Shed dealers share memorable moments working with their customers—and other creatures.
In some professions, dull moments can be rare, which seems to hold true for shed dealers who can experience unique situations on a regular basis. Those who have spent time in the field know original stories will likely follow.
Here are the funniest, strangest, and most meaningful accounts from pros around the country who recall interactions with customers and other creatures that may be hard to forget.
WORKING OBSERVATIONS
Shed deliveries can take some twists and turns along the way. Just ask Ron Anderson, vice president of sales for Lonnie’s Homes in Schuyler, Nebraska, a shed dealer for Derksen.
“Sometimes it’s just an exercise in patience,” he says. “We had a gentleman here and we explained to him that the driver would call him directly to schedule the shed delivery. I told him I wouldn’t know it had been delivered until I saw the shed was gone.”
Still, Anderson heard from the customer when the structure arrived at his home.
“He called me and said the driver is here and the shed is stuck,” Anderson recalls. “I drove out there and the driver was parking the shed into place, and I asked the owner, ‘Is this where you wanted it?’ and he said ‘Yep,’ and I said: ‘So everything is in place?’ ‘Yep.’ I asked the driver if it was ever stuck and he said no, so I’m not sure where that came from.”
When it comes to transactions, shed sales can be unpredictable in nature.
“For the most expensive shed, sometimes you get a call and someone says: ‘Hey, can I just buy this over the phone?’ and you say sure and it’s done in a matter of minutes,” says Anderson. “Then you can talk to someone 10 or 20 times to answer questions about the least expensive shed.”
For him, meaningful moments come from the impact structures can have on customers.
“We’ve had some people buy sheds for their farmstand,” says Anderson. “What I’ve enjoyed for five years now, we’ve had quite a few repeat customers, and some are business owners. We have beekeepers who bought one for their store and another for their office.”
When outdoor structures serve as animal shelters, they can warm the heart and the inhabitants.
“We had someone get a dog kennel from us and then a shed,” he says. “They had quite a few stray cats, so they turned the shed into a cat shelter, so they have somewhere to go to protect them from the wildlife and the weather. That was kind of neat to have a place for their farm cats.”
Though it does not happen often, structures have been returned on a couple of occasions.
“We’ve only had two sheds come back undelivered,” Anderson remembers. “One person was not there when it was scheduled to come even though he scheduled it with the driver, and he didn’t want to pay the redelivery fee. Another was by a lake, and I asked if the ground was solid and not sandy. When the driver arrived, he said, ‘I’m not going to make it five feet on this ground.’”
Some deals take longer to reach the finish line.
“One customer picked a shed and asked about the color and I told him you can design your own, so he went online and added shelves and then said it was too expensive, so then he adds other features and says it’s still too expensive,” says Anderson. “There must have been five iterations, and then he bought one from the lot.”
STUCK ON YOU
Nathan Martin, president of Backyard Unlimited in Rocklin, California has an original tale to tell.
“One day an older couple came into the sales office, and I would describe them as being more stoic than most,” he says. “They were interested in a gazebo and as I tried to help them decide on what size is right for them, I used my tape measure to show them how large of an area 10 feet is.”
That may sound like a simple task, but there was an unexpected glitch.
“When I was finished, I went to retract the tape, but it seemed like it jammed, so I gave it a sharp tug like I normally do when it doesn’t want to retract,” Martin continues. “This time, however, it didn’t seem to work, and so after giving several more sharp tugs, I decided to check if it might be caught on something.
“I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was indeed caught on something; it was caught on my stoical customer’s pants fly. He didn’t as much as smile, so I decided the best thing to do was to act like nothing happened, but when they left the office, I promptly called my wife and hooted and hollered about what had just happened.”
NATURAL ATTRACTION
Some visitors make a surprise appearance. Case in point: Randall Staples, owner of Crystal Coast Sheds with locations in Havelock and Cape Carteret, North Carolina, recalls a unique experience on the job that happened several summers ago.
“My dad went to get the mail, and he came running back across the parking lot. We had an alligator on the property,” he says. “It was a 5- or 6-foot alligator parked out there and it went by the porch of one of the shed models.”
Getting the creature to leave would not be easy.
“We found out it’s illegal for us to even touch an alligator unless we’re in imminent danger. We called animal control and they can’t touch it either, so we had to call a specialist. It took him four hours to get here,” says Staples. “We had to point it out to customers and tell them to avoid it as soon as their car pulled up. Some got out right away and some stayed. Then the gator wrangler showed up and lassoed him up.”
That eventful day stays with him.
