O.T. Agway

What happened to Agway.?? All the stores in my area are going out of business.

Corpoate Agway's here were bought by FS Growmark there are a couple of individual feed stores carring the Agway logo still. Westeren Pa

You don't say where you are from. Agway as a corporation has been gone for several years here (Finger Lakes region). The corporate building in Syracuse has been vacant for that long also. Back several years ago, Growmark and Carolina-Vail divided up the marketing territory up here for seed, chemicals, and fertilizer. Independents and existing local feed dealers divided up the animal care market. I believe there were a few instances of franchised Agway stores surviving and the franchisee's turning to other suppliers so they could stay active but even some of those have closed in the last few years.
Agway was a company some loved and some hated. Personally, they took a chance on me for fertilizer and chemicals when nobody else would and I am grateful. Some people got the short end of the stick when it came to grain marketing. Agway was a company that could not hold focus as it grew. It was very inefficient financially the last decade and change it existed. There are some here that probably have a more precise explanation as they probably knew people much closer to the situation than I was (ordinary customer).

The suburbs grew up around them, they thought they hadda sell BBQ's & Lawnmowers,
thus forgetting who put them in business. in the first place.

We have 2 Agways left here in Eastern NY. They were bought out by independent people, so now one is called Kelly Ayway, The Cobelskill one Im not sure the name, But the Agway sign is still up. Its right across from SUNY Cobelskill. I liked the Agways ok.

Western N.J.,Flemington area.

That's all TSC has anymore too. They might as well be closed.

I remember when Agway replaced the GLF Stores in
the late 50's or early 60's. It seemed like they
might have grown too fast and lost focus. There
was Agway commercial cow feed mills and store,
Petroleum delivery, Insurance, finance, etc.
The farm crisis of the 1980's seemed to take a
terrible toll on them. It seemed to me they had
a source of credit and might have extended it too
liberally. I do not think there is Agway anything
left in Western New York. Personally I liked doing business with them.

Agway was our direct competitor when I was a kid, after my gramps sold out of the IH dealership to concentrate on the lime spreading and farming. Weren't really that much competition in out area for the lime spreading, as we had our large home stockpile, and several satelite piles, most with railheads, and had our own Michigan crane to unload the hopper cars. Once we got a couple more duece-and-a-halfs so we could get out earlier on the soft ground, it was pretty much all over. We were also selling bulk fertilizer and spraying urea with Arcadian stuff, and the customers just liked us better. They had a pretty big store in Bath, with lime from there, but they got into selling minibikes and barbecues and such, don't know if it's still there or not. They rented space from us at our home stockpile yard for their bulk fuel storage tanks, and the delivery driver lived down the street from us and was a friend, so when his truck wouldn't start, or the delivery semi-tanker got stuck at the bulk tanks, we'd get a little "errand of mercy" work. Quite a site to see two deuce-and-a-halves, both with about 10 tons in them for traction, hooked nose-to-tail throwing rooster tails from all wheels pulling out a semi-tanker- those old REO 331's have got to be the sweetest-sounding 6-cylinders ever made

Agway died a while ago.

My Grandparents were one of the oldest dealers in Maine, started with Eastern States then switched to Agway when E.A. was rolled into them. Over 50 years, all out of a barn. You don't find businesses like that anymore.

We still have "Agways" around but it's just a badge, they're owned by Southern States now.

Agway left a very bitter taste in most folks mouths around here. Most of the farmers had invested in Agway and lost almost all of what they had built up. That and at the end of their independent life they really put way to much effort into selling home/garden stuff and forgot about the AG part.

Agway going belly up wasn't the reason my parents closed the doors, it had more to do with man power (it was just my dad after my grandparents passed away). The investment part, my grandparents never lived long enough to find out what they had lost.

I still use their grain, there's another dealer a town over from ours. My dad worked there for a while but it wasn't ever quite the same, although he did like working in a heated building.

K

I used to buy supplies from an Agway south of Liberty Maine.It was a long way from home but I always made the trip in the spring.I wonder if that was your grandparents place.

(quoted from post at 16:13:56 12/29/09) I used to buy supplies from an Agway south of Liberty Maine.It was a long way from home but I always made the trip in the spring.I wonder if that was your grandparents place.

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Small world!

Overlock's Agway, South Liberty Maine.

I live on the farm now. No more cows, I do keeps some chickens just so I can at least "play" farmer.

Whereabouts do you hail from?

K

Link has a 9 page PDF from Cornell answering your question

I think the short answer from reading that is the Executives liked to be the big men at cocktail parties, and ran a conglomerate business with a razor thin margin that kept taking on debt to buy more businesses they didn't understand, but they could convince a banker they knew how to pencil the loan to work out.
http://aem.cornell.edu/special_programs/cooperatives/pdf/resources/agway.pdf

Pretty much.

I remember the last year or two they keep selling off divisions then calming a profit. I know the execs got some pretty nice bonuses right before they sold out. They sold the fertilizer plant plant up here, then they sold the feed mill and started to buy from other suppliers. Kind of hard to run an Ag supply company with out those two staples. Not sure what happened to the seed folk, they ran a lot of test plots about 20 minutes from my house.

Dad kept getting these letter saying how well things were going...then it was gone.

K

Im from Dixmont.Last time I saw your grand dad your grand mother was very ill.My friend and I shook his hand when we left.Overlocks Agway was a perfect example of the way life should be in Maine.

(quoted from post at 17:16:32 12/30/09) Im from Dixmont.Last time I saw your grand dad your grand mother was very ill.My friend and I shook his hand when we left.Overlocks Agway was a perfect example of the way life should be in Maine.

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That is quite a trek down. Detroit would have been closer, right?

He ended up passing before she did, it was a pretty sad summer.

The doors stayed open for a year after that but it was just to much for my dad to do on his own. I was in college but had Fri - Sun off so I would come home and help out as much as I could.

It was sad to see it go but I guess nothing lasts forever.

It's nice to hear from someone who did business here, you don't get that as much now.

K