Reed’s Rent All & Sales in Kankakee, IL, has been a family-owned business since 1947. Located 60 miles south of Chicago, the equipment and party general rental store (85 percent equipment; 15 percent party) employs upward of 10 people during the busy season, serving both the homeowner and contractor markets.

“Our store had some Facebook presence a few years ago when an employee took an interest in it,” explained company co-owner Jim Reed. “We haven’t picked it up since that employee left. I have some buddies who are on Facebook, but I just don’t seem to have the time or interest to start it up again.

“However, we’ve had a website almost since we’ve had a computer. The site works well for us and we get compliments from customers about its ease of use. What we don’t do on the site is take reservations. Instead, we prefer to be hands on and communicate directly with customers about their equipment or party needs.”

His website does have one unusual feature. It directs customers to the company’s second business, Reed’s Canoe Trips down the nearby Kankakee River. “We’ve been offering canoe trips since the late 80s,” Reed noted. “It started when we just rented a few canoes and it grew, to the point we separated the trips from our rental business more than 10 years ago.”

Today, the canoe trip business employees 10 to 12 people and even keeps some of the rental employees busy during July and August, ferrying customers to the river and back. “On some Saturdays, we may have 100 canoes and 40 kayaks in the water,” said Reed.

Whereas the canoe business has blossomed, the rental business has yet to get back to where it was prior to the recession. As he pointed out, some areas of the Midwest are not recovering as quickly as the East Coast and other parts of the country.



