs with kidney disease that was available by prescription only. Jim and Rick Zamzow took note and when Hills developed a non-prescription formula, asked Hills for permission to become one of the first non-veterinarian retailers in United States to sell it. Jim picks up the story from here, saying We wanted to sell a premium dog food. But, Science Diet wouldnt let us do it. We finally talked them into it but, six months later our competitor was also stocking it. Wed been buying Science Diet through a distributor in Montana who told us, If you want a premium dog food, you want Iams. Animal nutritionist Paul Iams founded The Iams Company in 1946 in a small feed mill near Dayton, Ohio. The story goes that Iams visited a Mink Ranch and saw a very old dog with an incredibly shiny coat running around like a puppy. He asked what the dog was eating and found out it was the same thing they were feeding the minks. From that formula, he developed what was at that time, the worlds best pet food. Jim and Rick wanted to try it so they bought five tons that first year - but only sold one ton. According to Jim, the reason for the lack of sales was simple. Iams was $7.95 for twenty pounds and we were selling fifty pounds of Purina Dog Chow for $3.95! But Iams was the first real premium dog food, so Zamzows ordered more Iams but this time only what they could sell. It took some time, and a lot of work by Zamzows, but after a while, the idea of premium pet food caught on in Boise.

 

ZAMZOWS BECOMES AN IAMS DISTRIBUTOR

As Iams pet food sales increased, so did the size of the orders. Soon, Iams made Zamzows Inc. one of the first Iams distributors west of the Mississippi. Rick Zamzow was in charge of the new Division called Wholesale Pet. Initially it was run out of the warehouse of the Fairview store. Among the many new accounts they sold Iams to was Dr. Marty Becker, a young Veterinarian in Twin Falls, who tried Iams and liked it. He also liked the many benefits selling a premium pet food brought to his practice. Rick proceeded to educate Dr. Becker on premium pet food. Dr. Becker took that knowledge and went on to become a national speaker, telling other veterinarians on how to make money selling premium pet foods. In fact, Marty Becker is now a best-selling author, educator, and even a media personality on ABC-TVs Good Morning America. He also writes a weekly newspaper column thats internationally distributed by Knight Ridder with an estimated readership in excess of 15 million in more than 350 newspapers. He also co-authored the 1999 best-seller Chicken Soup for the Cat & Dog Lover's Soul. The development of Zamzows own brands is what Rick Zamzow says separates Zamzows from the big box stores and stores who simply re-sell national brands which are available elsewhere. But the ultimate test in developing your own brands is how well they are accepted by the marketplace. Over the 2003 Fourth of July weekend, Rick Zamzow found out firsthand just how popular Zamzows brand Dog Foods had become. He picks up the story here, saying I was way up on the South Fork of the Salmon River and I started talking to a husband and wife who were fishing. We chatted about how the fishing was and I got to know them a little and we introduced ourselves. I said, Im Rick Zamzow, And she said, Oh, Zamzows Zamzow? You feed my dogs! Do you want to see them? They opened up the truck and out came these two beautiful yellow labs. She said, I just love your dog food! One dog was on Grandma Zs and the other was eating Zamzows Professional Senior formula. She knew all about the foods and could tell me why she feeds what she feeds. So, we went down the river, not too far, and I introduced myself again and this man says, Are you the 'Zamzows' Zamzow? I said, Yes and he said, Im feeding your dog food! Were clear up in the middle of nowhere and the first two people I talk to are both feeding a Zamzows Brand Dog Food! My friend Randy Hemmer then asks me, Just how much dog food do you sell, Zamzow? The answer is a LOT! In fact, all totaled over ten semi-truckloads per month. But were getting ahead of ourselves

 

1970s EXPANSION MEANS MORE STORES

The early 1970s was Zamzows first big growth stage under Jim and Ricks new leadership. First, Meridian Mill was remodeled and turned into a bigger retail store. With the smaller Kuna Mill, Zamzows now had 3 retail outlets. But for all practical purposes, the Fairview store still was the companys main full-service retail outlet, with the other two stores offering a somewhat limited selection of what Fairview carried. As the entire area grew, so did Zamzows. Jim and Rick had gotten into the lawn and garden business in a big way. Sales began to increase rapidly and, in fact, doubled every year, so Jim and Rick talked Dad into adding on. It was a case of if we build it they will come. They built it and the people came. Sales doubled again but Jim and Rick still didnt completely own the store until 1978. According to Bernie, I figured it was time for them to take over. I had no thoughts of quitting, however. I just thought it was time for them to take it over. Thats how Stan and I had worked it with my folks. Sales and markets continued to expand under Jim and Ricks ownership over the next few years. A hyrdo-seeder machine was purchased in the late 1970s, and Zamzows helped plant hundreds of lawns using this new technology. Lawn mowers and power equipment was added, and in 1979 Zamzows became a True Value Hardware store, allowing the company purchase virtually anything from this member-owned co-op at volume prices.  In 1979, a 4^th location in Emmett was opened. Soon after, the Meridian retail store was remodeled again, and in 1983, the old Kuna Mills location was demolished and a brand new store Kuna store was built in its place. The Fairview store was expanded yet again, and Zamzows kept looking for new and better products and services to meet the growing needs of the area. As Boise entered the 1980s, Zamzows started a Lawn Service using Green Thumb liquid fertilizer products. At first, the products worked well; however, as time went on Green Thumb changed their formula so it did not perform as well. Jim Zamzow had already started working to develop an organic-based lawn food.

