What If Every Shed Lot Fed A Town?

A self-serve “farmacy” that’s really a row of sheds selling fresh milled bread, local meat, eggs, raw milk, honey, and natural soap sounds like a gimmick until you hear the numbers, the traffic, and the community response. We sit down with Matthew Troyer of Delta Sheds to unpack how Middway Farmacy came to life on a revived property in Central Pennsylvania and why the simplest version of the idea is shockingly easy to launch: drag a shed into place, add lighting, install real security, and invite the right local producers to stock it.

Matthew walks us through the turning points that mattered, from a 24/7 self-serve meat shed to the “bread shed” that exploded after people learned what fresh milled wheat can do for how you feel day to day. We get into the difference between commercial enriched flour and whole wheat berries ground in their original form, why ingredient transparency is becoming a real buying trigger, and how “local for locals” can be both a values play and a strong business model. He also shares what he learned the hard way about cash handling, cameras, and designing a system that nudges customers toward doing the right thing.

Then we zoom out to the shed industry: the post-COVID slowdown, the pressure of competition, and why premium portable buildings now live or die by service, communication, and execution. We end with a candid look at affordability, zoning, and why finished portable structures are increasingly viewed as a realistic housing option for buyers who can’t stomach today’s mortgage payments.

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This episodes Sponsors:
Studio Sponsor: Shed Pro

Digital Shed Builder
Velocity 360
NewFound Solutions

Transcript

Sponsor Message From ShedPro

INTRO 0:00

Hello and welcome back to the Shed Geek Podcast. Here's a message from our studio sponsor. Let's be real. Running a shed business today isn't just about building great sheds. The industry is changing fast. We're all feeling the squeeze, competing for fewer buyers, while expectations keep climbing. And yet I hear from many of you that you are still juggling spreadsheets, clunky software, or disconnected systems. You're spending more time managing chaos than actually growing your business. That's why I want to talk to you about our studio sponsor, ShedPro. If you're not already using them, I really think you should check them out. ShedPro combines your 3D configurator, point of sale, RTO contracts, inventory, deliveries, and dealer tools all in one platform. They even integrate cleanly into our Shed Geek marketing solutions. From website leads, to final delivery, you can quote, contract, collect payment, and schedule delivery in one clean workflow. No more double entries, no more back and forth chaos. Quoting is faster, orders are cleaner. And instead of chasing down paperwork, you're actually running your business. And if you mention ShedGeek, you'll get 25% off all setup fees. Check it out at shedpro.co/ShedGeek. Thank you, ShedPro, for being our studio sponsor and honestly for building something that helps the industry.

Meet Matthew Troyer And His Hats

Cord 1:43

Welcome back to another episode of the Shed Geek Podcast. Cord Koch, coming to from Metropolis, Illinois on a beautiful, sunny, nearly 60, I believe degree day. Spring is truly springing here at Shed Quarters. In fact, Troy uh Shannon's son has just completed the first mowing of the year. So, we are officially into it. I am joined today by Mr. Matthew Troyer. I am so excited for this conversation. Uh he is with Delta Sheds, but maybe more importantly, we'll hear from him. He is from Middway Farmacy, F-A-R-M. So, I have a feeling that this is going to be a very good, interesting conversation. Lots of entrepreneurial ideas going on there. Before we get rolling, just a couple quick things so you all know how to stay plugged in with us. First and foremost, the Shed Geek Hotline, 618-309-3648. That is Shannon's personal cell phone. So please feel free to give him a call, shoot him a text, let him know if we can help add value in any way to you or your operation. Email is info@ shedgeek.com. Contact form on our website, which is www.shedgeek.com. Of course, the Facebook page, Shed Sales Professionals, uh, the manufacturers page, all of the pages on Facebook are such a wealth of information and have such good back and forth, uh, so much value being exchanged every day. Be sure to jump into those and participate uh and really become a part of the community. And for anyone out there uh who is listening and may be adjacent to the playing community or know someone in the playing community, please, if they're if they're not already aware, let them know that we do offer the Shed Geek Podcast on our playing community call-in line. That is 330-997-3055. So, make sure that all of your friends and relatives uh and anyone in the playing community knows that they can listen that way. So, having said all of that, uh, I would like to again welcome Mr. Matthew Troyer, Delta Sheds, Middway Farmacy. Uh, we were actually uh just talking before the podcast, uh, local zoning official. Uh so many hats, many hats worn by you, uh, Mr. Troyer. Um, maybe give us uh a little bit of a rundown. Which of those hats is the heaviest most days? That's always a good question to start with.

