Banking on KC - Zeke Young and Jen Boyd of Red X
Listen Now, or read the transcript below:
Zeke Young and Jen Boyd of Red X: The “Store to Explore” for Generations
Kelly Scanlon:
Welcome to Banking on KC. I'm your host Kelly Scanlon. Thank you for joining us. With us on this episode are Zeke Young and Jen Boyd of Riverside Red X. The store's been operating since 1948 and it's grown to become an iconic retailer here in the Kansas City area, but particularly in Riverside. It's a landmark there. Zeke is the son of the store's founder and he's a current owner, and Jen is the VP and she's Zeke's daughter, so quite a family business. Welcome.
Zeke Young:
Well, thanks Kelly. Thanks for having us.
Kelly Scanlon:
Well, congratulations, too. 1948, that makes this year 75 years in business. That's phenomenal.
Zeke Young:
1948, like I tell my grandkids, "Back in the 1900s," but no, it's really something when you do sit and think about it, that how they started a business and everything and what it's continued to grow. Thanks to all the people that have seen us through this, the community, the customers, employees, of course my family, but it's been quite a journey.
Kelly Scanlon:
Oh, I'm eager to hear more about it, and the other thing to congratulate you on as part of that journey is this new store opening that you just had a few weeks ago. It's right next to the old store, but it's a much newer store, and we'll dive into that too, but congratulations on that. As a second and third generation, you've both seen a lot of the history. You grew up with it, Zeke, I would imagine, and so take us back to those early days to 1948. Tell us about that beginning.
Zeke Young:
Well, that was before my time, but back in 1948, Dad's mom was actually sick and she was in Research Hospital and there was this nurse taking care of her. He kind of took her out on a date and they got married, so that's how Dad met Mom. She was a registered nurse at Research Hospital, and he worked for the Curtis Candy Company and he would go around and make deliveries. He'd kind of see how these stores were doing business and all that and he thought, "Well, I can do that." He and mom bought a piece of property there and they said it was actually below the level of the road, so they had to be dirt to fill it up.
They build the building, put in gas pumps. They had gas pumps,. Regular and ethyl, and $150 inventory, and then they just kept adding on. As business grew, he'd keep growing the business. Now, that was before Riverside was a city, and they heard that Kansas City was going to try and annex that area, so Dad along with several other members of the community got together and made Riverside a city. That got incorporated and he was one of the founding fathers of Riverside. Also served in the government there, was Mayor for a while. That's kind of the beginning of Red X. It just kept growing and growing from there.
Kelly Scanlon:
Beginning of Red X and Riverside. We hear about so many companies that want to be involved in the community and to give back and so forth. Your father actually helped birth the community. I mean, that's an incredible story. Red X has been called a store to explore, and it's even been labeled as an unofficial museum. Tell us about some of the items that the store has carried over the years, and for the two of you, what would you say have been some of the most interesting and unique?
Zeke Young:
Well, there is so much. The store had many departments in it. We had sporting goods. We had a fantastic fabrics department, automotive, and has always been groceries and liquor. That has always kind of gone along, and used to live above the store in an apartment.
Kelly Scanlon:
Which wasn't unusual really for a lot of retailers and restaurant owners, yeah.
Zeke Young:
Not very often, though, could you say the river came up to your doorstep, which it did two times in '51 and '52, but he bought Mom an anniversary gift and it was a bell. Then, he started buying more bells and more bells. Eventually he had over 10,000 bells in his collection. He would go around the country and get bells, and then he got into other items that he'd go down the flea market and like that and he just added. He kept putting them there in the store. Some of my favorite was he had a collection of glass eyeballs. I always told everybody that was our first security system.
Then, there's just a lot of different things like that, and then he had the Remington statues, copies of Remingtons. We got a life-sized one in our foyer when you first come into the store of a cowboy on a horse, and that's the favorite one of mine. Then, of course, he had a firetruck, and I don't know why I kept this, but after he passed away, I kept this one firetruck that he'd had, and it happens to be a 1948 firetruck. We had it refurbished and everything, so you'll see that once you enter the store, that's the first thing that you'll see is a firetruck.
Kelly Scanlon:
Are these miniature firetrucks? Or are they're full size?
Zeke Young:
No, this is a real full-sized-
Kelly Scanlon:
Really?
Zeke Young:
... firetruck. Yeah.
Kelly Scanlon:
You have it inside the store?
