The end of an era: Frannie Tack Shop to close its doors after 43 years

A local business best known as the “best little horse house in the west” is closing its doors after 43 years of retail service. LuAnne Campbell, her husband Rick and mother-in-law Pat opened Frannie Tack Shop, sensing the need to make top quality horse tack, other supplies and, most important of all, expert advice available to horsemen and women of all ages. LuAnne and Rick continued to build the business after Pat died in 2015.

“We’ve always catered to the cowboy,” said LuAnne. “We’d sell or repair anything they needed here.”

The business started in a small garage on the Campbell family’s country property in Frannie. Over the years, several rooms were added on to the garage and filled with horse supplies like saddles, bits, spurs and halters. Over time, other items were added like coats, vests, panniers, saddle bags and more for hunting on horseback. The store continued to carry those items and eventually added jewelry, purses, scarves, books and other accessories to the mix.

The humble beginnings of the shop were noted in Pat’s obituary as “one sewing machine (the same machine used today) in a one car garage, used by two gals.”

“It all started in 1981 when my mother-in-law Pat and I decided to do a business repairing horse blankets,” LuAnne explained. “That is where this all began. We were just going to repair horse blankets. Then we added tack, and it just kept going and going. Eventually, we added rooms on as we could afford it and filled the rooms.”

LuAnne said the family business has always focused on the “horse field” and felt the need over the years to make more products and services available to people who are active with horses.

“Pat actually just loved this business,” said LuAnne. “She was a people person and just loved everything about this. She loved it all. Her motto was ‘you can’t sell out of an empty wagon.’ So, we made sure we were always stocked, especially since a lot of times people drove a long way to get here. We’d always make sure to have what they wanted.”

Over the years the business developed quite a following, including customers from all over the world, which is quite an accomplishment considering the shop is located on a gravel road in one of the least populated areas in Wyoming. LuAnne admitted the store isn’t located in the “most handy” of locations, adding, “If it’s too handy, people don’t show up.”

As the reputation of the store has grown, so has its customer base.

“With all the guest ranches around in Cody and Lovell it’s brought a lot of international business,” explained LuAnne. “One of the things about people from other places, around the United States or worldwide, they are not used to seeing this amount of good, heavy quality western tack. People from the eastern states are used to more English. So, when they come out here, they are riding western and get to see all the western products that are available.

“It’s so different from what they see in their stores back home. It’s the same for international riders. Most of those countries are used to only English, too. They just don’t get to see the kind of stuff we have where they’re from.”

Initially, the store was open long hours, seven days a week, with Pat at the helm with a reputation for “welcoming strangers from every walk of life with a stout cup of camp coffee and great conversation.”

“When we first started the business, we were open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., seven days a week,” LuAnne explained. “We did that for many, many years to get established. While establishing, Rick worked a couple of outside jobs, I worked a couple outside jobs, and Pat was primarily here. That’s what it takes to get something like this started and running. That’s what you have to do while building your inventory, to keep your head above water.”

LuAnne noted that starting this type of business has only become more difficult over the years, and the family is fortunate to have established a loyal customer base before most of those changes occurred.

“I think it would be really hard to start a business like this today,” she explained. “When we first started, wholesalers were more loyal to their retailers. They didn’t just sell to anybody who comes along. You had to have a store. A customer had to be able to drive up to your storefront physically, and you had to buy a certain amount of inventory to keep your account open. Now, wholesalers sell to anybody online. They don’t protect you like they used to.”

The couple prides themselves in the service they have offered to the riding community over the years.

“It’s been a hands-on business,” LuAnne explained. “We’ve had people bring up their horses and we fit them on-site. Rick would have them bring all of their gear and go over all of that with them. Sometimes they’d think they needed a new saddle when it turned out they only needed a new pad. We never over sell or up sell. We’ve always been bad for business in that way.”

Saddles became a particular area of expertise over the years, with the store offering new and used equipment, as well as personalized fittings and accessory recommendations.

“Unlike a used car market, there is no blue book for used saddles,” LuAnne said. “You have to know saddles pretty well, to know what is super-good quality and what you feel is going to hold its value.

“And since the customer drove here, we wouldn’t want to say, ‘oh, you need to come back three days from now and we’ll have this ready for you,’ because they expect to walk out of here ready to go. So, if you have a barrel saddle with no strings on it, it needs to have strings put on it during the transaction.”

LuAnne said the business has been good to the family, and they appreciate all the good friends they’ve made over the years while serving the community. She said the decision to close the business was not because they weren’t doing well. In fact, the store continues to thrive even with today’s challenges. She said it was a hard decision to close down a thriving business, but the couple looks forward to finally having the free time to pursue the activities they love. She said a serious case of COVID that almost took her life helped with that decision, along with the fact that time together doing the things they love has become more important as the couple has grown older.

“We’ve always maintained 100 percent efforts, which pretty much cuts you out of everything else going on in life,” she said. “So, there’s been lots of shuffling in and out over the years to get our kids to events at school, with rarely the two of us attending those events at the same time. So, we’re not looking to do any relocation, we’re just looking forward to having the time to do stuff right here where we are.”

In their retirement LuAnne said the couple plans to do everything they haven’t been able to do for the past 43 years. She noted that Rick hasn’t been able to buy an elk hunting license in the past 25 years because he’s been kept so busy at the shop.

“We like to hunt, fish, ride and four-wheel,” explained LuAnne. “We’re country people at heart and don’t have any plans for big city travel at all.”

June 1 will be the shop’s last day of operation, and on that day hundreds of hours of saddle repairs, advice and equipment recommendations will come to an end. During the final sale, many bargains can be had with discounts ranging from 20 to 30 percent for tack and other equipment and up to 50 percent for accessories like purses and jewelry. LuAnne said the public is invited to a small celebration on that day at the shop, which is located at 58 Lane 2½ in Frannie.  She said friends and family are hosting a meet and greet throughout that final day, with hamburgers and hot dogs being served between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. plus refreshments.

“That will be the last and final day,” she said. “It should be quite a celebration.”