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Raffle's Engine Service, a Coldwater business known well by area homeowners, landscapers, farmers and off-road vehicle enthusiasts, is slated to close Dec. 23, brining to end a 72-year enterprise started in 1953 in what is now the Philothea Country Club.
COLDWATER - After 72 years in business, Raffel's Engine Service, a purveyor of lawn and garden equipment and, since 1989, Polaris off-road vehicles, is coming to a close.
Owners Walt "Oop"and Sandy Raffel earlier this month announced that their last day of business is Dec. 23, ending a highly-successful enterprise built on a dedication to selling and servicing quality lawnmowers, chainsaws, snowblowers, generators, pressure washers, trimmers and other outdoor power equipment and ancillaries, as well as Polaris off-road vehicles.
"I've been shocked since we announced our closure how many people are coming in here and just thanking us for working on their equipment all these years," Sandy Raffel told The Daily Standard. "We just appreciate their support all these years."
The couple plans to spend their retirement further exploring the outdoors, enjoying life while they still have their health. They also are anxiously looking forward to the arrival of their first grandchild.
"He wants to relax and he wants to do some hunting and some fishing. We're going to do more vacationing. Just to have Saturdays off is a thing. All these years we have worked every Saturday unless we had a vacation planned," she said. "We were here six days a week."
Raffels, under the ownership and operation of Paul and Dorothy Raffle, took root as a grocery, hardware store and bar in 1953 in what is now the Philothea Country Club in the unincorporated burg of Philothea, south of Coldwater.
Paul Raffel, a U.S. Army veteran who served in Germany during WWII, sold and serviced chainsaws and Blue Grass mowers.
Their son, Walt, got involved with the business at an early age, learning a trade and earning a new name.
"He said ever since he was little, he was always tinkering and messing out there," Sandy Raffel said. "He would stand on boxes so that he could be high enough to reach the counters."
It was in the bar where a patron gave Walt his nickname, Oop.
"There was a TV show called 'Alley Oop' and he couldn't say 'Alley Oop.' He just kept going 'Oop, Oop, Oop,'" she said. "Shorty Brown … gave (the nickname Oop) to him and it just stuck, and his mom said, 'Don't call him that, it's going to stick.' And it did."
In fact, many know her husband only as Oop.
"Most people don't know his real name," she said. "His shirts all say 'Oop.' His high school diploma even says 'Walter Oop Raffel.' They called him Oop all through high school."
By the time Oop had graduated Coldwater High School in 1977, he was running the show at Raffel's.
"He continued but added more lines," his wife said.
Raffel's introduced Simplicity in 1976, Stihl in 1988, Polaris in 1989 and later Lawn-Boy/Toro and Ferris.
"Quality is a big thing," Sandy Raffel said about the lines Raffel's takes on, sells and services. "He goes to the lawn and garden expo, and it's in Louisville, Kentucky. He has gone every year that I ever can remember, and that's where you see all the different brands and that's where he did a lot of his research and he could test-drive them."
The couple added off-roads vehicles to ensure the business was busy all year long.
"You can get some dry times in the summer so you get slower, and then in the winter you always need some things to work on, and that would be something that would keep us busy year-round - and boy has it," she said.
The area's only Polaris dealer, Raffel's offers an array of ATVs, SxSs and UTVs. It has a complete service department with factory-trained technicians.
While farmers sought the Polaris vehicles for a host of jobs - spraying, getting in and out of the field quicker, picking up rocks, etc. - so too do outdoor enthusiasts.
"It's gotten popular as trail-riding. People take the Razors and the Generals and Rangers trail-riding," she said. "That's gotten real popular down south, to Kentucky and Tennessee and West Virginia. People ride even up in Michigan. I think that has really taken off probably in the last 10 years. It has really grown."
Meanwhile, Raffel's services all of its products, include its line of Polaris vehicles.
"(Oop) wanted to sell, but he also wanted to service what he sells. That was very important," she said. "That's probably the hardest thing about the closure: We had all these customers for years and now we can't service them anymore. It's tough."
It's that very service that has fueled Raffel's success throughout the years, offering peace of mind to customers, Sandy Raffel maintains.
"People come in, they're looking for something. You can always tell them, 'When you have problems, we're going to take care of you," she said.
By the early '90s, Raffel's was running out of room.
"We needed more space. By that time we had gutted all the groceries out in front and that was where our showroom was," Sandy Raffel said.
They decided to build a new facility in the Coldwater industrial park at 910 N. Second St. The new location opened in February 1994, has since underwent numerous expansions and now has three warehouses.
"Our business grew amazingly once we moved in here," she said. "We were better centrally-located, easier for people to get to, because if you tell people Philothea, a lot of people in the Celina area didn't have a clue where that was at. But here, it's so much easier to see people and people see us and know where we're at."
The Raffels and their staff of seven full-time and two part-time employees have exemplified the slogan, "It's not a sideline, it is our business," she said.
"My husband's got a lot of pride in his job, in his work and selling equipment and servicing it. He took a lot of pride in that," Sandy Raffel said, fighting back tears.
Though they're looking forward to having more time for themselves, Sandy said she and Oop will certainly miss their customers.
"Thank you for your loyalty and support for the last 72 years. We took great pride in our business and in serving our community and the surrounding areas," the Raffels said in a statement on social media.