Zeke Young:
Yes, and we've got it surrounded by fire hydrants, which some of them come from the neighborhood just across the street, Indian Hill, so yes.
Kelly Scanlon:
Oh wow. Now, those items, I take it, the eyeballs, the bells, do you still have all of those bells?
Zeke Young:
Well, we have them all, but we're in the process of how many we're going to move over to the new store. We've got a lot of the antiques over there, but there's still like 80 to 90,000 square feet, so we had a lot of room. That's why I came up with the term, "Hey, the store to explore." You never know what you're going to see around the corner, but now it's very well-presented what they did with moving the antiques over that we have. We're currently still looking at some things we'll keep moving over.
Kelly Scanlon:
All right, so you have bells, you have eyeballs, you have Remingtons, you have firetrucks. Tell us about the retail side of things. What do you carry that your client or your customers can come in and purchase?
Jen Boyd:
Sure, so we carry everything that you would find at a normal grocery store, but we also in this new location we have a bar in our store. It's kind of a unique thing and it's still evolving as we're learning it and everything, but we have it where you can come in and you can get a sample of some of those hard-to-get whiskeys and bourbons. You can also sit down and have a glass of wine or do a wine flight. It's just kind of a fun place to do that.
Kelly Scanlon:
You'll be able to purchase that by the glass as well as if you like one of them, you can purchase the bottle and [inaudible 00:05:28]?
Jen Boyd:
Yep, absolutely, and some of the stuff there you can't get on the shelves, so it's kind of a unique experience. We've got some great bartenders over there that are just fun to talk to. We also have a high-end liquor room that you can go in and kind of get some of those hard-to-get items. That's something that's new over at our new store, but then we also have a... We've always had butchers, but now we have a full-service meat counter and we've got a great team of people there ready to smoke meats because we have a meat smoker inside now, too. We've just got a lot of different products and services that we're offering at the new store.
Kelly Scanlon:
Is there one product that you could point to that people come to seek?
Jen Boyd:
People come in looking, of course, for allocated items like allocated liquor items. It's hard to get. That's something we hear all the time. It's bourbons where they only produce limited quantities and then they send them out to certain retailers and we might only get one, so then that's the one we have to sell. I never understood the history behind that, and then I went to Kentucky and I got to hear it. I'm like, "Oh my gosh, I see why these guys and gals get so excited about it because there's a lot of history that goes behind it and just the hard-to-get." It's kind of like a hunt.
We get a lot of those people in there, but right now, that's been a big thing is we're keeping a lot of our current clientele or clientele that we had before, but then we're also getting a lot of families. What they're coming in and looking for is changing, so that's where we're having to be all-ears and listening to make sure that we have the right mix and give it also time to kind of settle down a little bit, so-
Zeke Young:
There are two entrances. We got the liquor side and the grocery side, but we named the deli after Mom. We call it Clara's Deli, and then the meat department, call it Ed's Butcher Shop. Then, you push a button to get a butcher and a different bell rings. We got them up on the wall and the bell will ring whenever that happens.
Kelly Scanlon:
Yeah, just the experience of going in there, it's just besides all the products that you carry, the experience is something else as well.
Jen Boyd:
Well, and that's something in the whole design phase, that was something we wanted it to be an experience from the time that you pulled into the parking lot.
Kelly Scanlon:
What an expansion it's been, and it's a big move, not just from a logistics standpoint, but customers get attached to the previous store. I mean, you have raging fan base. There's just no question about that. Then, the store's been iconic. It's part of your brand, so what prompted the decision to construct a new store next to the old one?
Zeke Young:
That's something I struggled with, a hard decision because people are so used to the old facility, but as we kept going along here, utilities, upkeep, equipment, it was just getting so much, and so when Jen came on board and wanted to get into it, that kind of started tilting the needle to building a new one. Now, back in '93 after the flood, Dad didn't want to go through a flood again, so he started filling in the land where the racetrack used to be. We used to have a race car track there, Riverside Stadium, and so he kept filling that up and filling that up. He made it to the 500-year flood, I guess, is what he said it was. He had plans drawn up in '99 before he died of a new store to be put out on that property. He wanted to build a new one eventually.
I've kind of kept that in the back of my mind and things just kind of evolved over time and you just kind of wait and you wanted to do it a couple other times, but it just seemed like now is the right time to do it and change is so hard. It is so hard, and like they say, the only person that likes to change is a baby. The people, they were very vocal saying, "Oh, what are you going to do?", but those that have come in from what we've heard so far, they said they really enjoyed it. Much nicer for our customers and for our employees to work. The atmosphere is so much better and all of that.
