Brockway Mercantile
Brockway, Montana
When most folks buy something off eBay, it arrives through the mail in a box. Not for Brigitte and Doug Dubin – e-Bay connected them with a new home and lifestyle. When they purchased the Brockway Mercantile building off eBay, they traded an urban smog-filled Los Angeles lifestyle for starry skies, room to roam and community connections in rural eastern Montana. The 6,000 square feet of space in their new building, which included leased space for the town post office, provides plenty of space for Doug, Brigitte and their three daughters to roam, and the family of five increased the town limit population 25 percent, from 14 to 19. Now running their eBay business and other entrepreneurial endeavors from Brockway, Doug and Brigitte represent a new wave of homesteading pioneers, fueling rural enterprise through computer technology and a DSL connection.
A love for horses and the desire for affordable space first drove the Dubins to research rural real estate listings through eBay. “I needed to drive 50 miles each way everyday to feed my horses when we were living in the LA area. That’s in addition to commuting to my job at Disney,” explains Brigitte. “I left home in dark and came home after dark and started thinking, this is not how I want to live or raise our family. We realized we wanted to be somewhere we could wake up in the morning, open the door and see our horses.” Adds Doug, “We wanted out of the ‘rat race.’ Our property values were up and we owed everyone, so we sold and paid off everything.”
Brigitte found the listing for the Brockway Mercantile on eBay and was intrigued by the price, fractions less than California real estate prices, and the fact that the lease for the post office was included in the sale. “I thought if nobody buys the post office, this town will wither and die and we just couldn’t see that happen,” adds Brigitte, recognizing if the Brockway Mercantile closed, the post office may also be shuttered. In the fall of 2004, the Dubins settled in at the Mercantile, living in rooms at the back of the store. “This building was built in the 1930s and remodeled seven times. It included seven bedrooms and remnants of the old butcher shop and post office,” Doug explains. “It took us a year just to discover all the rooms and closets,” jokes Brigitte.
Through their business, the Dubins blend the best of old and new worlds – combining on-line eBay retail businesses with a welcoming, timber-framed general store, complete with comfy couches and five cent ice cream cones made with the same ice cream served seventy-five years ago, inviting locals and tourists to linger. “We always shared this dream of one day owning a general store with a little bit of everything,” Doug comments. “We knew that, being rural, we needed to have a reason for folks to visit us so we wouldn’t grow isolated. The Mercantile business provides that for us.”
Brockway Mercantile’s merchandise covers the general store gamut, from old-fashioned stick candy to birthday cards. “If anyone comes in asking for something, we’ll do everything we can to special order it,” comments Brigitte. Stemming from her equestrian passions, the Mercantile carries top quality horse tack and gear, the largest selection within a 160 mile radius. “The challenge with selling quality goods is they last forever, so we had a finite pool of local customers and needed to expand our sales base.”
Enter eBay, an on-line selling tool the Dubins were well seasoned in, having been involved with the company for most of its 10-year history. “With over 190 million registered users, eBay can immediately and exponentially expand anyone’s selling base, even from a location as remote as Brockway,” explains Doug. Thanks to Montana’s leadership in Internet technology and high-speed access, the Dubins could immediately install a DSL connection, an essential ingredient in their economic viability. “There’s no way we could do this without a high-speed Internet connection since we’re on the computer ten hours a day,” Brigitte adds. By selling the horse tack on eBay, the Dubins could expand their market nationally as well as international. They draw as much as sixty percent of their customers from abroad. “Even when our U.S. economy isn’t doing that great, eBay opens up the opportunity to tap into booming economies of other countries, all from your home computer,” Doug comments.
In addition to horse tack, the Dubins sell a range of items through eBay, often merchandise from Merchandise Direct, a wholesale product business that Doug started with he was 18 and runs with his dad, now with offices in Los Angeles and New York. eBay provides a means for the Dubins to help their local community while minimizing risk associated with inventory. When unusually large lightening storms hit the area and power went out for days, Doug stocked up on oil lamps. After area locals bought what they needed, he could sell the rest – still at a profit – on eBay. “Of course, it helps our eBay business to be located right next to the post office,” Brigitte smiles. No matter what the weather, the Dubins can get an order shipped out, garnering them exceptionally high customer feedback ranking among their eBay customers. “People like to do business with people who do good business,” chimes in Doug.
Such a reputation, combined with their long eBay experience, led Doug and Brigitte to become “Certified eBay Instructors,” enabling them to conduct workshops on behalf of eBay, helping people learn to sell on eBay. “We learned eBay by failing for nine years and now we can share that experience so others can be successful faster,” grins Doug, who is ranked among an elite group of the top ten eBay workshop facilitators in the country. Through their three-part workshop series, which they regularly teach as independent contractors at area community colleges and facilities, Doug helps area residents strategically search their attics and closets for unused items to sell at a profit. “One gentleman sold a Display Box of Harley Davidson chain grease, he bought decades ago for fifteen cents, on E-Bay for several hundred dollars,” Doug adds. “eBay sales bring outside revenue into our rural areas, which then boosts the dollars residents have to spend at local businesses.”
Doug’s entrepreneurial roots run wide. In partnership with some friends, he developed and patented “The Perfect Sommelier,” a unique set of magnets which, when strategically placed on a bottle of wine, rounds out and improves the wine’s flavor in thirty minutes. “My wine expertise when starting this project was the occasional glass of white zinfandel,” Doug smiles. As a result he deepened his wine understanding by becoming a “wine steward” by earning his sommelier degree, which involved both he and Brigitte traveling to wineries around the world. Doug brings this expertise now to Eastern Montana, running wine tastings at the local Brockway bar and is exploring the idea of developing a wine program in partnership with the local community college. “Folks may think this is beer country, but we quickly discovered there are a lot of closet wine drinkers out here,” Doug smiles. “Now you’ll see two cowboys drinking Cabernet at the bar, comparing flavor bouquets.”
Quality of life and a safe community remain important reasons why the Dubins moved to Brockway. “Our kids went from having 4,000 students in their former Los Angeles area middle school to about a dozen students in their graduating class at the high school in Circle, thirteen miles away,” explains Doug. “Sure there was an adjustment period, but after that, our children are thriving, getting the best grades they’ve ever had and able to participate on sporting teams or whatever else they choose. Because of the smaller student base, no one gets cut from the team.” The Dubins jumped in to become a part of the area community, serving on local volunteer committees and managing the town’s website.
As diversified entrepreneurs, Doug and Brigitte always have some new irons in the business fire. Doug will be joining a select group of eBay experts contracted by eBay to help brick and mortar retailers diversify by using online sales. Brigitte is considering a part-time public relations job at the local community college while running for area Justice of the Peace. But it’s the peace, the stars, the space and the horses out their back window that make this place home for the Dubins, giving them room to roam and think creatively. “I’m still just floored that one of our barns has more square footage than our entire LA townhouse,” chuckles Brigitte, her horse, Amarita, nibbling on her ear.