Matthew Troyer 4:16

A pleasure, a pleasure to be here. Thanks for the invite. Um the the heaviest hat I would say is running the shed company. That's the like that's a car you have to push uphill. Most of the other things are pushing cars downhill.

Cord 4:33

Right. And you're in you're in central PA, so you're in you're in the area where lots and lots of shed companies are operating. So, um it's like it's it it's like playing in the NFL here. That's right. You gotta be a pro. You can't drop that pass or you're out of the league.

Matthew Troyer 4:55

Right. Right.

Buying A Forgotten Property And Rebuilding

Cord 4:57

Right. Well, that's good. Well, then maybe the thing to do then uh uh is to focus on those downhill pushes or the lightest hat. I know that uh that you were just uh telling me through email as we were getting uh you know kind of scheduled and uh uh arranging to do a podcast a little bit about the Middway Farmacy, M-I-D-D, W-A-Y, Farmacy F-A-R-M, A-C-Y. And man, it is just it's just such a strong entrepreneurial, innovative concept. I won't spoil, I won't spoil it. I won't keep describing it for you, but maybe tell us tell us about that downhill push, the fun push. Fun, the fun push.

Matthew Troyer 5:44

So back in 2018, I bought a a mobile home dealership property. It had been it had been sitting empty for probably 15 years. Like the people had worked on a Wednesday and Thursday, they never came back in, and it sat here for years. And um, long story short, 2018, I purchased it, chest high weeds and brush, garbage, junk everywhere, cleaned the property up, wasn't sure what I was gonna do with it, but I knew I would do something with it. And I had been bitten by the self-storage industry pretty badly at a young age. I just loved the idea of selling something all year, and then the following year it's still yours to sell again. And I like that. So, anyways, I bought this piece of property. There's 14 acres, and it being a mobile home dealership, it that was all solid, usable, a lot of big paved areas, and uh it just took a lot of cleanup and a lot of work getting it cleaned up and back in, you know, back to usable space, but I didn't know what I was gonna do with it. And the uh first thing I did was well, let me back up the name of it. The Middway name, when I did the self-storage and I needed an LLC and a name, Middway with one name or one D was already taken. So, I had to go with two Ds simply because everybody in this area knew this location as the old Midway Homes place. I couldn't get away from the Middway name. I had to stick to it. Everybody in the area automatically knows where it is.

Cord 7:30

Yeah, well, that place names. I was I was telling you, you know, place names live so much further uh into time than the official whether it's a business or you know, a village or a little incorporated uh community or whatever it is. I was saying to you, uh, funny enough, I grew up um uh in Midway here in Massac County.

Matthew Troyer 7:55

Yeah.

Cord 7:56

Um, you know, and so we always were kind of proud Midway people, which here means uh German, Lutheran, you know, it's like where that that group of people settled. And so, uh, you know, it was very much a part of our heritage. But yeah, absolutely. You can't you don't want to ruin your branding, your you don't want to ruin that little uh space that you occupy in people's heads right off the bat by throwing away the thing that how they know how to get there.