Jen Boyd:
I think to add on to that, I think one of the biggest things for the customers, because I literally had people crying, and I think a lot of that was the unknown because they've been used to being there. They thought we were going to just become a normal big box retailer, that type of thing where it's just generic. I think we've had a overwhelming response, like positive response, and it's because they saw that we were bringing over some of those oddities and the uniqueness. It wasn't just one of those other stores. Of course, you always try and reassure them. That's our forefront of every decision that we're making is to keep that, but it's hard for people to understand what it's going to look like.
Kelly Scanlon:
When you have the kind of raving fans that you do and such an iconic brand, people think, "You're making changes to my store."
Jen Boyd:
Right.
Kelly Scanlon:
They feel that kind of ownership and they're possessive about it and they don't like to see those kinds of changes.
Zeke Young:
We had a instance where they had to take the X down to get it repaired, and people... We started getting phone calls-
Jen Boyd:
We really did.
Zeke Young:
... that they were very concerned about that.
Jen Boyd:
Well, they thought because we were doing renovations to it before we moved, so they took it down and it was gone for about a week. From the time that we took it down, it was all over Facebook about how that we took down the iconic X and all of that. That was actually one thing that it was not in line with the city ordinances, but the city also knew how important it was to have in the new location, so they worked with us to help make sure that we were able to keep it and for all the community members, too. I mean, those types of things mean a lot to them.
Kelly Scanlon:
How did your dad come up with the name of the store?
Zeke Young:
He was thinking of the name and for some reason he was also collecting wagon wheels. He was going to call it The Wheel, but he just never got around to it, but he was buying gasoline from a gas company up in Cameron and their name was Red X, and they gave him permission for him to use the name Red X. He didn't want to put his name up on the side of the building because in case he went out of business, he didn't want to see his name being taken down, so that's how he came up with Red X.
Kelly Scanlon:
Oh, I love it. I love it. What's going to happen with the old store?
Zeke Young:
Well, eventually it will come down, but right now there's still things that we need to get out of there, but eventually it will come down. That'll be a tough time.
Jen Boyd:
Part of the reason on that, to go back to why we had to build a new store, because we all love that old store, but it has been through so many floods. It has been through all of that. There's foundation issues. The equipment was aging. We actually originally looked at remodeling it, but even with what we could see on the outside, it was going to be way more than what it was going to cost to build new, and that's just what you could see. It just wasn't a feasible project to do a remodel.
Kelly Scanlon:
It hasn't always been easy. I mean, we're sitting here talking about this wonderful new store and so forth, but any entrepreneur knows there are challenges, and you've alluded to some natural disasters. You've been through not just one flood, but three floods and a fire. Talk to us about how you managed through those four different incidents because they were major.
Zeke Young:
Yeah, I don't know how Dad and Mom did it other than you just kept building back, and I can still remember we used to live across the street from the store, and I can still remember sitting on the front doorstep watching the store burn down. The way that happens, kind of interesting, they still had some kerosene lanterns and the stocker was still in the back and somehow kicked it over. He tried to put out the fire before he got help. Of course, it burned up. That's something I can remember that, that's 65-plus years ago, but I can't remember where I put my car keys last week, but that's one thing that really sticks out in my mind.
The '93 flood, I remember I came back into town and they were putting sandbags out. We were putting out sandbags. Said it was only supposed to be like a food, and so we were putting sandbags three feet. Then, I get a call later the next week and it'll only clear 11 feet in the store. It was clear to the ceiling. That's something I'll never forget afterwards, and I always feel so bad for people who go through floods because it's just to experience. Everything is brown. Everything smells. It's just total desolation. Dad was sitting out on the front step there. He had a church pew outside and he was sitting there and they were cleaning up. I said, "Well, what are you going to do?" I expected... You know, he was in his 80s. He said, "Well, these people need jobs. We'll build it back." He went off and they took off and built it back.
Kelly Scanlon:
Yeah, so with the fire burning the entire original building down, the location you just moved from was the second store then, right? Was there anything salvageable from the fire?
Zeke Young:
You know, they just rebuilt it from the foundation where the store burned down at. We've got pictures of it in '57 there and you can see in the background. He opened up the filling station and that's what he had going while they were rebuilding. '93 after that flooded out, they got the front part of the store cleaned out and they put in their liquor department, liquor and cigarettes there in the front. That's how they were able to open up quickly.
