Color Cecelia & get a free root beer!
North 40 Outfitters (formerly Big R Store) is offering a fun deal: All you need to do is print out this picture, have your little one color it in, and bring it into the store for a free root beer. The picture is of the North 40 Outfitters' mascot, Cecelia, a delivery truck who harkens back to the good old days of face-to-face interaction with customers, and something they still do today.
Click for a printable PDF
Click for a printable PDF
It's a fun little project to do with the kids, not to mention the reward is free root beer.
I've always thought of Big R as just another part of Great Falls. There's Giant Springs on one end of town, Ford's Drive-In out Central Avenue West, and at the end of 10th Avenue, there's Big R.
Growing up, I remember going to Big R for all sorts of things. I would go in with my grandma to buy fencing supplies and other necessities. She kept a ranch at the foot of the Highwood Mountains, and Big R was her place to go for just about everything. By the time they moved up the road to their new location, I'd started wearing Carhartt's, and Big R became my exclusive haberdasher. Also around this same time, I was spending my summers working for my dad, a general contractor so Big R, with its wonderful selection of Dewalt and Makita products, became like Amazing Toys to my father, brother, and me. We'd run in to grab a drill bit or a pair of gloves and end up coming out with a new compressor and a chainsaw.
Big R has always been there to offer whatever tools or equipment I've ever needed. When I heard about this new transition to North 40 Outfitters, I felt sort of crushed. Had a part of my town just disappeared?
I recently had a chance to peek behind the scenes of this transition when Cutter (my friend since the 3rd grade) asked me to proofread a brochure he was working on for Big R. When I read: "North 40 Outfitters" on the front, I said, "Wait. What?" He told me it was to be Big R's new name. Frankly, I was kind of confused and a little upset. The brochure looked, at first glance, like maybe Big R was being bought out by some out-of-towners. (I cynically imagined them transforming my beloved store into some kind of posh outdoor boutique, catering to tourists rather than the local folks.) Cutter didn't really tell me specifics about the re-branding. All he said was he needed a fresh set of eyes to make sure there weren't any glaring typos or other goofs he missed on the first hundred read-throughs. So I read it carefully, and in the end... I felt at ease.
I was impressed by the amount of professionalism present in the writing and design of the brochure I could tell these guys meant business. But what genuinely amazed me was the care and sincere dedication to the customer. Nearly every paragraph in the thing stressed seeing to the customer's needs, helping the customer, earning the customer's trust by genuinely engaging with him or her it all came back to the customer, and that's what I loved about Big R. And apparently this North40 evolution was going to endeavor to keep that tradition alive. What's more, as the brochure mentioned, there aren't even new owners. The current owners are just changing a few things in order to better serve their customers.
Still, I felt sad that the Big R name was going the way of the dinosaur. After all, I've sported a black cap with the red Big R insignia on it for nearly a decade. But I keep reminding myself: Change can be good. Change can be growth. And from what I can tell, the store is growing into something even better.
To celebrate the transition to North 40 Outfitters, the company is offering all kinds of coupons and promotional goodies. When Cutter brought over the coloring coupons, I immediately assembled a post-supper coloring session. Apparently, all the kids need to do is color Cecelia the delivery truck and they can turn it in for a free root beer! The children fell upon the coupons with crayons in hand, creating masterpieces that will ultimately earn them premium Sprecher root beer.
Yuri Matsko lives in Montana with his wife and their three children.
