Value galore at Crazy Sam’s

The Crazy Sam’s story started from the demise of Crazy Clark’s and a Sam’s Warehouse.

When these well-known discount variety store brands went into administration, Alan Hartl and his business partner Frank Brown purchased two sites, Narrabri in NSW and Roma in Qld, from the administrators and renamed them Crazy Sam’s.

“It was just an opportunity that presented itself and we grabbed it – the two country locations were some of the better-performing stores, so we were very fortunate and happy to take them over and rebuild them from the ground up,” said Mr Hartl.

Mr Hartl has been in the retail industry his entire life, and the discount variety store industry for 35 years.

Before acquiring Narrabri and Roma, Alan and Frank had traded as Dollarite Variety Store in Lismore for many years.

After narrowly evading two major floods, the two decided to close Lismore and look for other opportunities.

Next came the opening of more Crazy Sam’s stores in Coonabarabran, Gunnedah, and Woolgoolga.

“The discount industry has been around for a long time – since the late ‘80s in fact, and although not as popular as the heydays, it’s survived through highs and lows and many economy downturns,” said Mr Hartl.

“When the economy gets tough, we tend to do well because people move away from the higher-end department stores.

“A lot of people come back to the discount industry looking for that value for money.”

When you walk into a Crazy Sam’s store, the impressive depth of product range is unmissable, a retail experience the business prides itself on delivering to customers.

“We’ve got a lot of everything,” said Mr Hartl.

“Instead of having four or five gondola modules of any particular department, our range will cover 20, this is why our stores have a very large footprint.

“Our philosophy of biggest range, lowest price, has never changed, it’s what we pride ourselves on at Crazy Sam’s,” said Mr Hartl.

“It’s all about consistency, there is a core range of everyday products that our customers expect to find in our stores, and they just want value for money.

Outside its core everyday range, the store also focuses heavily on homeware, giftware, and seasonal products like Christmas, Easter, Halloween, winter, and summer.

“Christmas is by far the biggest gamble every year, it’s hard to predict how much money customers will spend in the last few months of the year, our orders must be finalized with suppliers by the end of January, so they have enough time to secure their orders with overseas factories,” said Mr Hartl.

“You can see how much product there is in the store at the moment, the girls have done a fantastic job of the display, and it’s all starting to sell.”

To keep up with the sheer volume of variety, Crazy Sam’s buys their stock from over 60 trusted suppliers, working closely with them to put together the best possible range at the lowest possible price.

While COVID was a tough time for the community and many small businesses, Crazy Sam’s, like many other retailers, benefited from people being at home and looking to pass the time.

Hardware, crafts, and toys were super popular.

“Narrabri has been a great town for us, when we first started, we were the only discount store, with Target County as our nearest competitor.

“It’s always been a vibrant town and many customers are very loyal, it’s a one-stop shop.

Mr Hartl is also quick to praise his retail team, employing over 60 staff across all stores and commending the new management team at Narrabri Crazy Sam’s for transforming the store in the past year.

“We have three full-time managers in each one of our stores and a lot of casuals,” said Mr Hartl.

“Your store is only as good as your people. Richard Branson and Virgin Airlines have always lived by that motto, you’ve got to look after your people because, at the end of the day, they are in the coalface, we’re just in the background making sure the wheels keep turning.”

You wouldn’t know that Narrabri store manager Molly Welsh only started her career in retail a year ago, getting promoted to third in charge in six short months and then store manager a short time later.

“Previous to working at Crazy Sam’s, I was raising kids and hadn’t worked in over 20 years, I just came in and put my head down,” said Ms Welsh.

“I love our store, I used to think I knew a lot of people before through sports, but through working at Crazy Sam’s I’ve met so many people in the community.”

Ms Welsh believes the Narrabri team works so well because of their great rapport with customers and each
other.

“I think because I have a natural knack, I just engage with people, and that’s helped along the way, communication is key, we have great customers, and it never hurts us to be polite and helpful. It’s a great team and awesome that we all connect and work hard together, it sets a great example for our younger staff and sets them on a good footing for their future employment opportunities.”

Crazy Sam’s will be in Narrabri for the long haul and after recently renewing their lease for another 10/15 more years, will continue to deliver exceptional customer service and plenty of variety to the town.

“At the end of the day, it comes down to product, price, and great customer service,” said Mr Hartl.

Crazy Sam’s is one of the participating businesses in The Courier and Wee Waa News’ Have a Cracker of a Christmas – Shop with our Superstars Christmas promotion. The campaign, which is sponsored by Santos and community radio station 2MaxFM, features fantastic prizes totalling $7000.