From tools to cowboy boots, here's why Austin's beloved Callahan's General Store endures
Lori Hawkins, Austin American-Statesman
7 min read
Family-owned, multigeneration businesses face challenges to keep going. In Austin, with ever-rising property taxes and changing customer demands, it's especially so.
Callahan's General Store is an exception. The fourth-generation business, which opened in 1978, has survived by adapting to the changing times.
The beloved store, known for its livestock seed, Western wear and baby chicks, has remained an iconic Austin business by constantly evolving, says Charley Wilson, a member of the Callahan family and now CEO and general manager of the business.
Callahan's is one of Austin's legacy businesses, defined by the nonprofit organization Preservation Austin as those that have been in operation for 20 years or more. Preservation Austin recently released a list of 13 local treasures that are still making the city what we know and love.
“Patronizing Austin’s legacy businesses is the most important thing our community can do to ensure their preservation,” said Lindsey Derrington, Preservation Austin’s executive director. “We want Austinites to come out in full force to support these incredible places, to tap into a heavy dose of old-school Austin and some serious city pride.”
Charley Wilson, CEO and general manager at Callahan's General Store, pets a goat there last month. "We are the retail for people who have chickens, rabbits, goats, sheep, cattle, horses," he said.
While Callahan's was not on the Preservation Austin list, it is part of the Statesman's new series on Austin businesses that are still standing after two decades. And the store, at 501 S. U.S. 183, has a story to tell. The family's Central Texas roots go back to the 1840s.
"It's a family business and a family operation," Wilson told the Statesman. "Surviving 45 years is about how you transform to the changing environment around you. That requires some hard work; it requires some forward thinking; it requires strategic decision making and common sense."
How Callahan's has survived in Austin
In 1952, Wilson's grandfather Earl Callahan joined three partners in a cattle auction concern among the dairies and farms around Montopolis in East Austin.
During that time, the Great Drought forced some ranchers in Bastrop and Travis counties to switch from cattle to sheep or hogs. To fatten the animals to be auctioned, the partners built a feed mill next to the barn. That resulted in the founding of the family's Feed and Milling.
A photo of founders Earl and Lucy Callahan hangs at the store. "The store today is much of the same way that my grandparents, my aunts and uncles envisioned all of this taking place under one roof that would be a true general store," grandson Charley Wilson said.
Earl Callahan eventually bought the property at Thompson Lane and Bastrop Highway from his partners, and that is where Callahan's General Store is located today.
"A little later it was decided to build an implement store that also sold hardware," Wilson said. "It was tools and implements that farmers and ranchers might need. At first the businesses were somewhat disparate, with the feed store and feed mill and the implement and hardware store, but my grandfather envisioned how it all would come together."
Today, Callahan's General Store is known to generations of Austinites and beyond. In addition to livestock seed and hardware, the store sells homeware, livestock tanks (popular for backyard pools), pet food and more.
"The store today is much of the same way that my grandparents, my aunts and uncles envisioned all of this taking place under one roof that would be a true general store," Wilson said. "Put the name Callahan's on top of it, and there you have it."
But, especially after major construction chaos on U.S. 183 hit the business from 2016 to 2019, there have been challenges to retaining a family-owned business.
Wilson said Callahan's is just one of many Austin legacy businesses trying to keep going.
"There are these businesses who somehow or another figured out a way to build off what was foundationally strong about the business to begin with and remain part of the DNA of Austin today," he said. "The challenge of many of our fellow legacy Austin businesses as Austin has changed is how do you remain relevant?"
Callahan's has done that, Wilson said, with a strong family commitment to keeping the business going, and by investing in technology to assist sales as well as listening to customers about their needs. Its specialty is expertise in any kind of hardware, gardening and farming, he said.
Cattle and horse feed are still the store's main revenue generator, but Austin customers have remained loyal and have spurred a new growth of business.
"What's really cool and unique about this market is while the number of ranches and farms in Austin have essentially gone away to development and subdivisions, there's still this huge attachment and desire for self-sufficiency," Wilson said.
People want to grow their own gardens. They want to know what kind of peppers and tomatoes and anything else will work in their yards. They want to raise chickens. They don't want to go to the internet. Experienced employees at Callahan's can guide them.
Sales associate Ayden Bowers assists customer Callie Ward at Callahan's General Store last month. Austin customers have remained loyal to the store and have spurred a new growth of business.
"Backyard chicken raising is huge in the Austin area, and that's not true for many major markets," Wilson said. "We've got a bunch of city farmers. So a place like ours offers those people a way to be better educated and connected to what they're doing because they're invested and we're invested in it. It's a symbiotic relationship.
"We navigated the messiness and choppiness of the highway project, as we navigated the challenge that came from COVID, which was another," Wilson said. "To come out of that pretty well, we still believe that the road map we have is valid. The road is long, and the road is wide."
Loyal customers have been shopping at Callahan's for decades
Bill McMorris has been doing business with Callahan's since he was a teenager in the 1970s.
"We were one of their suppliers. We hauled hay from Del Valle," McMorris said. "As a kid, I spent my summers over there hauling hay and filling up their hay barn. I made 5 cents a bale to put the hay in the barn."
The McMorris family has bought feed for its equestrian facility in Del Valle at Callahan's since the 1980s, and he remains a loyal customer. His family owns Rio Vista Farm and Shiloh Ranch in Del Valle.
"I still go there multiple times a week," McMorris said. "They have a hardware department that sells just about anything you could think of. They've got a little bit of everything — you can buy tools, refrigerators or baby pigs. If it went away, a lot of people like me would be in a world of hurt."
Customer Felipe Gaspar looks for a new hat in the clothing section at Callahan's.
McMorris said there's still a demand and still enough farmers and ranchers nearby who need service from Callahan's. But he pointed out that new competition is arriving with a Tractor Supply Co. store just down the road.
Still, he will continue to choose Callahan's.
"It's all about the quality of the goods and the service," he said.
The future of an Austin retail icon
Callahan's is staying with its customers.
"It's animal feed. We are the retail for people who have chickens, rabbits, goats, sheep, cattle, horses," Wilson said. "We sell emu feed, pigeon feed. We sell a tremendous amount of dog food."
The business has also reimagined how best to use its 13-acre property.
"One thing we have to face as a legacy business in Austin is the increasing value of property, and the consequence is higher property taxes," Wilson said. "This is the one area that gets many family-owned businesses as they generationally continue in Austin. I'm willing to venture whether it's a restaurant on South Congress or a boot shop on South Lamar, it's expensive any time anything tries to exist in Austin.
"The next generation might not have the wherewithal to survive it, or the desire for that matter," he said.
But Callahan's is pushing forward with no plans to change its business model.
"We feel very strongly, these cousins of mine and siblings and uncles and aunts," Wilson said. "We continue to be determined that we are going to stay."
