Lehman's Country Life

Note: Aladdin is temporarily out of replacement mantles. Here are details on how to make your mantle last and other lighting options.

Aladdin lamps are almost magical. Using a 100-year-old principle of lighting, they run on less oil but provide more light than any other oil lamp. They use a mantle that glows with brilliant white light (like a Coleman lantern), but (unlike Coleman) they don’t use pressurized fuel, which makes them a LOT safer.

They’re also completely silent and very reliable. We’ve carried them for decades. I use them. So do many of our customers, whether they live in Africa or Alabama.

Why? Our customers in the African bush NEVER have electricity. They know that an Aladdin lamp will work night after night and barely use any of their expensive kerosene.

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I’m constantly trying to put my finger on exactly what we do at Lehman’s that makes us successful. I want to root out the mistakes that I know we make. And, I want to build up and reinforce the things we are doing right.

To that end, I’ve been making a special effort to get out into each part of our operation. I want to experience what what is happening in every corner of our operation. I visit our Kidron and Mt Hope stores weekly. I try to stop by regularly in places I don’t normally visit (such as the accounting department and buying department). I’ve also been taking 30 minutes a week to work in the warehouse and telephone customer service departments.

Recently, I worked with Desi, one of the people that takes care of making sure that catalog customer returns are taken care of correctly. I also worked with Kaye, who helps put away merchandise in our warehouse. The combination of working with these two women gave me I had a big AH-HA moment…you
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(part one of two posts)

For years, we’ve been advertising how Lehman’s was family-owned. We boast about how my father, Jay (at age 80) still comes to work every day. Of course, Dad readily admits to only working about three hours a day. We like to joke that this is one of the privileges that comes with 50 years of seniority!

Why do we advertise our family ownership? One of my Facebook Friends said it best.

“I always prefer a family business to a chain.  Typically they provide better service and better knowledge of their products.” (http://www.facebook.com/jane.g.lehman)

OK, I admit that Jane is a Lehman. Possibly the fact that she’s my cousin makes her a little biased. But that doesn’t change what we believe is true: We think that the folks who work in a family business take better care of their customers. We would like to think that family businesses are more stable, longer lasting and more flexible.

However, I realized in a panic last week that some people might not agree with that.
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See Musings From Mom School’s blog – she recently tested (well, her two boys tested) and reviewed our new recycled plastic dump truck and tool set. One of her readers has a  chance to win one of these great toys. Will it be you? Hurry – the contest ends Nov. 5th.

This morning on my drive in to work, my eyes were dazzled at every turn by the sparkling colors of the foliage right now. In fact, I was almost sorry to pull into the Lehman’s parking lot and end my  scenic drive. We are having an exceptionally lovely fall, and the peak color is promised this week and next. So, if you’ve been waiting for the perfect time to visit Amish Country and Lehman’s, that time is now. We’re located about an hour south of Cleveland (or an hour and a half northeast of Columbus), on the square in the village of Kidron. (Get directions here.) As a bonus, the Amish and farmers’ fruit and vegetable stands are still in full swing, offering fresh produce like apples, potatoes, squash, peppers and more (at great deals, I might add), plus homemade jams and jellies, baked goods, pumpkins, gourds, mums and all manner of fall-ish treasures. We hope to see you soon!

Lehman’s, and our founder Jay Lehman, were recently featured in an article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The reporter compared trying to get Jay to talk about himself with “yanking a 31/2-inch nail out of petrified wood.” Still, she managed to get him to tell some pretty amazing stories about his life! Read the article and see photos of Jay and the store here.

Tune in this Saturday, September 12th at 11 a.m. (EST) to hear our own Jay Lehman, plus many Lehman’s products and lots of other local treasures, featured on Michael Feldman’s Whad-Ya Know radio show.

This week’s show will be broadcast live from the College of Wooster in nearby Wooster (our county seat, located about 13 miles from our store in Kidron).

With an audience of about 1.5 million, Whad’Ya Know is one of National Public Radio’s most popular weekly shows. A great jazz band, audience participation, quizz shows and Feldman’s wacky, offbeat humor are the show’s hallmarks.

Check your local NPR listings, stream live from our local affiliate, wksu.org, or get more info at notmuch.com. It’ll be wild, weird and funny for sure!

Nothing makes my day more than a nice thank-you note from a customer! Here is one that came in last week’s mail.

In case you can’t read the image of it above, here’s the full text:

Dear Mr. Lehman,

I wish to bring to your attention the superior service provided to me by Julie. I am an Ohio resident in the process of moving to a remote location in Utah. Since I do not yet have mail delivery to my location, it was necessary to have my order shipped to a business in the nearest town. Julie was pleasant, knowledgeable and professional in her communication with me in regard to my order.

Unfortunately, two freight items I had ordered sustained damage during shipping. I contacted Julie in regard to the damaged items. She arranged to have the
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Blogger Mary Troyer Rabatin visited Lehman’s and wrote about her experience. Great article!

Click here to see the full article: Mary’s Treasured Memories: A fun trip to Lehmans

Thanks, Mary!

We received dozens of responses to our photo caption contest a few weeks ago.  There were so many clever and humorous suggestions, our staff had quite a time picking out our favorites. But we managed to narrow them down a bit, and without further ado, the winner of the $100 gift certificate is…
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