Kelly Scanlon:
Besides the fire, besides the three floods, after this many years there's bound to be some memories. What has been most memorable to you throughout your years working and owning the store?
Zeke Young:
Well, myself, I can just remember like in the hey days, I call it the Riverside, not only did we have the store, but we had a Kiddie Land, which had a train, two carousels, a Ferris wheel, cars, everything. Then, next to that was the race track. Saturday nights were always really hopping there in Riverside, particularly at the Red X. We had stock car races, Figure 8 races, and of course, fireworks season, we have a large tent that actually sold fireworks a year before he got into business. That is actually 76 years that we've sold fireworks.
That... All the things that went on, and I can remember myself working there, all the jobs there at the store. I can still remember we were doing a remodel, tearing down a part of the interior of the store, and I remember myself and our maintenance crew in there tearing it down, and that was about midnight or 1:00 in the morning. I got a phone call that Mom had passed away, so I can still remember it was... I still remember that particularly, but the flood, the '93 flood, that really stays with you and everything.
Kelly Scanlon:
Sure. Yeah. Jen, I know you're more recent, but what have you so far? What's stuck with you?
Jen Boyd:
Well sure. Well, I mean, I can tell you as a kid, I remember being in there with my grandparents and there's these chairs, and that was the only thing that I was very adamant about keeping in the new store is these Eagle chairs because I can still see them sitting there. Growing up, just being in the store, of course I remember all of that, but for me since I've been working there, I mean, we have had a lot of challenges to overcome because we went through the pandemic. We've also now after that with the labor shortages and all of that, so those have all been very memorable things. The funny thing is they have also been hard, but it's also with the core staff that you have, it kind of builds that camaraderie. I remember the nights when we're all just sitting there stocking toilet paper-
Kelly Scanlon:
Sure.
Jen Boyd:
... like it was gold-
Kelly Scanlon:
Exactly.
Jen Boyd:
... you know? We were all there till 3:00 in the morning just trying to get things up and running and worried because of the unknown. We've gotten to go through those things, and then just with the building up the new store and the excitement. Mostly, I mean, also just the interactions with the customers. It's a lot of fun and people come up and tell me stories about my Grandpa and my Dad, and some of them are probably true, some of them might not be, but it's always fun to hear. I think that's definitely the most memorable thing since I've been actually working in the store.
Kelly Scanlon:
What do you think has contributed to your staying power? 75 years, you've had changing marketplaces, you offer the choices and the variety that bigger stores, you're tight-knit in the community with your customers so it's you have that family-oriented feel when you walk in. Has that... Figuring out how to make that balance, is that what's contributed to your success?
Jen Boyd:
The biggest thing is our community. The community is definitely behind us a hundred percent, from the city officials, all of them, so that's helpful. Of course, our customers, they're amazing and you couldn't ask for better customers. Then, we have a great relationship with our vendors, and I think that's a big part of it. Also, just making sure that we do interact with our customers, and even our staff does it. It's beyond just the, "Hi, how are you?" You try and have conversations with them and connect with them, but just because it comes naturally, not because you have any agenda.
Then, we also... I think another part of it is we try to be unique. We try to think outside the box of what can we do, and we do have a little bit of flexibility since we are a single-store family business that we're able to do creative events. We're able to try things and we're able to look at, "Oh, hey, this customer liked this. Let's give it a shot." We have that ability and we to do it. It makes it fun for us and the staff. IN that firetruck that Dad was talking about, that actually was one that Grandpa would use in the parades. They used to have these huge parades, yeah. I remember riding on that firetruck through parades. I mean, those are the types of things, too, is just getting involved in the community, stuff like that. I Think that helps as well, and we find it really fun.
Kelly Scanlon:
Zeke, I would imagine, too, that as Jen mentioned, there's a certain amount that they can always expect to find, but then there's always something new. If I don't go check it out, I might miss something.
Zeke Young:
That's why we like... Riverside's really evolved. If you haven't been to Riverside since the 1900s or whatever, you need to come by. It's really evolved. The whole community, Corner Cafe's there. A lot of new housing, but the community itself is really evolving and, like you say, we've done so many different things through the years. We had the Clydesdales there I forgot how many years ago for a week, and just things like that going on.
Jen Boyd:
I will say, though, there's been lots of times that we've tried things that haven't worked out-
Zeke Young:
Sure, yeah.
