How A Downtown Low-Tech Mesa Business Succeeds with No Make-Over, No Hype & No Transformation
That's right especially now when Main Street is once again undergoing another one of the endless 'make'-overs' and 'transformations' promising 're-vitalization' that's vibrant and exciting. Bill Wahl, the unassuming third-generation owner of Mesa Typewriter Exchange on South Macdonald Street, has heard all that before time-and-time again. He has no reason to change his business after it has been here for nearly 70 years He's not trying to fix-up his façade or preserve history - he is just doing what he knows and what he likes to do, not trying to preserve history, not making a big deal about that or making a lot of money. The word entrepreneur is simply not in his vocabulary. Bill learned his skills on-the-job from his father. He has worked for the better part of 40 years in the same location. He likes repairing typewriters. He knows his customers and how to keep the shop up and running. When your MesaZona blogger stopped by the other day to say what a nice article about the shop appeared in last Sunday's hardcopy edition of the East Valley Tribune, he said thanks for being one of the few people who reads those things - so here's that story for YOU TO START READING about one of downtown's small wonders: In an age of laptops and iPads, typewriters keep Mesa shop busy
By Brent Ruffner, Tribune Contributor Updated
(In the photo above taken from Brent Ruffner's report , Bill Wahl stands in front the typewriter repair shop in Mesa that he and his father worked in together since he was a young man. Despite the fact that the typewriter is seldom used in business, enough people hold on to their personal machines that Wahl never runs out of customers.
Brent Ruffner/Tribune) Contributor _________________________________________________________________________________"Bill Wahl and his family have been a part of Mesa’s history for three generations. Now, he is helping preserve that history – and a bit of the past that computers have nearly wiped off the map – typewriters.Wahl, 61, can still remember his grandfather taking him to the lunch counter at Everybody’s Drug Store, a popular Mesa spot, to get his regular hamburger. . . Wahl said he is “flooded” with business from an influx of people who want their old machines given new life. . .
Your MesaZona blogger first had the pleasure of meeting Bill Wahl back in 2014 and published a post about Mesa Typewriter Exchange on May 14, 2015 after living in the neighborhood for about six months and starting to publish this blog. If he was busy with customers I would just keep on walking-by and wave hello. It is definitely a pleasant step-back in time to walk into the shop to see decades of typewriters on display or ready-to-get picked by customers after getting repaired. Bill is usually in the back sitting at his work desk as you can see in the image to the left, or working and talking to customers on the phone at the same time. We chat mostly about downtown Mesa, what's here now and what's not here any more in the neighborhood. Nostalgia? . . . maybe.
" . . A few steps away under the veranda sidewalk shade structures in place since the 1980's you can find the locations on the west side of the street for more than 60 years of two of the oldest "Mom & Pop" or just "Pop" service establishments in downtown Mesa: Mesa Typewriter Exchange with 3rd-generation family owner Bill Wahl and Lamb's Shoe Repair where a new owner took over the business from his previous employer. When asked how business is going, both owners said "Business is booming" . . .good to knowthese hands-on owners in skilled manual trades have been keeping customers happy and coming back for so many years when a lot of storefronts and commercial properties on Main Street have stood vacant for far too long. Your blogger snapped Bill in the middle of taking a call from a customer from his office space at the back of the vintage typewriter displays. He's a busy guy but has taken the time on a number of days to chat about the business development of downtown and to exchange views about friendly politics.
Your MesaZona blogger wants to start off by going back to an opinion piece from the East Valley Tribune written by Mark J. Scarp on October 27, 2012 about Mesa: " . . . downtowns are more than just a collection of a few big-name projects. The large landmarks are the catalyst for an equally vital component to a strong downtown: small business. This includes places to eat, to be entertained, to buy interesting products and services not usually found in a shopping mall."
_______________________________________________________________________________ During the last few years there have been other reports about the 3-generation business:
Bring your notebook, your laptop, your typewriter, or even try one of the few available ones in the store provided by Mesa Typewriter Exchange. October writing ...
Owner Bill Wahl is the third generation of his family to operate the store. .... Plus, for someone in New York to send a typewriter to Arizona for work doesn't make ...
He is the owner and key operator of Mesa Typewriter Exchange, a company that since 1949 has sold, rented and repaired older typewriters. Contact is 30 S.
Because of the Mesa Typewriter Exchange and the general interest in mid-century items in Phoenix, Adney says, type-ins have grown in popularity since 2011, ...
Mesa Merchant Police closes doors after nearly 90 years ... Wilford, who earned the nickname “Whizzer,” would go on to become a football legend at Arizona State ... It has been a bit of an adjustment for Bill Wahl, owner of Mesa Typewriter ...
The little shop on MacDonald in Mesa has been serving the writers and ... In the back room of the Mesa Typewriter Exchange, owner Bill Wahl says he has a ...
