Do you enjoy antique tractors and farm equipment?
Do you long for days gone by, when times were simpler and life wasn't so fast-paced?
Do you like hearing stories of days gone by back on the farm?
Have you ever enjoyed visiting your local tractor dealership, even if just to spend time with friends?
If you answered yes to any of those questions,
then this is a book you will most definitely enjoy!
American Farm Tractor and Implement Dealerships, written by Brian Rukes,
provides a history of the dealerships from the earliest days to modern times.
Personal stories abound in this book, coming from former dealers, their families, their employees, and the customers themselves.
The book is packed with photographs, pictures, and even personal snapshots
that provide a nostalgic glimpse into days gone by as well as a detailed look of modern operations of tractor dealerships.
Vintage newspaper and magazine ads supplement the text, as well, showing the methods
that dealers used in the past to attract customers and sell their products.
Virtually every major tractor manufacturer is covered in this book, with a number of lesser-known examples as well.
Chapters in This Book:
Chapter One: The Birth of a Business
(Stories of how tractor dealerships got started—from traveling salesmen,
blacksmith shops, car dealers, and even in response to magazine ads.)
Chapter Two: The Three "L"s: Location, Line-up, and Lighting
(Insights into how these three aspects of the business are so critical to tractor dealerships.)
Chapter Three: Making an Impression
(How dealerships catch their customer's eyes — through advertising, promotional items,
field demonstrations, fair displays, parades, and even tractor pulls, plus more!)
(Stories not only of how dealers were successful in making sales, but also of how customers got
their purchases home — and how excited they were to have a new tractor on the farm!)
Chapter Five: The Community at the Counter: The Parts Department
Chapter Six: Servicing the Business
(From the front door to the parts counter and beyond—how this aspect of tractor dealerships works, with a
special emphasis on the impact of the people involved on both sides of the counter. Memories abound!)
other ways in which those servicemen got the information needed to fix the equipment correctly.)
Chapter Seven: Dealing With and In Changing Times
(How dealerships have tried to stay afloat in ever-changing markets—from ag, to industrial, to lawn and garden.)
Just a few of the manufacturers covered in this book include the following:
E-mail me, Brian Rukes, at the below e-mail address
to find out where to send your payment to receive
your own signed copy of this book,
or to find out how to purchase
SIGNED COPIES of ANY of MY OTHER BOOKS,
as well!
Links to My Other Pages