 

ZAMZOWS DEVELOPS NATURAL LAWN FOODS

There is an old Buddhist proverb that goes when the student is readythe teacher will appear. Thats essentially what happened when Jim met C.J. Fenzau. According to Jim This man had my answers. He could answer every question I had. He was like me. He was raised chemically with MidwesternLandGrantUniversities, but as he progressed through the years, he learned that nature has her own way of doing things and that man just cant go in and circumvent what nature has to offer. It was form C.J. Fenzau that Jim first learned the health of your plantsis the health of your soil. As a result of that one meeting, Jim Zamzow began to invent organic-based products. One of the first was Zamzows Living Lawn liquid fertilizer, which soon replaced the Green Thumb Lawn Service. A loyal clientele developed in the mid 1980s and into the early 1990s. In late 1992, Zamzows decided to sell the Lawn Service to the Manager of the Lawn Division, who then closed the business a few years later. In the meantime, after extensive testing, Jim had developed the first Zamzows granular Lawn Food which was introduced in the early 1980s. In fact Jims son Jos, vividly remembers his dad testing Zamzows organic-based granular fertilizer on lawn all over the TreasureValley by doing a test stripe. As Jos Zamzow remembers youd see these lawns all over town that looked a dull green or brown and then this bright green stripe down the side where the grass looked much taller, healthy, and a deep lush green in color, and wed say yep, Dads been here! He tested it against the major brands like Scotts on countless numbers of lawns all over the valley until he perfected the right formula that outperformed every one of them by a wide margin. Click on Zamzows Living Lawn for more information about the full line of organic-based lawn & garden products that Zamzows now offers.

 

THE 80 HERE WE GROW AGAIN!

Along with building a brand new Kuna store in 1983, Zamzows could see the need for a second Boise store. So in 1985, the former Plantation R.V Service location at 6715 West State Street was leased and remodeled. The store opened in early 1986. A second building on the new State Street store lot became the offices for Zamzows Living Lawn Service. With two stores in Boise (Fairview and State), Meridian, Kuna, and Emmett Zamzows was now a 5-store chain. Plus, as we mentioned earlier, both Zamzows Living Lawn Service, Wholesale Pet were both up and running. But the TreasureValley was growing. Nampa/Caldwell was becoming a bedroom community of Boise with many folks from CanyonCounty now commuting to Boise to work. As housing prices continued to increase in Boise, some Boise residents moved West, continuing a trend that had started in the early 70s which resulted in massive growth in West Boise and the Meridian area. So in 1989 Zamzows acquired the former Pacific Steel building located at Karcher Road and Nampa/Caldwell Boulevard across from Karcher Mall. With the new State Street store that opened in 1985 and the new Nampa store slated to open in 1990 Zamzows was out of warehouse space for the stores and Wholesale Pet, plus there was a need for a separate corporate office. Prior to 1989, all administrative functions had been housed at one or more of the stores, primarily Fairview and the Meridian Mill. So in 1989 the company purchased a warehouse and a small office building at the corner Glenwood and Chinden. The existing warehouse was remodeled to meet Wholesale Pets Iams Distribution needs, and plans for a brand new warehouse at that site were explored. Zazmows was now a 5-store chain, was a national pet food distributor, and also operated a lawn service.

 