The 24 7 Meat Shed Model

Matthew Troyer 8:25

Everybody knows it by I couldn't get rid of it, and like not many. I mean, people know who Mount Troyer is, but everybody knows where the Midway Homes place is. Right, right. So it made sense to keep that, and then I had to do the two D's to get the domain name because one D was taken, so it that's how it started with Middway self-storage, and then there were just different things added, and there was an old building on it that I had retrofitted to become a garage, and I was a mechanic by trade in my younger years, and uh a gentleman, how the whole Farmacy started. A gentleman stopped in from up the road, he had seen the cleanup and the activity and stuff going on over the years, and this is years into it. Um, he stopped, he was a local beef farmer, and he wondered if he wondered what I thought about a self-served meat shed. And I thought, well, and this was probably 20, I'm gonna say 2021, yeah, ish, a couple years ago now. And uh, I'm like, sure, let's try it. Like it can't hurt. So it started with the meat shed, and it's self-served 24-7 with local antibiotic free. He raises them, sends them to a USDA kill facility, gets them processed, and then they're retail sold, you know, in the in the in the shed. And it was that's all it was for over for close to two years. And my sister had told me about the fresh milled wheat. I don't know, are you familiar with that? The fresh milled wheat, the wheat berry ground up and used to make bread, the way bread was made a hundred years ago.

Cord 10:18

I'm familiar with the concept. Uh and I know that I know that sourdough has really taken off as far as a home, you know, people are now um, you know, gosh, I would say that probably five or six of my friends' wives, you know, keep like a sourdough, you know, starter, a sourdough dough ball, uh, ready at all times, uh, and just continuously are baking sourdough. So, I would assume it's kind of uh roughly in that same category of that sort of home, homemade, freshly milled type of something.

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Fresh Milled Bread That Changed Health

Matthew Troyer 12:00

Yeah, well, well said, very well uh described. It's so what it is, when they when they grind flour, all the goodies are sifted off of it, all your minerals, nutrients, all your goodies are sifted off so that the flour itself lasts longer on the shelf. Commercial food, right? But all of what your body needs is gone. Now they remove 35 or 36 different things. Don't hold me to the exact number, but they remove most of it and put seven of them, seven of the essentials back in, and they call it enriched. If you look at the ingredients, right, right. Enriched white flour is in everything. So, anyways, I had a problem with consistent regular bowel movements, we'll say. Sure. And had dealt with it for years. My sister told me about this fresh milled wheat bread, which is the wheat berry ground up in its original form, and all 35 things are still in it. So, a buddy, me and a buddy of mine made a loaf of this bread on a Sunday afternoon, and Monday was one of the best days of my life from just a healthy, normal. It was, I mean, it changed my life. Really, it did. I had gotten so used to feeling poorly, and then on that one day, everything changed. And so, anyways, I was telling the lady that cuts my hair about this fresh milled bread. And there were two elderly ladies in the waiting room waiting to get their hair cut, and she says, she's like, Where can I buy this bread? And I'm like, um, nowhere, but give me about 24, 48 hours, and I'll have something, I'll have something put into, you know, put whipped into shape. Right. So, long story short, I called a lady that had a licensed kitchen, and I wondered if she would bake this bread for me. And I drug one of the old sheds off the shed lot down into the row, right, beside the meat shed, and had her bake this fresh bread for me, set up a table, threw eight or ten loaves of bread on it, and within 24 hours, they had all sold a bit too. And um, she baked eight more. Long story short, this thing took off. She calls me and she's like, Hey, do you mind if we add some other things to the Bread Shed? Is what that shed had been called then.

Cord 14:34

Right, right.

Matthew Troyer 14:34

And I'm like, no, like that's a great idea. Add some stuff, but it has to be healthy, it has to, you have to be able to pronounce all the ingredients, it has to be good for you, it has to leave the area, it has to leave the world a better place than you found it, type of thing. So, I'm like, go for it. So, she started baking bread for it and other goodies, and it just it took off. I mean, it was it was mind-blowing. Like I would have never believed it had I not seen it in person the way it took off. And then we had a guy come in and stole some money, and she put that on Facebook that we were temporarily closing to get some security measures corrected, and it just blew up like went viral overnight. Now people are ready to support it the meat shed.

Cord 15:22

Yes, just to make sure that whoever the wrongdoer there was doesn't get the better of someone trying to do something good. Yes, yeah, you love to see that.

