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For a while, the business thrived at the small store, and then in 1945, a building was constructed on U.S. 301 in Faulkner and was open for business in 1946. The building still houses the business, which has grown to more than two dozen employees in sales, parts and accounting departments, not to mention repairs.

Gardiner Jr. was the sole proprietor until Gardiner III joined him in 1958 after a tour of duty in the Army. Gardiner III was one of the workers who helped build the store all those years ago, and said he never imagined himself doing anything outside the tractor business.

Of his six children, Gardiner III has two sons who are now running the store, Mark and Hugh IV. Gardiner III said he has basically turned the store over to his sons, although he still comes in just about every day and helps out.

Hugh C. Gardiner Inc. has since switched to Kubota tractors, a Japanese model, Gardiner III said.

‘‘Our emphasis is on consumer products,” Gardiner III said. ‘‘We do sell big tractors, but most are in the 20- to 50-horsepower range. I tell my sons, ‘You’re selling $15,000 to $20,000 toys.’”

But Gardiner III said the store is fulfilling a need, and that is what has kept it in business for 80 years.

‘‘Our customer base has really expanded,” he said. ‘‘I used to know everybody that walked in the store. Now everyone is a brand-new face.”

Gardiner IV has been around the store his entire life, but said he did not really intend to spend his career there. It just sort of happened.

When he finished college in 1991, ‘‘I graduated on Sunday and I started working for my father on Tuesday,” he said. ‘‘I wasn’t even sure that first year” that he would stay there. ‘‘I enjoy my job tremendously.”

Gardiner IV said the business has survived the advent of mega-home improvement stores such as Lowe’s and Home Depot because it offers something special.

‘‘I would like to think we offer good customer services, honest dealings with the customers and employees,” he said. ‘‘We’re not perfect, but we do our best.”

Gardiner III said the employees are a major part of the success of the business, largely because they tend to stick around. He said he and his father created a profit-sharing program in the 1950s that helps retain employees.

‘‘We try to treat everybody fairly, both customers and employees,” Gardiner III said.

Also, the store offers parts and service for the products it sells, as well as those it has sold in the past that might not be available now.

‘‘If it breaks, we come and pick it up, bring it back in and fix it,” Gardiner III said.

Chip Bowling, a Newburg farmer, said that kind of service is what has kept his family going back to the Gardiners for just about everything they need. Bowling is a third-generation farmer, as well as a third-generation customer of the Gardiners.

‘‘My grandfather did business there, my father did business there and now I do,” Bowling said. He said he grows corn, soybeans and wheat on his 1,200-acre farm using tractors that he bought there. Also, he and his family are contracted by the state and county to mow along highways. Bowling said he uses mowers he bought from the Gardiners for that, too.

‘‘We’ve been their customers and their friends forever,” he said. ‘‘They respect you when you walk in the door and give great customer service after you buy from them. The service behind the equipment is another reason we keep coming there.”

Gardiner III said his business philosophy is based on just that statement.

‘‘You have to provide something more than the rest of them do,” he said. ‘‘That’s why people come to us.”