THE EARLY 90S - A TIME OF GROWTH AND RE-FOCUS

As we enter the final decade of 20^th Century, a 6^th Zamzows store was opened at 1518 Caldwell Boulevard in Nampa. The store opened in early 1990 and held a grand opening held in April. The new Nampa Zamzows was an instant hit with CanyonCounty residents. It appeared Zamzows had taken Horace Greeleys advice to Go west young man and it was paying off. However, the next two moves the company made were actually to add stores to the North and then to the East! The original Emmett store, located on the bench was out of the main traffic flow of Emmett. In the summer of 1992 the opportunity came to purchase the former Farmers Feed and Seed building just south of the PayetteRiverBridge on the North side of downtown Emmett. A deal was struck with retired owner Harry Lyons, and the contents of the original store on the bench were moved over one weekend. The relocated Emmett store opened in August of 1992, but for a variety of reasons, never realized the potential the company had hoped for. Meantime, back in Southeast Boise, Micron Electronics had grown to become a major employer in Southeast Boise and in the early 1990s; Federal Way was the only way to get there. One day Jim Zamzow got stuck at a stop sign at the corner of Federal Way and Gekeler Lane in Boise and couldnt turn onto Federal Way for almost 30 minutes. Microns afternoon shift had just finished and literally hundreds of cars filled with Micron employees were headed home from work. Jim immediately thought that this corner would be an excellent place for the next Zamzows store! Plus, the Barber, Lakewood, and Parkcenter areas were also growing rapidly with exclusive high-end and upper middle-class homes. The land was purchased and ground was broken in December of 1992 for what is now Zamzows most successful store located at Federal Way and Bergeson Street. 95 year old Carmalita Zamzow was there to turn the first shovel of dirt, which was the start of here first modern day public exposure as an icon for Zamzows. The Federal Way store opened in May of 1993 and a lot has changed on Federal Way where at one time, Zamzows was the only major retail outlet. With the new Federal Way store now open, Zamzows moved forward with its plans to build a new warehouse at the Glenwood site. The new warehouse was built and opened in early 1994, and Zamzows then moved its entire warehouse operation to the new Glenwood DistributionCenter. With the new Federal Way retail store came a new focus: Retail-Only. So, in 1993 Zamzows sold its Lawn Care Division to the local Manager, and also sold Wholesale Pet, the companys Iams Distributorship to Chuck Yocum of Boise. With both of these outside divisions divested, Zamzows Inc. could concentrate on being the best retailer of garden, feed, and pet food in Idaho, and expanding its footprint by adding more stores. And add more retail stores in TreasureValley is just what Zamzows did.

 

1995-1999 - NEW STORES IN MERIDIAN & EAGLE AND A BIGGER DISTRIBUTION CENTER

As we approached the mid 1990s, the West was again calling Zamzows, but this time to Meridian. The retail store at the Meridian Feed Mill was totally inadequate to serve the needs of what was not Idahos fastest growing city. Meridian has grown from a population of around 2,000 people to 10,000+ in just a few yearsand was still growing! So in late 1994, Zamzows purchased land for a new store to be located just south of the Meridian Speedway directly under the Meridian City Watertower. Sister company Dynamite Marketing bought the adjoining land just to the East of the Zamzows site, and built their new headquarters building there. In the summer of 1995 ground was broken for the new Zamzows store which was to be located at the corner of Main Street (formerly known as East First Street) and Watertower Lane. The building was completed in the late fall of 1995 and a Grand Opening was held in early December with a promotion that featured the give-away of a new 1996 Ford Ranger pickup filled with Science Diet Pet Food! A Meridian woman won the truck and President Rick Zamzow delivered it to her personally while two television stations covered the event for the evening news. With the new store relieving the pressure on the retail store inside the Meridian Feed Mill, that space was now available to try something else. The company did by remodeling the interior and creating Zamzows Wild Bird Feed Factory. The concept was to feature Wild Bird Feed and Feeders and Zamzows brand Feeds at factory-direct prices. But with a new store just 6 blocks away, the public preferred the new location. So, Zamzows rented out the retail space to a coffee shop and several other retail outlets that have been very successful there. With the 1995 expansion of Meridian, the Emmett store was closed and plans were made to build a new store in Eagle. Since Highway 16 (the Emmett Highway) connects to Highway 44, Emmett residents would drive right past the new Zamzows store planned for Highway 44 and Eagle Road. Land was purchased in the mid 1990s and a ground breaking for the new store took place in June of 1999. The new store opened in November of 1999 and was another instant success. With an expanded Meridian store and a new store in Eagle, the Glenwood warehouse was proving to be too small to meet the needs of what was now 7 store chain. So in the June of 1999, Zamzows Inc. relocated to a new, much larger General Office and DistributionCenter in Nampa. The new facility located just of Interstate 84 at 1201 Franklin Boulevard, is well-suited to handle Zamzows future expansion. As the new century begins, Zamzows is again positioned to grow with the TreasureValley by adding still more stores.