Expanding To Bread Eggs Soap And More

Matthew Troyer 15:34

Yeah, the support from the community was just, I mean, it was it was really um it really reminded you um it restores faith in humanity. Yeah, yeah and um so then yeah, that was then the Bread Shed became massively popular, still is to this day. Um, you can look up The Bread Shed of Beaver Springs on Facebook, and they have uh a couple thousand followers, and there's a family that does the baking for it, they stock it, they run it, and then just pay me rent. And same with the meat shed, his meat, and we sell out of that shed, he sells raw milk, honey, maple syrup, uh free-range chickens, pigs that he raises and has processed. So, it's like the only way I'll let you in to sell something is it has to be by locals, for locals, and actually good for you.

Cord 16:30

That's right. What a what a powerful concept. I mean, really, and it's one that is um catching on. I mean, this is not just good, you know, it's not just uh all for good uh feelings, but it's good business at this point, right? I mean, you know, this is this not only helps your community and does all of those things, help people be uh healthier and more nutritious and you know hopefully help kids you know grow up healthier and have less ailments and the whole run of the gamut. But at this point, this uh this next generation, um, you know, the kids who are, you know, my little brother, for example. My little brother and his wife, they're 30, I'm 35. That little bit of an age gap is so much more aware of all of all of the uh what they're taking into their bodies, right? And I think everyone's waking up to it slowly, just like it takes grandma, you know, a couple extra years to get the smartphone. You know, right? Like it's all you know, they still have them. I mean, at least, you know, my grandmother uh certainly she texts me or emails me uh every day. But um, you know, but everyone's coming around to it, but really led by this younger generation, as you said, a lot of that uh awareness came from what we, you know, in the in the shed industry and probably around the world call that COVID era, where everyone winds up inside, very aware of the health threats to them, um, and wind up doing some of these much more self-sufficient, much more natural uh ways of doing things. So, at this point, uh, you know, back to my kind of original comment there, this isn't just um this isn't just uh um to feel good or anything like that. It it's a good business opportunity.

Matthew Troyer 18:29

It is, it's a win-win-win. And I always said, so the thing that the idea was never about money, it had nothing to do with money. The property here, so I have a trucking company that rents from me. There's a garage building here um that I used to work in that I have rented out. There is an equipment company that rent that has a location here. I have the self-storage, we have the shed lot here. Property has been very, very good to me. And to whom much is given, much is expected. And it was never that little market was always just for fun, because I could, kind of thing. And I stumbled into this self-serve healthy Farmacy idea, and um, and it's now like we have, I mean, it generates it generates monthly income. People, the suppliers, it's worth like they pay rent to be here, and um, there's not almost non-stop traffic through it.

Cord 19:36

Right. And you know, it's really a take on, so you know, there's there are a couple different business models that are similar. Um, you know, I've actually uh went to and filmed and done promo videos for individual um, you know, micro farms or you know, individual farms who are kind of taking this concept and putting their own little market out at the road where everything in that is from that individual farm. And that's good. There's nothing that's a great idea, right? That's contributing. But the thought process of saying, or just kind of finding your way, you know, into this thought process where I believe you've now I've got the list here. Uh I believe you now have meat shed, bread shed, egg shed, and soap shed, right? Where you're pretty well top to bottom on nutrition, uh as far as anything a person realistically, I mean, you could do all of your grocery shopping, more or less, um, at least for a you know, a simple diet, um, you know, at these, and then also have the soaps, lotions, natural, uh, you know, all natural things that we're then putting on our skin, which is uh probably the second most harmful thing that we that we don't think about. But it's really taking that concept of the individual farmers market uh out at the road uh and expanding it into something that's kind of akin to what you actually see there in Central PA, which are the Amish markets, which are traditionally under one roof, of course. But I mean you're really bringing all of those all those same types of products into the same little confined area, and you match that up with good road traffic and you get good results. I mean, it's awesome. So, tell us a little bit about um I like this idea of the soap shed because uh my grandmother growing up, uh she was always had the natural soaps. They always smelled so much better. They filled the whole house with this feeling of clean instead of this feeling of uh, you know, like stinging your nose.

