Good Neighbor Podcast: Auburn and Opelika
With her genuinely good heart and a wealth of experience behind her, Susannah works to connect local business and non-profit leaders to their neighbors. In a community like ours in which so many have invested their lives, there are fantastic stories all around us that motivate and inspire, often right next door. She hopes to share some of those here, on the Good Neighbor Podcast. Book an interview today at GNPAuburn.com
Good Neighbor Podcast: Auburn and Opelika
Ep.#97: Winston Smith T Building Supply, Nearly A Century Of Service
Dozier Smith T, a third-generation owner, shares how a 1931 family hardware business stays lean, fast, and rooted in relationships while adapting to new tech and changing customer habits. We trace the store’s heritage, the realities of small-business life, and the charm of a historic building with a hidden Coca-Cola mural.
• origins of the store and family lineage
• how summers in the shop and accounting training shaped leadership
• benefits and tensions of a family-owned business
• small-team operations, lean overhead, many hats
• adapting to technology without losing personal service
• why face-to-face advice beats endless scrolling
• the building’s history and the uncovered Coca-Cola mural
• what makes the store unique: speed, honesty, right-fit solutions
• location details and how to get in touch
https://www.smithtbuildingsupply.com/
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Suzanne.
SPEAKER_01:Welcome, and with me is Dozier Smith T with the Winston Smith Tea Building Supply. Welcome, Dozer.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you, Suzanne. I'm glad to be here.
SPEAKER_01:Tell me a little bit about Winston Smith Tea Building Supply.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, ma'am. We uh well my grandfather started this business in we um think about 1931, um, and he was in business with his father and his uh his brother. Um but when his father passed away, they split um split up, and my grandfather came down the street, which we're located on North Railroad Avenue in in downtown of Alaika, in the same uh location that we've been located since 1931. But he came down and started this business, and uh and um my father came into the business in the late 50s uh when he got out of the army, and then I came into the business in um 1996, and when I moved back down here from Birmingham, so we're in the third generation of a hardware and building supply business that's been serving this area for a while. So we're we've been very blessed.
SPEAKER_01:Well, you just kind of said that casually, you know, 1931. That's almost a hundred years.
SPEAKER_02:It is, it is getting close.
SPEAKER_01:That's amazing.
SPEAKER_02:It it is, it really is, but you know, um we've had incredible people working here, we've had incredible customers through the year, very loyal customers, and uh, and you know, the Lord has blessed us tremendously. So it's it's I'm very thankful.
SPEAKER_01:Well, what an amazing heritage uh your family has created uh for Opalica. So tell me a little bit about your journey. It's obviously a family business. Here you are, the third generation. So tell me a little bit about your story and how you came into uh the management of this family business.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, ma'am. Um, well, of course, I was born and raised here in Opalica, went to school here and um and went to Opalica City Schools and in high school. I would came came down here. Uh my father um wanted uh, you know, invited me to come uh work during the summers. And uh and I've got four siblings. Um, none of them were really interested in doing anything here at the store. That actually some of my sisters would come down uh during the Christmas vacation and do uh inventory, which I think it was it was very cold and I still got some. But I was um I came down and worked in the summers and had a great time doing it and even worked. I went to Auburn uh university and majored in accounting and uh it and still worked here during the summer times and had a just wonderful time. It it's you know, you build relationships with these customers and and you're able to to carry on conversations with them and just um have a really good time with that. Um and I enjoy that. I enjoy that that relationship side. Then I went to Birmingham, uh worked for an accounting firm for a few years, and uh and then I met my wife and uh she was a pediatrici in in a medical school, then did pediatric residency. And when she got out of pediatric residency, um she was we were available to move, and I've always wanted to move down here, and the Lord just opened up a door for us to come down, and so she she came down and has practiced pediatrics at the pediatric clinic since 1996 as well. So um, but you know, I think uh, you know, how my history is or my background has helped me with this, obviously working here in the summer, but also just the the business um background and where I worked up in Birmingham for a few different companies. I learned some some things that helped me in a small business, really.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely, yeah, and and especially with the a family-owned business. It's just uh uh amazing what you've been able to accomplish there. Uh tell me a little bit though about your name. Smith T. I bet you uh I bet you get a lot of people ask you about that's a unique name, Smith T.
SPEAKER_02:Uh well, it is very unusual, yes. Um, and it's it originally was was Smith, um, but in the early 1800s, um, one of my ancestors, John Smith, added a T on the end of his name, and they think it was just to differentiate himself from other John Smiths because he was he was on the frontier, kind of uh a land prospector, and they think it was for Tennessee. Um Tennessee. So um, but yeah, it's very, very unusual.
SPEAKER_01:Um absolutely yeah, what a cool story, just to to make him different from the other one. Okay, all right. Well, tell me a little bit about you, Dozier. What do you do for fun when you're not working in the uh Winston Smith T building supply?
SPEAKER_02:Well, you know, I I've I I'm still trying to figure that out on the hobby side of things. I'm not a real athletic person. I know, you know, golf is not my thing. I wish it were. I play it, but I don't play it well. Um my wife and I, we have six kids, and uh I've been very blessed in that. And so family has kind of been my biggest hobby.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Um, you know, I would coach the kids, uh the boys and and um and baseball and basketball and um and just you know go to their games and and the girls go into different activities for them as well, and just spending time with them. I I um I don't have and you know, I guess the my family and my church are kind of my biggest hobbies and and and bring me the most joy, really.
