In 2008, Lakeway resident Steve Pyles and his wife, Anne Marie, started their appliance and home goods store out of their garage in The Hills. “It was an interesting time [to start a business],” he said. “It was the worst time in our economy.” Steve said that when he had an opportunity to leave his job with an appliance company—and its travel requirement—he took it. “It wasn’t as though you could go out and find a job as well as you can today,” he said. “At that time there was no remodeling going on because people were so concerned about the economy.” Steve and Anne Marie chose to start a business selling new scratched and dented appliances—washing machines, dryers and refrigerators. “The answer was things still break,” Steve said. “It’s not like the economy stops things from breaking. People who were concerned about funds or didn’t have funds when things broke were looking for value.” With the connections Steve made in the appliance industry during his 25-year career, he was able to speak with major manufacturers that had inventory of scratch-and-dent products, he said. The Pyles began getting products delivered to their home, he said. “Low overhead was critical then, and it is critical today,” Steve said. The couple realized they had outgrown their garage and, in 2009, found commercial space in a Lakeway shopping center, he said. As the economy recovered, homes still got older, he said. Customers asked for more built-in appliances as the business began selling product packages, incorporating various appliances into one price for all of the goods. The scratch-and-dent business gave way to new products as well as cabinets, countertops and floors to accompany buyers’ appliances. The Pyles brought in other trades, or sources, into the showroom, Steve said. The new products helped showcase the business’s appliances as well as enabled The Frog Pad to become “a one-stop shop,” he said. The company, which now includes kitchen design services, is set to expand once again when it relocates in the fall to the 4,000-square-foot space vacated by Faraday’s Kitchen Store in the Oak Grove Plaza, 1501 N. RR 620, Austin. The population growth in the area was a factor in the company’s recent success, Steve said. Local demand for a greater variety of kitchen and bath products was the motive for the expansion, he said.

Small footprint, large buying power

Being a local business and keeping prices low is important, The Frog Pad co-owner Steve Pyle said. The Lakeway business is part of a $20 billion buying group, or consortium, that has been in existence for 20 years, he said. “Other companies like ours across the country—of which there are 4,000 of them—combine our buying power so we are able to buy as good as, if not better than, even the big box stores,” Pyle said. “There’s a pent-up demand to shop local and an expectation [buyers] will pay more for it. We are saying, ‘You don’t have to [pay more].’” This story was updated Jan. 10 with the new address of the business.