Matthew Troyer 21:48

Yeah.

Cord 21:49

Yeah.

Matthew Troyer 21:50

It has a gentle smell to it.

Cord 21:53

Yes, yes. Um I mean almost relaxing. Um you know, and so uh that sort of Uh Amish uh market concept and uh you know I've even seen where people do the food trucks, which of course that's prefer prepared food, but it's the same idea. You can stop in one place, you have multiple vendors, um, and you're getting a selection of anything and everything you could want uh, you know, in those food categories, um, and even soap. I think it's just it's so good. So maybe walk me through a little bit of the structure or maybe what you've learned up to this point, because it sounds like you did have a little bit of an issue with some uh ne'er do wells, you know, taken out of the cookie jar, so to speak, there. Like what is you know, because I know you're I know talking with you off-air your heart uh is definitely to see these kinds of concepts expand and really have this, you know, grown for locals, uh, by locals to grow a uh healthier community. So maybe walk people through the mechanics of what have you learned if someone would like to adopt this, like what are your little tips where you can say, here's maybe the best way to to structure it that that makes sure that you know you're not having any of those little hiccups that you've learned from.

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Matthew Troyer 24:31

So, the first thing I would say is you want a quarter inch thick steel money box.

Cord 24:38

Right. Weld that baby up.

Matthew Troyer 24:44

First thing, and cameras, lots of cameras. And it just there's something about when somebody pulls in and they know that you 100% trust them to do the right thing without meeting them, it brings out the wanting to do the right thing out of almost everybody. And like, so the guy stole, like, I don't know, 150 bucks, and we got five grand worth of publicity from it. So did he really steal anything from us, or did he give us a big or did he do us a huge favor? It all depends how you look at it. Um, but as far as somebody wanting to do this in, let's say Illinois, um, it's very simple. Practically no startup cost. Um, drag a shed down. Like I did, I just ran an extension cord into the one in the one window to light it at first.

Cord 25:38

Yeah.

Matthew Troyer 25:39

And um it's you can start with either if you have the licensed kitchen, you can make your own products. A lot of the like the Amish and Mennonite, a lot of the plant community. Um, they would have you know young girls at home, or you know, they're uh creative. And so, you could either stock it yourself or just find any anybody in the area, like utilize what you have, and it doesn't have to be a meat shed and a bread shed and a soap shed. It you know, it could be a produce shed or it could be um uh I mean that it's endless. The homestead vibe, the just healthier, chemical-free, like that's a very wide-ranging topic that it you can do anything with it. Um you know, just going the healthier route.

Cord 26:32

Had you adopted some of those, had you adopted some of those practices personally before this concept started, or was this concept part of your journey to actually saying, gosh, maybe I need to consider uh, you know, some of these non, you know, whatever they call it, non-GMO, non-fertilizer, you know, all the all the things that we know are non-pesticide, all those type of things. Uh talk a little bit about if you don't mind, because you're obviously passionate about it, and I know that that passion grows out of out of experience. Um, so how did that come about for you?

Matthew Troyer 27:12

So it was largely the I was never like a big um I never drank soda really. I would always say that as I take a sip.

Cord 27:22

Oh gosh.

Matthew Troyer 27:24

Drink it like no pun intended. I didn't mean it that way. I just I always drank water, I always ate real food, like I always ate, uh tried to eat real food just as uh to make it a to make it a habit so that I could do because then if I wanted to eat a candy bar, like you can do almost anything and eat anything as long as it's only once a year.

Cord 27:47

In moderation, right?

