Manager excited about Lockhart’s McCoy’s location
By Kyle Mooty
LPR Editor
McCoy’s Building Supply is set for its Lockhart opening on June 10, but for several months, personnel with the San Marcos-headquartered business have immersed themselves in the community to fashion the store to better fit locals’ needs.
“Back in April, we had a commodities meeting about the types of product we will stock,” said Zach Dauer, the Store Manager for the Lockhart McCoy’s.
The new store will open at 1600 S. Colorado Street on Monday, what McCoy’s is deeming a soft opening. The two-day grand opening will be Thursday, July 11 and Saturday, July 13.
“We will kind of get our footing at the soft opening, see if we need more cashiers or others,” Dauer said. “Then, at the grand opening, instead of a ribbon cutting, McCoy’s does a board cutting. We’ll have all sorts of vendors there that supply us materials; kind of show their product.
“We’ll also provide lunch to everyone both days. That Saturday we’ll have sno-cones. We came up with a pretty cool idea to have all of the different barbecue places in town come provide food — The Original Black’s, Terry Black’s, Kruez Market, Smitty’s Market, Riley’s, and Chisholm Trail. I think they’re each bringing one meat and one side each. There will be three of them on Thursday and three on Saturday. We’re expecting quite a few people to show up, anywhere from 300-500.”
There are 108 parking spots at the new store, with parking in front as well on the side leading to its lumber yard. While the location is a former home to a bank and used car lot, it now has a new building in place.
Lockhart’s new McCoy’s will be the company’s 87th store across Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico.
The store will be similar in size to McCoy’s’ Bastrop and New Braunfels locations, but Dauer said it will have a “huge yard for its lumber, fencing, and farm and ranch items.”
Aside from lumber and fencing materials, farm and ranch items will include gates, almost anything pertaining to cattle, round pens for horses, a doors facility that manufactures doors on site and which can be shipped directly to customers.
“We also have a selection of doors you can buy in the store,” Dauer said. “We also special-order windows and have a variety of different brands. There is also rebar, locks, shingles, different siding components, specialty lumbers like cedar, and different pattern stock sidings.”
Dauer said Lockhart has many “older homes” that include unique siding. “Whether people just want to patch up something or completely redo their siding, we can help,” he said. “There are some older homes that look great but maybe its wood has deteriorated over the years.”
Dauer arrived in March and was charged with assembling the store’s core team hired – inventory coordinator (Levi Hallowich), admin professional (Melinda Villegas), yard supervisor (Merced Lara), and assistant managers. The assistant managers have come from Kerrville (Thomas Sanchez) and Weslaco (Lupita Velazquez).
The Sales Rep is Nathan Smith. “He’ll be handling most of our commercial accounts, big builders,” Dauer said. “Our sales rep is probably one of the most critical roles for our store. We will have a lot of walk-ins, but we get home builders building five or 10 homes at a time.”
“After we got those hired, we started hiring our cashiers, yard crew members and such,” Dauer said. “We had a hiring event at Commerce Hall in April. It was much different than every other hiring event we’ve had. We had about 125 applicants show up. The last few we had elsewhere had a couple of dozen people show up.”
Dauer noted Ace Hardware, Tractor Supply, and Smith Building Supply as competitors, but noted each cater in a variety of ways. We cater more for repair and remodel people. We are looking more for retail customers, like our barbecue department, cleaning supply, and stuff like that. It’s kind of a one-stop shop for people looking to do home maintenance.”
Dauer is from San Marcos and worked with The Oasis restaurant on Lake Travis for more than eight years.
“I did private events and ran all their weddings, birthday parties, those kind of things,” Dauer said. “Then Covid hit in 2020 and everything shut down. The Oasis shut down for about 2 months. My wife, Laurynn, worked at Gruene Hall. So, neither one of us had a job. During that time, I was kind of frantically applying to any and every job I could find, particularly with the essential businesses.”
Dauer was hired as a manager in training at the Bastrop McCoy’s store, commuting for several months before being named as an assistant manager at the Tomball store.
He realized pretty quick McCoy’s was his future.
“They’ve got a different business philosophy that embraces the culture of respect called BAU – Business As Unusual,” Dauer said. “We’re always finding out people’s relational needs, and kind of learning to get to know our employees a little bit better. We’re not one of those businesses where you leave your feelings and personal stuff at the door when you come to work; stuff that affects them day-to-day.”
Dauer was asked to return to Bastrop as an assistant manager in November of 2021, remaining there until July of ’23 when he was named manager of the Duncan, Oklahoma store. Usually, managers are asked to stay at one location for two years, but he was notified of the Lockhart opening, applied, and was hired.
“I was very excited,” Dauer said. “They knew I was from Central Texas. My wife and I have a ton of family around the area. My wife has a sister in San Marcos, two more sisters in Austin. I’ve got a mother and a brother who live in Austin. Her mom lives in Flatonia. My Dad and Stepmom and sisters live in Tomball. Everyone is in within about two-and-a-half hours now.”
Dauer and his wife have two children, a son, 4, and a daughter, 3.
“They wanted someone to be in Lockhart that would be here for a long time,” Dauer said. “They try to put store managers in a place where they’re close to home. Hopefully, I’m here for a long time.”
McCoy’s will be open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., on Saturday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. It is closed Sunday.