SPEAKER_01:Well, that's awesome. Well, you know, getting back to uh business here, uh part of the reason I do this podcast is because I like to encourage people to go, you know, follow their dreams of entrepreneurship. And uh sometimes that comes with some challenges. And I know that uh I come from a family business, and you're obviously in a family business, and those dynamics are also kind of peculiar as well. So tell me what are some of the hardships or some of the challenges that you've had in your business or personally that made you a stronger person and made your business stronger?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, um, well, the I got there's two parts of this. One of them is the fact that it is a family business. Um that there's I think some things that are unique about that, but then also we're a very small business. You know, we're not a large enterprise that has lots of people um to lean on, basically. You know, you you in this today, in today's environment with as as um as much competition as there is out there, uh you've got to I tell people, and I'm not the one who came up with it, but you've got to be lean and mean. You just really do. You can't have a lot of of overhead. And um, and and you know, when when things one I guess one of the things that that uh and it's it's enjoyable. I'm not sure, you know, it's not woe is me on this, but it but you know, when when things need to be done, um it it it it sometimes it comes down to me doing them. Or you know, and and we everybody in this business has to wear a lot of different hats, you know, that with nobody, as my father used to say that a lot of we're a lot of Indians and then and no cheese, you know. Um and so I I feel like that that's that's one of the challenges, but it's it's also one of the great things about a small business is I mean you don't get just pinholed into into one doing one thing, that's right, you know, yeah. Um and then being a family business, uh I I think you know, there are challenges. It's the greatest thing in the world working with your for me, working with my father. I loved him dearly and he was an incredible father, but there is some some struggles at times, you know, separating the personal from the business. And and and it was, you know, that I mean you have to kind of feel that way through, but he was incredible. Um, I've I tried to I've I'm sure I've made the most mistakes, and he was very patient with me. But um, you know, you just gotta um you gotta maneuver that a little bit. Right. Uh and it it's because that there might you might have different ideas on the way to the way things go. And he was from a different generation, um, that business was done a different way, um you know, from electronics standpoint and everything.
SPEAKER_01:Technology has changed the way we do business, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Exactly. That's exactly right. And and I'm, you know, I I can honestly say that that I'm not as good as these younger people are with all that, you know, with all the social media and everything. So um, but you know, I think that's one of the the challenges of a of a of a family business, but it's also such a blessing.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, I agree. Absolutely. Well, what is one thing you wish people knew about Winston T uh Smith, Winston Smith T, sorry about that, building supply.
SPEAKER_02:Listen, you're not the first, and you will not be the last.
SPEAKER_01:What is one thing you wish people knew about your business?
SPEAKER_02:Well, you know, um I really wish they would just come in and see the just an old-time building. Um, I think we've we you know we've got um new things here, things that would help them and that are current, but it's just a neat environment, you know, and and also don't um uh don't overlook having a face-to-face conversation with somebody that maybe can help you do some things or give you ideas on how to do projects that maybe you don't know. Now, you know, there's people can go on YouTube all day long and find out every so much for what they need to know, but uh you know, I think it at times we're we're um as a society, we're kind of losing the face-to-face type interaction. And and you know, um it's so easy sometimes to sit at your home and just order something online, but um, I I think that you might enjoy it when you come in here. Um and and you and the nice thing or the thing that we try and do is get people in and out very quickly. We try to be an efficient uh business that people don't come in and just search all around and don't get any help. You know, we want we want to be able to, I tell my guys, I want to be able to sell to a customer everything they need. I don't want to sell them what they don't need. You know, I don't I don't want them buying something. I mean, it might help my sales, but I don't want them buying something that they don't need because they might not come back. You know, I want them to sell I want to sell that to them what they need um and let them get on their way.
SPEAKER_01:And you know, it's uh a piece of history walking in that in your store, you get to see what a what history is in downtown Opalica.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, it's it you know, this building was built in 1909, 1910. And uh it was originally the first people in it was Frederick's uh furniture, which is now Frederick Dean Funeral Home.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_02:And so, and then Canon Motor Company came in and then we did, but we also back in 2014 discovered a big Coca-Cola sign that had been covered up with plaster, and it's it's original paint. This is you know huge over the I mean it's probably you know, well 15 feet tall, probably 25 feet long.
SPEAKER_01:Amazing. Oh, yeah, I love it. Well, thank you so much for joining me. Tell me a little bit or tell my listeners where to find you.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, well, we're um physically located at 812 North Railroad Avenue in downtown Opalika, just down the hill from the the old entrance to the courthouse, Lee County Courthouse, um, but right on the railroad tracks. Um you can find us on the web. Um, but uh but we're and you can also call us and ask us if we got anything or or you're you know you want to know if we got something in stock, but at 334-745-4618.
SPEAKER_01:All right. Well, thanks so much for joining me. I've enjoyed our conversation and learning more about you and the Winston Smith Tea Building Supply. Thank you.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you, Suzanne. I appreciate it.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbors Podcast Offer. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpers.com. That's gnpers.com or call 334.