Matthew Troyer 27:51

If you have general good habits, you don't have to worry about overeating because you're at a steakhouse and it's just delicious and you and you don't get it very often. So, you over you eat more than you should. Well, it doesn't matter if you do it a couple of times a year, whatever. But the fresh milled bread and the constipation was the big switch for me. Earning point that the way it improved my quality of life in 24 hours, I felt better. I would get rashes, dry rashes on my arm over winter. They went away. I mean, it was magical what it did to me. I had a shine in my eye and a and a uh uh a hop in my step from Monday on. And uh it's just so I know I wasn't a big uh big health freak or like uh uh a big natural foodie. You know, I didn't even I still to this day don't even have a garden at my house because I have access to good stuff, I don't have to mess with it.

Cord 28:52

Right. Right. You know, I've heard that so often from um uh you know, a lot of my friends um have wound up, a lot of the friends I grew up with, you know, we're here in southern Illinois, and it's just natural the opportunity is down in Nashville, Tennessee is really the closest kind of regional hub. And so many of my friends have wound up down there. And um, you know, not that there's anything necessarily different about being in a city or in a rural area at this point. I mean, you know, the junk food and everything is everywhere.

Matthew Troyer 29:26

Um and it's become so normalized, it's everywhere. And I always said if you can buy it at a dollar general, you shouldn't eat it.

Cord 29:35

Yeah, you're absolutely right. I mean, how many, oh, how long, how many times has it been processed? How you know what I mean? Uh, how something that's shelf stable for you know 18 months at a time is you know is that's like formaldehyde, you know.

Matthew Troyer 29:52

It is, it is, and big food makes it, big pharma's there to save the day, and they send each other customers. It's a terrible, it's a terrible cycle. And I always looked at this my little Farmacy. If it makes a positive difference in one kid's life, it's a huge win. It was never about the money, but it turned into something that I now has to be taken serious, and I'd love to see it on every shed lot across the country. Um, a little self-serve, like it's 24-7. It does, it only requires a daily check-in from the owner's perspective. The vendors, you can stock it twice a week or every day or however you want to, but um, it's a very it's a it's shocking how well it works and how little input it takes to start.

Central PA Shed Market After COVID

Cord 30:43

Yeah, yeah, really and truly. You know, the um uh I was just thinking about how many uh of my friends that have kind of moved down to Nashville, so many of them have similar stories. Now, I don't, you know, some of them think it's gluten or think it's this or that. But you know, I thankfully I've never had, you know, like a chronic gastrointestinal thing, but it just drains you. I mean, the feeling that that people uh that my friends have described to me of just having no energy and just really just feeling like your shoulders are heavy, your body's heavy, you know, that that it's just uh labor some. Um you know, so I mean it's fantastic that you were able to find, you know, such a such a good health path, you know, through happenstance, you know, through kind of just running into them and then sharing that, sharing that with others. Um well I love it. And II would very much um you know think that that there are other communities out there um who would very much benefit from this. And it's a great way to uh supplement. You know, you have as a shed builder, you know, you have a uh a known fixed cost in that building. I mean, it makes sense um, you know, to rent it out. It makes sense to take some of those um you know sheds that are sitting there um otherwise and make a monthly income off of them. Uh I just I can't, it's really hard to find a reason why people you know wouldn't take this up other than uh just the availability of those types of you know real foods in each of these communities, uh, which does happen not so much in the Amish, Mennonite, plain communities, uh, but you know, just out in the rest of the English world, sometimes uh you are in what they call the food deserts where there's no real food being produced for miles around. But um while I have you here, um maybe give us a little bit of a we've got oh gosh, I don't know, 10 or 10 or 12 or 15 minutes left here. Um, you know, maybe give us a little rundown of what is going on in the central PA um shed builders world um this year. I know that we talk a lot here on the Shed Geek podcast about the sort of maturing of the industry. We've seen some really big um, you know, kind of almost national or you know uh uh very close to being national companies that have grown up and some of which have grown up really fast uh and with big networks and big networks of builders. I guess if you don't mind, just what is the what's the feeling in Central PA with so many individual and independent builders, whether they be wholesale or kind of branded manufacturers, like what how are people feeling um about being in the shed building business?

