Callie and Tom Lovette are the new owners of Cascade Pipe.
By Rebecca Spiess
Callie and Tom Lovette had planned for everything. They’d researched taking over Cascade Pipe & Feed Supply Inc. from founder Julie Palm for more than 24 months.
“We spent about two years dreaming, planning, researching,” Tom Lovette said. The couple’s backgrounds gave them plenty of experience: Callie had run her own catering business for eight years, and Tom worked at the electrical co-op. They had accounted for everything, or so they thought.
Business was good, and the couple was looking forward to upgrading online infrastructure and branding. The plumbing and outdoor equipment business has been located across from Hank’s Mini Mart on Highway 20 since 1997 and had a loyal customer base.
The Lovettes signed their paperwork to purchase Cascade Pipe on Friday, March 13, 2020. That same Friday, Gov. Jay Inslee ordered all public and private schools in Washington to close for at least six weeks. The couple worked through the weekend, and in the next weeks, the entire world shut down. A mandatory stay-at-home order followed 10 days later.
As an essential business, Cascade Pipe was allowed to keep its doors open. In fact, Callie described the first days of the pandemic as a “perfect storm.”
“Everyone stopped going to work and everybody came to work on their gardens,” Tom said. “It was record sales for the month.”
Navigating protocols
Business was good, but Tom and Callie suddenly had to navigate curbside pickup and manage call-in orders to run their brand-new business.
“There was no online infrastructure here, and so it was meeting people outside the door or people calling in their orders,” Tom said. “I remember, it could take almost 15 minutes to make a $5 sale.”
But the challenges didn’t stop there. The couple’s children, now aged 7 and 3, were suddenly at home full-time. The business they had planned to run together was now a ping-pong game as they bounced back and forth from home to work.
“We’re actually not here together very often,” Callie said.
And of course, like many businesses in the valley, they faced pushback from customers unwilling to wear masks. The couple faced each difficulty diplomatically and with empathy, and their enthusiasm for the business hasn’t wavered.
The couple still plans on adding more online infrastructure to support their new website as well as making plants and seeds available for purchase.
“If we can make it through this year, we can make it through anything,” Callie said.
They had originally planned on announcing Cascade Pipe’s change of ownership in an article for the Methow Valley News last March. And now, a year later, some customers are still unaware that Cascade Pipe has changed hands.
Better late than never.
