If youve walked into a convenience store in the Pacific Northwest to pay for gas or to buy snacks, its quite possible that you also have looked at, been tempted by, and maybe even snatched up products sold by Doug Huffmans Spokane-based wholesale company, Unitime Imports Inc.


The items typically are the ones sitting on or near the counterthe modestly priced cigarette lighters, writing pens, novelty key rings, batteries, film, sunglasses, flashlights, and die-cast cars designed to trigger your latent impulse-buying tendencies.


Our products probably are in the neighborhood of 1,000 outlets, and that number is growing every year, Huffman says. We sell a ton of counter impulse items.


Founded here 22 years ago, Unitime supplies the mostly foreign-made goodsabout half of which it imports directlynot only to convenience stores, but also to other retailers such as grocery stores, gift shops, and truck stops throughout Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. It also sells products to other wholesalers.


The company is whats known in retail parlance as a rack jobber, which refers to a wholesaler that is allowed by a store to install, stock, and replenish items on strategically located racks or in countertop displays.


For some retailers, that term has negative connotations because of the undependable nature of some vendors, Huffman says, but he asserts, Weve taken it to another level by focusing on attentive service and higher-quality products.


We guarantee the sale of all the items we offer. If they dont sell, we pick them up, buy them back, he says. That puts the onus on us to make sure weve got the right price on the right product in that store. Well know within two weeks whether weve got a winner or not. At that point, we can reorder or well cut and run (and perhaps try some other product). We turn inventory pretty quickly.


Although most products that Unitime supplies sell at retail for less than $10, Huffman insists, Were not interested in bringing in something cheap. We stand behind it, and if I put my name on it, its going to be something good.


He puts Unitimes trademark sailing ship logo on some products that the company imports directly, as well as on its product display cases and tags, and he says he hopes to expand the companys branding.


He declines to divulge Unitimes sales, but says the companys annual revenue and the number of retail outlets that it serves both have been growing rapidly in recent years and probably will climb by 25 percent this year.


Moving to larger quarters


Because of that growth, Huffman says he expects to move the company in December from its 1,400-square-foot building at 422 E. Second, where it has operated for about three years, to a 4,000-square-foot building he bought recently at the southeast corner of Napa Street and Springfield Avenue. He also owns the building on Second and is marketing it for lease.


Unitimes work force currently fluctuates in size between about 12 and 15 employees, counting both office staff and a scattered sales team, and Huffman says he doesnt expect that to grow when the business moves.


Huffman declines to estimate the sheer quantity of products that Unitime distributes, except to hint that it reaches into the tens of thousands of individual items per month. He says, though, that the company doesnt require a large amount of warehouse space because the products tend to be small and to turn over quickly.


A portion of Unitimes building on Second is crammed with products, and other merchandise is kept in a couple of ocean shipping containers that sit behind the building. In some cases, inventory also is sent directly to company salespeople in other Northwest cities where its needed. Huffman says the salespeople make their rounds to retail outlets in cargo vans loaded with all the merchandise they need.


The property at Napa and Springfield that he bought to house the company not only offers more indoor warehouse space, but also includes 15,000 square feet of adjoining land that will accommodate more ocean containers than the companys current limited site, he says.


One of the keys to success in the rack-jobber industry, Huffman says, is paying close attention to buying trends and staying abreast of the latest hot products.


It continually changes. Thats the nature of the business, he says.


For that reason, he says, he attends about eight trade shows a year, and Unitime devotes a lot of resources to seeking out and acquiring products deemed to have big potential. He says also that he gets inundated with samples of products being pitched by manufacturers, their agents, and other wholesalers.


Probably a majority of the products that Unitime sells come from mainland China, but the company also sells items made in Pakistan, India, and other countries. In addition, it sells some products made in the U.S., such as high-quality knivespriced at up to $90 eachmade by Wilsonville, Ore.-based Columbia River Knife & Tool.


Huffman departed last week for a month-long visit to the coastal tourist cities of Mexico, where he says he will meet with both manufacturers and retailers to explore import and export opportunities for his company. NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement) has really opened that up, he says.


Huffman was born and raised in the Spokane Valley. He graduated from University High School, then attended the University of Washington where he received a degree in business. He returned to Spokane in 1974, after graduating from college, and has been here ever since. He says that until starting Unitime in 1979, he was employed mostly in outdoor sales, including door-to-door sales, where he says he sometimes got my head handed to me.


I can remember starting out in my garage, building displays at night, and going out the next day to seek retail locations for the products he sold, he says.


Huffman says he got a good lesson in the importance of selling quality merchandise some years later when a competing vendor began going into retail outlets and showing how he could rip apart with his hands a particular brand of work glove that Huffman was selling.


It got my attention, and I vowed it would never happen again, he recalls. He says he then set out on a search to find the sturdiest, high-quality imported leather work gloves he could buy at a reasonable price.


We immediately became one of the more expensive guys (glove vendors), but our revenue tripled in that category, and weve never looked back, he says. Unitime now stocks more than 30 types of gloves, and its proud enough of the gloves it sells that it puts its logo on them.


Huffman says the company has adopted a similar quality-focused approach in its other product categories.