Mike Marchetti was a gifted mining engineer for the Old Ben Coal Co. and later Kerr McGee when the handwriting appeared on Southern Illinois’ landscape that the golden age of mining was over.

Marchetti has always planned for his family’s future–part of the commitment and success story that has surrounded the Du Quoin Sears store.

He and wife Laura purchased the year-old store in September 1998 and in nine year’s time have doubled sales, gained the trust of customers and forged a partnership with one of the nation’s premier retailers–Sears.

Service is everything and on a daily basis he makes his case with Sears that taking care of the customer is Job 1.

As the coal industry makes a slow, but steady comeback in downstate Illinois, Marchetti hears a subliminal calling to his roots–engineering–and is entertaining the idea of selling the store that his family built. The 49-year-old Marchetti squarely attributes the success of the store’s run to wife Laura and children Ryan, 22, Anna, 19, and Scott 13. The couple wants to spend time with their children before they completely grow up and begin lives of their own.

And, plainly it’s time to cash out nine years of hard work and move on to whatever the next great thing becomes.

“I want people to understand that we are not closing the store,” said Marchetti in an interview this week. “The store will be for sale, but if it doesn’t sell right away, we will still be here,” he said. There is a history of commitment to family, friends and the people of Du Quoin that Marchetti won’t compromise.

And, it’s a very successful business that puts money in the bank every day.

They use to call stores like this “dealer stores,” but it has evolved more into a partnership with Sears, one of the icons of retailing. Marchetti says the success of the Du Quoin store goes straight to the customer loyalty the store has, a very attractive lease agreement which has two years left and the fact that Sears owns all of the merchandise trafficked through the store. There are no expensive floor plans to borrow money against. Owners are paid commissions on what they sell and bonuses for customer service and following Sears’ inventory suggestions.

Sears also provides a great deal of support and direction to owners.

Marchetti says the store benefits from some of the strongest appliance nameplates in the nation and the company’s signature “Craftsman” lawn and garden equipment and tool offering.

“We have the best service out there,” he said.

The Du Quoin store is open from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 12 noon until 5 p.m. on Sunday with a huge traffic flow because of stores like Kroger and Cato’s nearby.

Most Sears dealer stores are stand-alone operations on a frontage road somewhere.

“Honestly, there has been a lot of freedom in having this store,” said Marchetti. When someone has to be somewhere, a member of the family or a store employee steps in.

Marchetti has always identified opportunity. Now, it’s time to let someone else benefit from this one.

–John H. Croessman