Sales, Parts, Service

As it celebrates 80 years, lawn and power equipment mainstay Wilson Dismukes continues to thrive based on three tenets.

by Kaija Wilkinson
photography by Stephen Savage

“I need a pair of gloves, too, please,” a young man dressed in denim overalls and rubber waders tells Wilson Dismukes West Mobile Store Manager Ricky Rice after purchasing replacement blades for his riding mower. A row of black gloves on the wall behind the front desk emblazoned with the bright orange Stihl® logo catches the man’s eye, and Rice goes to grab a pair off the rack. “These are a little more expensive than your standard gloves,” he says, as he rings up the purchase. “But they will last, I’ll tell you that.” Tracing its roots to 1920s Germany, Stihl manufactures high-quality chainsaws and other handheld power equipment, along with related accessories such as the aforementioned gloves. Mobile-based Wilson Dismukes Parts & Equipment is an authorized, full-service Stihl dealer and a dealer of multiple brands of riding mowers such as Gravely and Exmark, as well as other small-engine equipment. Like Stihl, Gravely has a long history, originally as a tractor manufacturer tracing its beginnings to 1916 in West Virginia. 

Wilson Dismukes’ history is long, too. Although its locations and inventory have evolved over its 80 years in business, the company — now with two locations — continues to thrive. Repeat customers — some multigenerational — keep coming back. Employees “always come right up and never hesitate to talk to you and find out what you specifically need,” a friend of your author said recently. That, says W. Edward Dismukes Jr., grandson of company co-founder Malcolm Dismukes and current company president, is key to Wilson Dismukes’ continued success. He states:

“Our 17 great employees strive to be experts in our field and provide each customer with friendly, knowledgeable service. My team goes above and beyond every day. Great products, great team members and great customers make for a winning combination.” 

Prichard Origins

In 1944, Wilson & Dismukes Co. would get its start on North Craft Highway in Prichard — at the time a solid, working-class, blue-collar town. Originally a grocery store with a small selection of farm and home equipment, Wilson Dismukes was founded by Adrian Wilson and Malcolm Dismukes. A few years later, as Delchamps, the local grocery store chain founded by Alfred Frederick Delchamps, came to dominate the local grocery scene, Wilson Dismukes exited groceries to become a retailer and wholesaler of various types of hardware, lawn and garden equipment, home appliances, sporting goods and more. Wilson Dismukes was an early retailer in the Mobile Bay for black-and-white TVs, Edward Dismukes says. Later, in the 1970s, Wilson Dismukes became the go-to store for RCA Victor TVs.

It was in 1991, when construction of I-165 — a five-mile spur that connects I-65 to Mobile that runs through Prichard — began that Wilson Dismukes closed its original location and moved to a 21,000-square-foot building in Midtown Mobile fronting the highway at 2646 Government Boulevard. Open since 1992, that location includes a 5,000-square-foot warehouse and a parts and repair department. The company prides itself on being a general parts house for most brands of small engine and power equipment while focusing on selling quality lawn equipment for homeowners and professional landscapers. 

New Flagship Store in WeMo

The expanded West Mobile (WeMo) location, which Ed Dismukes describes as the company’s flagship store, opened in March 2023, replacing the previous WeMo location in Airport Oaks Plaza, which is now home to PJ’s Coffee and Knots Salon. Located a few miles west of the Mobile International Airport, the new 8,000-square-foot store is replete with bright red, new mowers and trimmers. The store looks brand-new, even though it was carved out of an old Dollar General location. Its floors are sparkling white and beyond shiny. “Edward put five or six coats of epoxy down, I think,” sayd Rice. More than a year later, it still has that “new store” smell. In a couple of years, the company plans to expand with the addition of a service department at this new location. Currently, all service and repairs are trucked to the Midtown location. 

TVs, Guns and Home Appliances

In the 1940s through 1970s, Wilson Dismukes was the go-to seller of household staples. Edward Dismukes said his was the first company to sell window box fans — naturally a hot item in the Gulf Coast climate. Other in-demand items included Maytag washers and dryers, GE home appliances, RCA televisions and Belgium-made Browning guns. Edward’s father, Ed Dismukes Sr., took over the business in the 1970s when Adrian Wilson left the company. This marked a greater focus on lawn equipment and a move away from hardware, electronics and guns.

The senior Dismukes fell ill in the early 2000s, passing away in 2008, prompting his son to leave a career in pharmaceutical sales management to return from where he and his family were based in Kentucky to run the family business. Within a few years of Edward Dismukes’ return, he decided to exit home appliances to focus entirely on lawn power equipment. “And it’s not just lawn and garden,” he says, continuing:

“We sell general-purpose water pumps that end up on barges on the Mobile River and in industrial settings. Portable Honda generators and high-quality Hotsy pressure washers for cold or hot cleaning are sold to both homeowners and industrial end users.”

Zero-Turn Mowers Drive Sales

Its zero-turn riding mowers are Wilson Dismukes’ top seller. The company offers these nimble mowers from Gravely, Exmark, Bobcat and Stihl, ranging from approximately $3,500 to $30,000. Sixty percent of the zero-turn mowers sold go to homeowners who maintain everything from small yards to large-acreage homesteads, Edward Dismukes observes. “You can also see mowers from Wilson Dismukes cutting grass at the University of South Alabama and along our city streets,” he adds. 

Yes, you can buy a $30,000 lawn mower from Wilson Dismukes, but Edward Dismukes says customers get a good value for their money. He states:

“Along with our focus on selling quality brands backed by in-house service, we strive to always be highly competitive with our pricing. This has resulted in us being a high-volume retailer. We stand behind our pricing with a price-match guarantee for both our parts and the equipment we sell.” 

Service Sets It Apart

What sets Wilson Dismukes apart from the big-box stores is its service, Edward Dismukes says. The store has plenty of repeat, multigenerational customers who will attest to this, he adds. “What the big-box stores are not going to tell you is that, once you buy a weed trimmer or whatever it is, it’s yours — they don’t offer in-house service and repairs,” he says. “We service products regularly for multiple numbers of years.” Sixty percent of Wilson Dismukes’ customers are individual homeowners (like the replacement blade customer), 30% are commercial businesses like lawncare companies and 10% are municipal/industrial customers such as public school systems, fire departments and health departments. “Homeowners are our bread and butter,” Edward Dismukes says. “But we need and appreciate all our customers.” 

Wilson Dismukes is now in its third generation of family leadership, which Edward Dismukes observes is increasingly rare these days. The company has customers who are now in their third, fourth and fifth generations. “It’s not unusual for a customer to tell us a story about riding on her grandfather’s lawn tractor that came from Wilson Dismukes,” Edward Dismukes observes. “I love hearing our customers talk about coming into our store with their parents when they were children.” 

Giving Back to the Community That Sustains It

The company has gotten to know its customers over the years and, like many of us, has seen the impact cancer has had on them. So, with that in mind, Wilson Dismukes decided a few years ago to give back to the community that has sustained it by sponsoring the nurses’ station at the USA Health Mitchell Cancer Institute Infusion Therapy facility. “It’s a positive, hopeful part of people’s journey,” Edward Dismukes says. “That’s where cancer patients get to ring the bell when they complete therapy, and this is a small way that we can say, ‘We are with you during your treatment.’”

As for Wilson Dismukes’ future, Edward Dismukes definitely sees physical expansion on the 10-year horizon. Where that will be will depend, he says, on where they find the right-sized piece of property in the right location. Edward Dismukes is actively seeking property in Baldwin County and already owns land in Saraland for possible future expansion. So, the company’s goals going forward are a third location, along with “growing revenue to the $15-million mark.”