Hello and Happy New Year! We are excited to be celebrating our 35th Anniversary! I can’t believe it’s been that long. Check out our history below! Don’t forget to go and shop our 35th Annual Bandana Boot Sale going on now!
PFI: The clothes came with the building!
PFI Western Store originated in 1975 as Preferred Farmers Incorporated (P.F.I.), a dusty livestock feed and farm supply business located on Springfield’s northwest side.
Though its means were modest – the first store boasted only one desk, two chairs, a telephone, and lots of feed bins – PFI had ambitious dreams even from the beginning. That goal, was to become the best livestock feed company in the region.
But then a funny thing happened on its way to becoming a successful feed store.
When more space was needed to make room for the growing line of farm supplies, PFI bought the Western wear clothing shop next door. The clothes came with the building.
And then an even funnier thing happened. While the original plan was to sell off the clothing inventory as quickly as possible and replace it with farm supplies they discovered that their customers liked the Western-inspired fashions. They agreed to keep the clothes in stock. When the original merchandise that came with the store sold out, they restocked. And restocked. And restocked. Before long the feed bins were tossed to make room for more clothes.
Randy Little became sole owner of PFI in the ‘80s with his college sweetheart-turned-wife Johnelle serving as his fashion guide. Having grown up around horses, she knew Western styles better than her husband, an agricultural economics major from the University of Missouri. Together, the Littles became a formidable force in the world of Western fashion, taking Preferred Farmers, Inc. through various names and incarnations before finally stopping for good at PFI Western Store, now a multi-million dollar company with the largest Western retail center in Missouri, located at U.S. 65 and Battlefield.
Quite a journey for a business that never set out to sell anything other than farm supplies. But therein lies the beauty – and perhaps the genius – of PFI. By watching the folks who shopped at his once humble feed store and listening to what they wanted, Little built PFI around his customers, giving them what they wanted – functional but fun Western-inspired fashions – rather than the livestock feed he thought they needed.
There were only a few minor challenges in PFI’s early days. The original feed store was located on the then-unfashionable northwest side of town. The transition from feed store to Western fashion outpost came at the very time the “Urban Cowboy” trend was on its way out. Even the initials behind PFI were all wrong: Preferred Farmers Incorporated hardly described the products or services offered by the Western retailer.
And, oh yeah, Randy Little had no prior retail experience.
Nothing that couldn’t be overcome with a little horse sense and lot of humor, both of which Little used in his early advertising spots, which played on the dual universe he had unintentionally created when he began selling clothing in the feed store. Early radio ads featured two voices: “I got my dog food there,” one would voice said. “Well, I got these boots there for $99.99,” the second voice answered. And then the tag question: “Is it a feed store or is it a Western store?”
Little’s philosophy? Get the customers in the door and let them decide what kind of store it was. Better yet, create a retail center that broke all the rules and resisted easy categorization.
That’s what PFI did with its 30,000 square-foot retail center. Opened in 1993, the new store addressed the location problem and helped establish PFI’s unique identity as the retailer like no one else.
To meet his competition head-on, Little knew he had to break a few rules. He did so with gusto, developing a “good, better, best” philosophy of buying that appealed to all levels of taste and budget. Unlike the inventory at the discount mega stores and the franchised stores in the nearby mall, PFI prides itself on its unexpected and even outrageous inventory of 15,000 (yes, thousand) styles of boots available in a child’s size 4 to men’s 16 EEEE and in leathers that range from cowhide to ostrich to kangaroo.
Recognizing that the “Urban Cowboy” trend might come and go, but that Western lifestyle was as much a part of the American landscape as the Grand Canyon or the Ozark Mountains, PFI not only survived but endured – even though the initials still don’t make much sense.
It’s tempting to think that PFI is where it is today solely because of an enlightened management philosophy or an inspired company history. The truth is PFI is successful because of the people who come there every day – both as customers and employees.
From the very beginning, Randy Little knew he had to hire people who had more experience than him. And not just retail experience.
To create the kind of retail experience he wanted to build, Little knew he had to find old-fashioned craftspeople who still knew the art of blocking hats, making saddles, and custom-fitting a pair of cowboy boots.
He was blessed that such talented people live right here in Springfield – or close enough that they were willing to commute. That’s why Springfield is as much a part of the PFI success story as is Randy and Johnelle Little and all those thousands of pairs of cowboy boots.
But PFI would be a deserted storefront were it not for the customers who shop there time and again. Whether it’s to pick up a denim shirt to wear on casual Friday or to shop for a child’s first pair of cowboy boots, PFI has become the place people turn when they need a little Western in their lives.
The fact that Americans still hunger for the fashions that evoke the history of our country is a tribute both to the timeless fashions and the proud history of our nation.
Being able to fulfill that hunger for the pure and honest Western lifestyle is a privilege Randy Little and everyone at PFI feels grateful to be able to do every day.
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