NOTE: Throughout the month of July, BrownwoodNews.com is publishing stories daily on 40 standout citizens under the age of 40 making a positive impact and contribution within the Brown County community.

Almost five years ago, Weakley-Watson Hardware was on the brink of closure when the Jacobs family stepped in to save the business. The struggles brought on by COVID presented another huge obstacle Weakley-Watson overcame, Still, Chief Operations Officer Weston Jacobs continues to drive an evolve a business that has been a staple in Brownwood for more than 140 years.

Jacobs, 32, recently recalled how stepping into his role at Weakley-Watson became a reality.

“It wasn’t really on my radar when the idea came up,” Jacobs said. “I was working in Dallas for a Peterbilt subsidiary and really enjoying life. My dad (Tim Jacobs) was on vacation sitting on a beach and sees that Weakley-Watson announced it was closing. My dad shoots me a text that says, ‘might buy Weakley-Watson if you come home and run it, let me know by Monday,’ and this was a Friday afternoon. We didn’t eat or sleep all weekend, but we thought about it. I grew up here in Brownwood and always had good feelings about it. So, we met with the Blaggs that Sunday night on a whim and about two weeks later me and my wife moved back.”

Five years later, Jacobs spoke of the some of the more significant changes Weakley-Watson has gone through in that time.

“Right when we came in, we switched from True Value to Ace,” Jacobs said. “They’re both co-ops, very similar structures, we just liked the infrastructure and support Ace had. We were able to change product lines and methodology about the products we wanted to carry and the kind of business we wanted to run. We knew as an independent business we were going to be priced a little higher at times, so if we’re going to be priced higher, we better have the better products. We’re not going to be higher on the same things you could get at a box store, we’re going to have something better for the money you spend.”

Another change occurred when the Weakley-Watson Sporting Goods location in Early closed its doors.

“The sporting goods department, we’ve been doing that about two years now,” Jacobs said. “That’s basically a business within a business. Guns and ammo, especially through the last election cycle and COVID, it’s been madness.”

Another crowning achievement, Jacobs said, “For the first two years we retained almost all the original employees from when we took it over. We’ve been able to lean into the 142-year-old history of Weakley-Watson while also trying to update it as well.”

Jacobs stated the most rewarding aspect of his job is knowing he is providing a service for those in need almost every time a customer enters the store.

“My favorite thing is I know that almost every person that comes through that front door is coming in at a low point in their day,” Jacobs. “We do have fun things like grills and guns, but typically when you come to a hardware store, everything you’re looking for in the store is because something has gone wrong. We have a tall task because every single person that comes through our door is probably frustrated, they’re mad because something’s broke and we have to be able to supply them with the knowledge and product they need to fill confident about what they’re going to do when they leave our store. It’s a really rewarding experience for me to know that all I do all day long is help people solve problems. Every single interchange I have I get to find something that’s gone wrong and make it go right, and that’s our goal at Weakley-Watson with the entire staff, we focus really hard on that.”

Outside of work, Jacobs is involved in numerous organizations throughout the community.

“I have two daughters, a 4-and-half-year-old and a 3-year-old, so that’s most of my time,” Jacobs said. “But my wife (Emily) and I work with the Pregnancy Care Center, I’m on the Planning and Zoning Board, I’ve done a lot of work with the Chamber and been on the director committee there, and lots of other odds and in. We like to be involved on all the little things going on with children in this town and anything we can do for our veterans. I’m on the Veterans Memorial Board, as well. Our veterans and kids are things we try and get behind as much as we can.”

Regarding the support Weakley-Watson continues to receive from the community, Jacobs said. “It’s absolutely everything. We learned that in the COVID years, 2020 on. My wife is from Dallas, and it took her while to get used to Brownwood, but where this town really sold itself to her was the way we were supported, encouraged and propped up during those COVID years. The way when things got hard, they rallied behind all the businesses in town, and we looked across the nation and saw things shutting down. We were not hit with it with the severity as other places because of the community.

“Any time we’ve ever raised a challenge, like our Christmas Angel Trees, we got 40 kids taken care of within an hour of opening that up, that’s pretty much the standard in Brownwood. Any time we’ve set a bar whether it’s fundraising, trying to help a community event or needed support ourselves, the community has always blown right past it. And that’s our absolute favorite thing about this town is the support they give us. If there’s a need, you don’t have to worry about it being met in Brownwood.”