Tractor Supply Is Making Hay the Old-Fashioned Way: People Over Products

One of the surprise winners to emerge from a retail industry buffeted by the pandemic, inflation, tangled supply chains, and inventory gluts has managed to double its sales over the past five years with an eclectic product mix that ranges from chicken wire and livestock ropes to pet supplies, to what might be dubbed farm and country couture—Carhartt canvas jackets and Wolverine work boots.

“For life out here” is today’s slogan at Tractor Supply, a chain that, for most of its 80-plus years, was best known for selling equipment to the traditional farm and ranch market.