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For 26 years, The Power Shop on St. Charles Street in Houma has provided the best in lawn care equipment.
And owner David Lirette has laid that groundwork so that legacy can continue for at least another 26 years.
Since opening up The Power Shop in 1989, Lirette has prided himself on providing the best equipment and service after the equipment has been purchased possible. That has resulted in 20-consecutive region Dealer of the Year awards, he said.
“We’re a premium store. We offer premium product and premium service, so unlike the box stores that are selling only product and price, we sell quality and price and services behind that product after we sell it,” Lirette said. “We have focused on that for the last 26 years, and we’ve been successful at it always trying to make sure that we satisfy our customers and sell a better product that you can buy at the home stores.”
But it’s the belief in taking care of customers right which separates The Power Shop from the pack, according to Lirette, and on top of courteous service, the store’s sales of Toro lawn mowers go a long way in making that possible. Litette called Toro the best product on the market, and with The Power Shop’s ability to service the product with all of the parts available, it can stand behind with trained technicians and five-year warranties that cover more than product defect.
“The warranties are very liberal. They’re full coverage warranties. They’re not limited to manufacturers’ defect at manufacturers’ discretion. They’re broader than that,” the owner explained. “The manufacturer that we sell today has the same mindset that we have behind the product and it gives us the ability to stand behind the product with our own philosophies as well because we kind of work the same way.”
The Power Shop offers lawn and garden tractors, walk power mowers and zero turn mowers, among other products.
This year, Toro is producing a zero turn radius machine, which Lirette said is great for mowing lots of landscapes in the Bayou Region.
“We’ve evolved to a machine where not only do the back tires drive and control direction of the machine but we also control the front of the machine by being able to steer those wheels,” Lirette said. “We’re able to do hillside stability a lot better. We have better tracking on slopes like ditch banks and bayou sides like we have in this region of the country, so it makes for a very stable machine, and we’re able to increase ground speed to the machine to even faster to what we had been before because the machine now has more stability.”
Lirette said the zero turn mower cuts about 45 percent from an average cut time.
“As we reduce that number of hours that we use a machine per year, we lower the maintenance and extend the life, or if we look at it at the perspective of an operator, if we save time cutting grass then we can save time for more important things like your time with your family,” said the owner.
Previously produced by Toro is a four-wheel drive walk-behind mower.
“When you push on the handle lightly like a push mower, it engages the drive system and the drive system is sensitive to you touching the handle so it’s made the machines very friendly and easy to use,” Lirette said. “That’s an innovation that Toro came out with about 15 years ago that we’ve incorporated in the lineup, and it’s been one of the more bulletproof drive systems that we’ve seen in the industry and it’s kind of made Toro that innovative leader in the industry over a lot of other brands.”
For smaller projects, The Power Shop offers handheld devices like weed eaters, lawn blowers, chainsaws, hedge trimmers and sidewalk edges, among other items, from the two top-selling brands of handheld products, Stihl and Echo.
“The two actually compliment themselves in our store quite well because each of them go in directions that are different in some of the aspects of the products that they build, so they’re both great product and they do the same kinds of things,” the owner said. “They have long, extended warranties up to five years as well, and those products, we can stand behind them differently than if we had products that were with very restricted-type warranties.”
After being in the business 38 years, 26 of which owning The Power Shop, Lirette has begun laying the groundwork for the future – one that he thinks is bright with general manager Brennan Voclain waiting in the wings.
“His future is to stay in this industry, so he’s going to take this company into the future and continue to follow the philosophies of this company of selling the best products and giving the best services,” Lirette said.
Visit The Power Shop at 1203 St. Charles St. in Houma.
Brennan Voclain embodies The Power Shop’s wonderful customer service, showing a Toro lawn mower to a customer.
