Can't make it over the hill for feed? Time for Plan B
Photo by CHANSE WATSON Plan B Feed Store owner Brenda Peterson with her cat, Oreo. Oreo lived in the structure before it became Plan B and calls the place home. Peterson’s favorite part of owning the business is helping people with their animals.
The main product area of Plan B Feed Store that is filled with locally made and grown products. Hay is kept in the back room of the building.
Plan B Feed Store located next to the Rose Lake General Store just off Interstate 90 in Cataldo.
By CHANSE WATSON
Managing Editor
CATALDO — One of the many attractions of living in the Silver Valley is the small-town feel. Unfortunately, this also sometimes translates to a lack of shopping options for certain products.
For those locals who require farm animal feed, their options for a major provider have been historically restricted to businesses on the west side of Fourth of July Pass. That is until Brenda Peterson offered locals a Plan B.
Opened on June 17, 2018, Plan B Feed Store has provided local ranchers and animal owners an alternative to driving all the way to Coeur d’Alene or beyond for just over a year now.
Peterson, a Silver Valley native, has been around animals her entire life and has owned a variety of different businesses such as A1 Sanitation (now called Honey Buckets), an Elk ranch and a horse trailer company.
She first got the idea to open her store when she was buying feed for her own animals.
“I have chickens, so I was sick of buying that crap feed from Walmart and I hated going over the pass to go to North 40 or any of those other places,” she said.
It also didn’t hurt that she has been working with animals her entire life and sees it as a passion of hers.
With this as her motivation, Peterson asked the owners of the building she is in now (who also own the Rose Lake General Store) if she could open a feed store in it. Although they were hesitant at first (due to a bad experience with opening a feed store there in the past), the owners agreed to lease the store to Peterson, who then quickly started to refurbish the old shed into a presentable business.
“It was gross in here, because it was a shed,” she said. “I started out with three bags of cob, three bags of dog food, some hay and some chicken food.”
With those humble beginnings in mind, Plan B now offers feed for every common type of farm animal and even some for wild animals (such as custom made feed for deer in our area that helps their antlers grow larger).
Peterson takes pride in the fact that just about everything she provides is locally grown and/or made — coming from areas such as the Palouse or North Idaho.
With a year under her belt, Peterson is pleasantly surprised with how well the business has been received.
“I really thought it was going to be a struggle that first year, but as soon as people got wind that I was here and that they didn’t have to go over the pass, Plan A went away and it was Plan B!”
Things are going so well actually that her biggest challenge right now is keeping up with the workload, hinting that hiring on some help is definitely on the agenda.
“All the people have been very, very nice,” she said. “I must be doing something right!”
Peterson chose the store’s location at the Rose Lake exit, just off Interstate 90, because it sits before the pass and is convenient for farmers either in the Silver Valley or those toward St. Maries.
“I’ve always wanted a feed store,” she said. “I know so much about animals, so I figured I could put that knowledge to use and help people.”
If the store continues to hold its own, is looking at possibly expanding the rear of the building for more products. Even opening a second store in the central part of the Silver Valley is not out of the question.
Plan B Feed store is located at 11235 S. Highway 3, Cataldo, and can be reached by phone at 208-450-2813. For more information, visit their Facebook page.