Numbers don’t lie, demographics lure new business to county –
Story and photo by Patricia Beech –
Jason Gripman, the owner of 10 Verizon stores across Ohio, will open his 11th store in West Union this week. A premium retailer for Verizon and the Cellular Connection, the business owner was drawn to the area by demographics, according to Tyler Hochfelder, manager of the soon-to-open store.
“The Walmart store in West Union is one of the highest retailers for Verizon prepaid cards – it’s in the top three in the state and the top 15 nationally,” said Hochfelder. “A lot of people from this area have Verizon because it’s the best network for rural areas – companies like T Mobile and Sprint have a much harder time providing service to their rural customers.”
While Hochfelder says “it’s hard to beat the service you get with Verizon” he doesn’t plan on limiting the store’s services to only Verizon customers.
“We pride ourselves on providing excellent customer service to people who have Verizon, and even for people who don’t – we’ll troubleshoot their phones for them as well.”
Hochfelder is determined to make quality customer service the cornerstone of the new business.
“We like to take time with each of our customers, to go over everything with them,” he says. “The most important thing for us is making people feel comfortable and at home so they’ll look forward to coming back in to see us again.”
Hochfelder and his four employees, all residents of Adams County, are also focused on how the business can contribute to local communities.
“We’re all super excited to be a part of this community, and we’re planning big things to give back to the communitym we want to help out the best we can,” he said. “We’re all from here and we have a real interest in seeing our communities improve and thrive.”
Establishing the business in Adams County, Hochfelder said, “went smoothly thanks to the timeliness of employees” from the county agency.
“All of the county people we’ve dealt with have been super helpful – it’s complicated changing a building from a restaurant to a business like this,” he said. “It took a lot of planning, but the inspectors and the local people have been professional and super fast at what they do.”
The Verizon store is located at 11452 Manchester Road (State Rte. 41) in West Union. Hours of operation are Monday–Friday 10 a.m.- 8 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m.- 7 p.m., and Sunday11 a.m.- 6 p.m. For more information, contact (937) 779-3122 or visit vccdealerrocks.com.
A Grand Opening for the store is currently in the planning stages.