Business of the Year: Old-fashion customer service applauded

Further, in his father’s footsteps Schmidt has served as a Mount Angel Fire Department volunteer for 19 years.

“I had a scanner right here and when it went off I’d have to leave jobs right in the middle; they’d just have to wait ‘til I got back,” he said.

Over the past 56 years, the little gas station on Mount Angel’s Main Street has gone by many names – Richfield, Arco, BP, Mobile, Chevron and now 76 – but it’s always been Schmidt’s.

“Dad started it when he was 21 – June of 1956,” Greg Schmidt said. “It’s been in the family ever since.”

Schmidt has fond memories hanging around the shop in middle school when both his father Ron Schmidt and grandfather Andy Schmidt ran the station together.

“I’d come down and help Dad and Grandpa, sweeping the shop, seeing what they were doing and just went from there,” Schmidt said.

Much of his mechanical know-how he credits to Leonard and Don Fleck (father and son), who at the time owned Fleck’s Garage in Mount Angel.

“When I needed help on any given thing, one of them was always happy to run over and see what I’d got,” Schmidt said. “They were really good about filling me in on how to work out a problem.”

He seeks to provide that sort of experience and its attendant values for the high school and college students who make muster.

“It’s harder than heck to find the kind of help that I want,” he said. “I am pretty picky and choosy about whom I hire because it’s a reflection of me.”

Schmidt 76 consistently supports hometown schools, from Littlest Angel Preschool through Kennedy High School.

“We do it because, I mean, shoot, they’re our future,” he said.

Greg and his wife Gayle have three children. Married daughters Amy and Lindsey live nearby; Michael attends Oregon State. Gayle is business manager for Mount Angel School District and bookkeeper for Schmidt 76.

“My wife is really the brains of the business,” Schmidt said. “She does a fantastic job.”

Like her, Schmidt entered business with an innate tendency toward top-notch customer service.

“I love being around people – working with them, seeing how their families are doing and how their kids are growing…,”  he said.

That part does not change, unlike the price of gas or the cost of doing business.

As of Feb. 1, 1998, service stations in Oregon were required to upgrade their storage facility tanks and outgoing fuel lines.

Schmidt’s small business did not meet the Environmental Protection Agency’s criteria for assistance and since then he has had to come up with hundreds of thousands of dollars in meeting its standard.

“What you do is you just jump in with both feet,” Schmidt said. “I mean, you either sink or you’re going to swim … you just do it.

“When you’re running a family business like this it’s almost like you can’t get away from it, and if you do get any time off you’re constantly having to call and see what inventory’s doing; there’s always going to be an issue; that’s just part of business,” he said.

“You can’t just walk away from it and let everyone else take care of it; you have to be hands-on; you’ve got to be there.” He lives four blocks away.

“This award is well deserved,” said Schmidt’s friend Kevin Woodley. “He works hard; puts in a lot of time and he’s always in a good mood down there… We have a hard time getting him to go fishing.”

“Being named Business of the Year is awesome; I am flattered,” Schmidt said. “So many different businesses here in town deserve it. It’s pretty cool when somebody recognizes you for this and I’m honored.”

He plans to keep on doing what he has been doing, loving it and repeating the family refrain:

“If you take care of your customer and you’re honest, the rest kind of just takes care of itself,” he said.