“They are faster on land than in the water,” he explains. “It’s not like Florida here, but the alligator population is coming back. It’s not something you see every day. It’s very rare to see them unless you’re looking for them. That’s the most fun we’ve had out there in a long time.”
For Staples, a distinct outdoor structure also comes to mind.
“Five or six years ago, we had a guy who harvests oysters for his restaurant that has an oyster bar. He wanted a building on a movable dock, so he could get oysters and harvest and process them. It saves him a lot of time,” he says.
The customer had them build the structure on a floating dock with a motor (that is tied to a stationary dock), so he could take it out and do the processing inside the building and then the oysters are ready to go.
“He can take it out and you can see that building on the dock sometimes moving in the water where he’s catching and processing oysters,” Staples says.
HOLIDAY CHEER
Some sheds have to fill a gap, and for one customer that would come from a tragedy.
Rick O’Brien, shed dealer with The Shed Center in Mead, Washington, shares a heartwarming tale that began with an unimaginable hardship.
“There was a fire here that burnt a lady’s house down. She bought a 10 by 44, something like that, single slope shed because that was all she could afford,” he explains. “When her company found out about it, they gave her the other half for Christmas.”
The structures would come together for a seamless transition.
“What was great about it was that we had the same colors and roofing, and we were able to join the two sheds together,” says O’Brien. “She was going to try to move a door and make some other minor adjustments herself. It was just great that her company wanted to do that and they told her about it at Christmastime.”
FUN AND GAMES
Sometimes the quest for a shed leaves a lasting impression. That happened to Tim Chapman, sales manager for Westwood Sheds in Anderson, South Carolina, who recalls a special customer experience.
“We had a lady looking for a building so she could have a gym at home instead of going to a gym every day, but she wasn’t sure what kind of building she wanted because she jumps rope,” he explains. “So, she literally brought her rope with her, and I literally have a video of her jumping in each building.
“That was one of the strangest encounters I’ve ever had. She ended up with a lofted barn because in the middle, the height of the roof is very tall.”
Her sheer joy in the video confirms there are fun times to be had in the shed industry.
Another unforgettable visit came from an unlikely creature.
“We have people who bring their pets here all the time with them when they look for sheds,” he says. “One brought a skunk on a leash. It was a pet skunk that had gotten its ‘stinker’ removed.”
Those stories stand out for him, but he has one more to share.
“There is a customer who has bought four buildings from me, and she calls herself the self-proclaimed crazy shed lady,” says Chapman. “The last one that was delivered was a lofted barn, and she said we had the door 6 inches from where she wanted it even though she signed off on it. She was going to put a closet toilet behind the door, so the location was important.”
Her complaints may not be suitable for print, but Chapman says she became a sailor overnight based on her comments.
“We went out and fixed it and she showed up at our lot after that with a box of chocolates and apologized for the way she treated us,” he says.
PERSONAL CONNECTION
Jerald Rhodes, a shed dealer for Mid-America Structures who also owns Creative Backyards in Plattsmouth, Nebraska, recalls a special moment when an older gentleman stopped by the lot one day.
“He wanted to buy a shed for his daughter,” says Rhodes. “What was interesting was that he lived three hours west of here and she lived east of here in Iowa. I always want to help the customer out, so I don’t ask all the whys. I’m here to serve them.”
As it turns out, Rhodes had a shed in stock for the gentleman that was perfect for his daughter who needed it for additional storage in her backyard.
“He told me he was in the area that day because his wife just passed away and he was making funeral arrangements for her,” he says. “She had been in a nursing home in Omaha. He lived in a rural area, and he would drive two to three hours every time to go visit her. When he was here planning her funeral, he decided to buy a shed for his daughter because we were the closest shed company.”
But Rhodes saw beyond the sale.
“Here is a man who is probably hurting. He was married a long time,” he explains. “I said, ‘Hey, do you mind if I would just pray for you?’ He got tears in his eyes, and we took our hats off and said a prayer. It turned out to be a good experience.”
Connecting on a personal level with others can be powerful.
“I might put someone on my prayer list like I did with a customer who has cancer,” says Rhodes. “I’m not here to dig into people’s lives, but when small clues are presented, I don’t want to miss the opportunity to be a blessing. My mission is to be the hands and feet of Jesus. It just so happens I do that through selling sheds.”
Rhodes has some advice for other shed dealers.
“It’s so easy to get wrapped up in sales. We have to make a living. But if we just stop and listen to the needs of people, then if we can help them in some way, that can make a huge impact in their lives. We should slow down and take the time for the customer,” he says. “God sends those people our way. It can be a word of encouragement. It doesn’t have to be a prayer. Just don’t miss the opportunity.”