 

2000 BRINGS A 2^ND STORE TO NAMPA , AND A NEW STATE STREET STORE

Since new ZamzowsDistributionCenter in Nampa is located on a major road and was right off Interstate 84, Zamzows decided to remodel the front portion of the warehouse and build a second Nampa store at 1201 Franklin Blvd. The Franklin store is unique since it has no warehouse but it doesnt need one; its located right next to the companys main warehouse and distribution center! The front portion of the warehouse was remodeled and the new store opened in the spring of 2001 and now one of Zamzows fastest growing stores.  In October of 2001 we lost a major influence and a source of inspiration to the company. Carmalita Zamzow, known to most people in the Treasure valley as Grandma Z passed away at the age of 104. Grandma Z had just celebrated her 104^th Birthday on March 19th. At her birthday party the company introduced a new line of products named after her. The new Grandma Zs line was to feature only all-natural products and represent the absolute best products in their class. It was a fitting way to insure that Grandma Zs uplifting spirit and unquestionable integrity would be carried on into the future, and that what she gave to Zamzows would never be forgotten. In early 2002 the leadership of Zamzows was expanded to include a Chief Financial Officer. Darin Eisenbarth joined Zamzows Inc. and brought a new level of expertise to the companys finances. In April of 2002, Roxanne Zamzow, the wife of Company President Rick Zamzow, suddenly passed away from a rare heart condition. Roxanne was only 45, and she and Rick were high school sweethearts and had been married 25 years. Rick needed some time to sort things out and Darin was promoted to take Ricks place as President to run the day-to-day operations of the company. It proved to be a good move as the companys sales and profits have soared to record heights under Darins leadership. In 2003 Zamzows assisted the Wolfpack Soccer Club in building a new soccer field on Chinden Boulevard behind the FriendshipCelebrationChurch. The field was named Roxanne Zamzow Memorial Field in honor of Ricks late wife Roxanne, who was a very successful girls soccer coach for the Les Bois Soccer League in Boise prior to her passing. Today, Roxanne Zamzow filed stands as a testimony to the many lives that were touched by this wonderful lady, Roxanne Zamzow. In 2002 Zamzows acquired property on West State Street to rebuild the small State Street store. The building and land for the original State Street store was the only Zamzows not owned by the company. Plus, the new location was on the north side of State and would even have a turn lane, making it easily accessed by customers on their way home from work. Construction was started in 2003 and was completed in record time, and the store held an initial grand opening in December of 2003, and a full spring grand opening in 2004.

 

2005 THROUGH THE PRESENT CHINDEN, NAMPA , AND OVERLAND

The next new Zamzows store was actually one we did not build! Zamzows Chinden Greenhouses started out as Green Acres in the late 1990s. The business was located in the fast-growing Chinden Boulevard area between Locust Grove and Meridian Road. After several years Green Acres was sold and became The Home and Garden Store, and then The Petal Pusher Garden Center. Petal Pusher closed after the summer of 2004 and that fall Zamzows Inc. bought the entire business. After some extensive remodeling the new Chinden Zamzows reopened in November of 2004 and held a get acquainted party in December of that year. In April of 2005 the new Chinden Zamzows held a Spring Grand Opening which was the largest sales day in the companies 72 year history! The new store featured Idahos largest indoor greenhouse as well as a large selection of shade and ornamental trees, shrubs, soil amendments, and more. Plus, with lots of extra space, Zamzows could use this new location as a plant-staging area for all 9 Zamzows stores, making it possible for Zamzows to get into the tree and shrub business in a big way. The new store was instantly successful and proved to be very popular with many new subdivisions and planned communities in the Chinden area such as Banbury, Paramount, and LochsaFalls. In April of 2006 Zamzows announced plans to build a beautiful new Nampa store. The plans were announced at a Press Conference held at the original Fairview store on Bernie Zamzows 90^th Birthday.  Plans called for the new store to be located across from Karcher Mall replacing the existing Caldwell Boulevard store. The proposed new building will be the largest of the companies 9 stores, and will feature a new design. The entrance to the building harkens us back to Zamzows agricultural days and is designed to look like a silo. In late May an official ground breaking ceremony was held at the new store site and actual construction on the building started. The new store is slated to open in November of 2006 with a Grand Opening scheduled for December 7^th. Zamzows 10^th store will be located at the corner of Overland Road and Silverstone Dr. and wont open until sometime in 2007. It will be located in one of the fastest growing areas of the TreasureValley, at Eagle Road and Overland near the new Mountain ViewHigh School. This exciting new store will be the companies 3^rd Meridian location; which brings us back full circle to 1902 when a young 5 year old Carmalita Zamzow pulled into the Meridian train station with her parents and 3 year old brother. 11 years later in 1913, her husband to be, August L. Gus Zamzow pulled into that very same train station and was accidentally left behind as his brother Carl traveled on to California and made a new life there. August and Carmalita got married two years later in 1915, and a year later, in 1916, their first son Bernie was born. Today, Zamzows Inc., the business Gus and Carmalita started way back in 1933 is still with us; and so is their son - Bernie, who just turned 90 years old in 2006. With 73 years in business, 9 stores, and another one on the way, Zamzows has made good on their slogan your growing store. But the best is yet to come; because as corny as it sounds each chapter of the Zamzows story of Gus and Carmalita, Bernie and Stan, Jim and Rick, and now the current Zamzows Management working together day by day is just like the lyrics to the popular 1970s song by the Carpenters

 

We've Only Begun.