Friday, June 24, 2016

Who owns Gun's E-Z Own?

Howdy, my name is Gun Gunhus.

I am married with 3 adult children. I am originally from Kenyon, MN class of '82. For Kenyon I competed at the State Wrestling Tournament at Heavyweight.

Now for the executive summary of my resume.

Was in the Army for 3 years. I graduated from Southwest State University in Marshall, Minnesota in 1992. I graduated with a Degree in Radio/TV. I worked for KBJJ-FM (Nothing but the Good Stuff) in Marshall doing sports & overnights. Looking for a daytime gig, I was hired on by KCUE-AM of Red Wing in the fall of 1992. That didn't last long, but I stayed in the area and moved on to driving school bus, then city bus and then propane truck.

 In February of 1997 Steve Hunnicutt hired me on to be an account manager for E-Z Own in Red Wing, MN. One year later I was promoted to manager. That just meant I did the same stuff and added more responsibility. Including cleaning the restroom.

We were in a 700 square foot building and 90% of our sales came out of a catalog. In 1999 we moved across the street into a 3,600 square foot building 3150 North Service Drive, that has since been demolished and is now a parking lot.

In November 2002, we moved downtown into what is known as the old Red Wing VFW,  816 Main Street, which is 4,500 square feet. Yes, we did move before they demolished the North Service Drive building. And the old Red Wing VFW is where we have been since.

I was eventually promoted to Regional Manager and had five stores that I oversaw. That's five restrooms to clean. Duluth, Coon Rapids, West St. Paul, Red Wing and Rochester. After E-Z Own closed the Coon Rapids & W. St. Paul Store, I was assigned to take on the St. Cloud Store. Lots of windshield time.

In 2013 the previous owner wanted to take himself one step closer to  retired and decided to sell off five of his six stores. I purchased the Red Wing & Rochester Stores. The Rochester store had been on the decline for several years prior to me purchasing the store. But I was optimistic that we could get business to pick up. But it didn't and in March of 2015 I made the decision to close the Rochester store. The drive time to work has been cut drastically now.

I still have the store in Red Wing and we continue to take it one day at a time. There is myself, Marcia who started working for me in 1998 as an assistant and Ben, who helps with deliveries and runs the store every once in a while.

So there you have it a brief history of the owner of Gun's E-Z Own. Next time i will tackle the common question, What is Gun's E-Z Own?

Until next time, hope you all have a wonderful day.


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