A few years ago, the WIT buying group held its fall owners meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah — a neat area of the country if you have never checked it out. Part of the event involved a tour of member Standard Plumbing Supply’s impressive headquarters operation in nearby Sandy. To say what Standard has going on at its corporate compound is innovative/progressive/anything but standard, would be an understatement, and I’d run out of room here trying to describe it all (converting its sprinkler stores into Christmas light stores during the holidays, the Standard hardware store concept and its phone app parts ordering system would be a few quick examples).
Anything but standard.... That’s close to the actual “Nothing standard about Standard Plumbing Supply” phrase Standard founder Dale Reese used to keep his company, founded in 1952, fresh in his customers and potential customers’ minds. “From the beginning he was thinking about unique ways to do business and advertise,” says Jacob Reese, who works in sales and operations at Standard and is the third generation of family leadership. “He would hand out bumper stickers that go on the plumbers’ trucks that said, ‘Don’t sleep with the drip. Call a licensed plumber.’”