Jen Boyd:
... and you know what's great, though, is our customers will give us the feedback and we'll be like, "Oh yeah, we could have done that differently." Then, we adjust and either we try it again or we scratch the idea. That's what's also fun is that they'll actually give us the feedback and they'll try it again even if we-
Kelly Scanlon:
Yeah, what's important is to listen to them.
Jen Boyd:
... missed the mark on something, so yes, absolutely, and sometimes there's things we can't change, but we always take everything into consideration, so...
Kelly Scanlon:
I'm curious, this is the third generation now, and a lot of businesses don't make it past the first transition from first to second generation. You've made it to the third. How have you navigated that leadership transition? Didn't join until 1999, I think, and then now, Jen.
Zeke Young:
Well, I grew up with the business, and then on summers I'd come back up and work fireworks for him. Yeah, I was in education for 29 years and there's a lot of similarities working with people, that type of thing. I had to rely on our employees and they did a very good job, and so it was very nice that Jennifer wanted to come on and all that because we know what she wants to do and she's just doing a fine job with it. She's got a lot of people helping her, and so it's good to see her do that, and maybe one of these days, I'll step back.
Kelly Scanlon:
When you said you were in education, what made you decide, though, that you were going to join the business after all and even acquire ownership of it?
Zeke Young:
Well, Dad passed away, so my wife and I, Linda and I talked about it and we said, "We'll go ahead and keep the business," and so like we say, the tradition continues.
Kelly Scanlon:
It sure does, and Jen, what interested you in coming onboard?
Jen Boyd:
Sure. Well, I mean, a big part of it was because of the family aspect. That is the... I mean, Dad's an only child, and so that is almost like family. The store is like family to us. It has a lot bigger of a meaning to me than just a job. Something that I had a passion for because of that aspect, and it made it worth doing, but it's also a challenging job. Makes me think outside the box. It makes you have to look at all different things that you never thought you'd have to look at. I think that's fun, so not only do I enjoy the job, I enjoy that it's carrying on what was started by my Grandpa and was carried on by my dad.
Kelly Scanlon:
You have a brand new store, you have a raving fan base, customer base. You have a thriving Riverside community, and I would wager that the brand is iconic even outside the state, outside the Metro area. What's future hold? You got so much going for you already.
Jen Boyd:
Well, to speak on that first, though, because that is something that blew us away at grand opening, and there was actually something that we did for charity where we were having people pay to come in and we were doing this pitmaster and I was like, "Nobody is going to come pay to eat at Red X." We sold out in five minutes and I'm like, "What?" Our place would be like, "Yeah, everybody loves Red X." I'm like, "No, we're just a little store." Then, whenever we were doing grand opening and they were like... It was a big deal to people. I'm like, "What is this?" It's just something to us it's just part of the family and it doesn't feel like it's a big deal. We're just some small store. It was very... I don't know the right word.
Zeke Young:
Humbling Very humbling.
Jen Boyd:
I mean, it gives me goosebumps just thinking about it because, I mean, that meant a lot. I guess where we go now, the biggest thing is making sure that our current operation is meeting everybody's expectations and staying ahead of, I mean, evolving continually, just to keep bringing those different things and not lose what got us to where we're at today. I guess that's our biggest focus right now and, of course, to provide that customer service and get people in the door. Then, of course, you never know what could happen in the future, but right now that's just like the most important part is making sure that we stay true to our history and traditions in this new building.
Zeke Young:
It's like you said, we're just Red X.
Kelly Scanlon:
Here you are, 75 years strong. Thank you so much for being on the show today. We really appreciate all your insights, for all you've done to the Riverside community, and just what you do every day for your customers.
Jen Boyd:
Thank you.
Zeke Young:
Well, thank you. Come by.
Joe Close:
This is Joe Close, President of Country Club Bank. Thank you to Zeke Young and Jen Boyd for being our guests on this episode of Banking on KC. Congratulations to Red X and its team on their 75th anniversary in Riverside. Not many people can say that they birth a business in a city in the span of a few years. As the founder of Red X and one of the founding fathers of Riverside, Ed Young's legacy includes both.
Red X and Riverside have grown up together. Above all, Ed fostered community, which the second and third generations of the family continue to cultivate at Red X as they celebrate the grand opening of their new store. People from throughout The Metro flock to the store to explore, not only to shop, but also to experience the friendships and connections with others that first Ed and his wife, now Zeke, Jen, and the rest of the Red X team are known for creating. Thanks for tuning in this week. We're banking on you, Kansas City. Country Club Bank, Member FDIC.