Gale Moore had a dream and some convincing to do.
From the moment she stepped foot into Joe’s Tractor Sales in Thomasville, North Carolina she knew it was going to be hard to break into the lawn and landscaping business.
“Men would come in to get parts for their tractors or chainsaws or whatever and they would always ask for one of the men folk,” Gale said. “Eventually, I won over their confidence and they became comfortable with me until finally, when the farmers came in, they started asking for me.”
Gale and her husband Joey saw big potential in the business that his father Joe started in 1949.
“I had a dream,” Gale said, “and we were ready to grow the business and we needed a line of credit, but Joe grew up during the Depression and didn’t want to go into debt. He was just scared because he remembered how things got.”
Joe decided instead to retire and turn the business over to the couple. That was in 1981. While Gale married into the business, Joey grew up in it.
There’s the story of a local surgeon who came in to have his tractor rebuilt, but old Joe was busy and pointed to Joey and suggested that he do it.
“That little boy is going to work on my tractor?” the doctor asked incredulously. Joey was 11 years old. And he got to work.
When they brought the doc’s tractor back to his farm, Joey handed him a coffee can and said, “I got your tractor fixed and here are a few screws I had leftover. I didn’t need ‘em.” Gale and Joey expanded their product line to include both new and used tractors, lawn mowers, trimmers, blowers, chainsaws, and other equipment.
Gale says the key to their success is having top-notch knowledgeable employees, who know what questions to ask to meet a customer’s needs, as well as being inviting to both men and women.
“I want people to say I like doing business with y’all because you’re always nice and friendly and we got a fair deal from you,” Gale said. “I like hearing them feel comfortable coming in here and buying from us and saying we got a really good product and something that held up and lasted.”
Joe’s Tractor Sales boasts about longtime and popular mechanic Robbie Ridge, known as the “Doctor.” Robbie makes sure customers understand the ins and outs of their outdoor power equipment before they walk out the door.
“When we sell them that product, we go over that product with them,’ Gale said. “We don’t just sell it to them in a box and send them down the road. We assemble the product, put fuel in it, make sure they know the safety features, so they know what they purchased and how to operate it.”
Gale and Joey pride themselves on being good corporate citizens and building on the strong family name that Joe Moore started. They sponsor church tractor pulls, local ball teams, and they consider each customer a member of their family.
“I had a guy tell me one time that the lawnmower we sold him saved his marriage,” Gale remembers.
“How’s that?” she asked. “Well, you put me in the proper size mower and it cut my time down on Saturdays so that I could take care of my children. My wife can now go shopping, so everybody’s happy.” Gale knows that her father-in-law, who died in 2012, was proud of the business she and Joey expanded.
“I dreamed we’d have a big business sometime and it has surpassed my dreams,” she said. “We just kind of try to keep up with what people were looking for and what people needed. “This year has been the biggest year I’ve ever seen. I think that is because more people are at home and they are enjoying their yard, planting their gardens. I’m just loving it because I like to ride around and see people’s yards looking really nice and seeing people and their families out working.”