Matthew Troyer 33:49

So, everybody that I talk to is feeling it's not like it was like the we are paying for our pro our COVID sins. Like it seems like it borrowed work from now. Like somebody was gonna buy a shed, they did it in 2021, 2022, and even 2023 somewhat, but it seems to have slowed down overall the shed purchases or the need, the demand for them. Um and we went the higher end shed route and really good service. So, we do pad installs and delivery and the manufacturing and you know all name brand products like Sherman Williams Paint, and like we don't do the like there's some Dollar General type shed companies, and we don't we stay off of that road completely. So, it's tough, and I'm sure you're well aware of how tough it is. You know, you have to have any margin whatsoever um and to eat to exist, you have to have a premium for your products. And uh it's just it's not as yeah, it was I'm I've been in the shed industry for about four four-ish years. So, it's I'm still learning. There's a lot that I don't know, um, but just our little the little world that I have here. Um we're small enough that we don't eat much per se. Like we're not um we're not a behemoth of a company by any stretch. The shed division, the parent company is a significant operator, but the shed division here in Pennsylvania is relatively small. So, there's not much that we can't weather, you know. Um but it's tough. It's not it's not what I remember the shed industry being years ago.

Cord 35:40

Well, yeah, I mean that and I think kind of people have said that, whether it was the you know new sales, um, of course, you know, the new shed sales obviously spiked in that 2021, 2022, um, you know, fall, spring, uh, type of a type of a time. But then it was also uh then the inventory of repos, you know, that continued to kind of work their way through uh the market that are then taking up some amount of space um, you know, within new sheds. Maybe they're only taking up space for uh, you know, for a kind of more basic shed, but that's not always true. I mean, I'm sure you've seen it just like we have, um, you know, a lot of a lot of um sheds that come back, whether it be RTO or whatever, whatever the case is, um a lot of those sheds that come back wind up going back out the door for 85 or 90 percent of that original value a lot of the time, especially if you're gonna go on and put some new paint on or whatever else. But yeah, uh not just the new sheds, then the repos and the old stock working its way back through, um, I think certainly has put some stress, you know, into that demand curve, if you want to kind of think about it from that macroeconomic perspective. Um, and it's made people, it's like you're saying, where do you find your margin? Um, and it is on the service. You have to, you almost have to demand a premium price. Um and the only kind of thing left, I mean, there are so many companies that are highly competitive on materials and uh construction quality, you know, so many of those companies are competitive that like you really have to be in that customer service space. Um and then, you know, and then customer service starts to become, you know, uh you can do really good work, really good customer service, but you know, is your are you communicating that customer service clearly? You know, both on the front end during the process, uh giving updates on, you know, the when that cut when that shed will be delivered, blah, blah, blah. Uh, and then on the back end with uh following up on making sure that they're you know taking care of the seasonal uh things, seasonal maintenance that that you should do on a shed. And it's just gotten to be um very big uh lift, a very big set of systems and things going on to demand that premium pricing. So, I was just curious, you know, we see it from we're kind of in the other the other home of shed building in western Kentucky, uh Southern Illinois, of course, the original home of Cook Portable Warehouses that did really well out this way, and then all the uh all the headquarters throughout western Kentucky, Mayfield and Cunningham, and then down into Tennessee. So um, you know, we just kind of we kind of see it from we're seeing the same things from two different geographic areas, but it seems to be much the same story. Um so how do you see, I mean, how are your, if you don't mind sharing, you know, how things have been just so far? We're in very early spring. In fact, I think it still has been quite cold up in PA. How are things, how's the spring seeming so far? Um, what's your thoughts?

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Matthew Troyer 40:14

So, we had a brutal winter in Pennsylvania. We had more snow, like we had really been lulled to sleep with easy, mild winters for the last seven, eight years. And boy, we really paid for our sins this winter. Um we had a we had a stretch of like below freezing for months. And I it was, yeah, it really brought the shed tire kickers, lookers to a screeching halt. I mean, it was it, it was it was dead. This this particular location was very um, it was it was uh there wasn't much going on. Now the weather broke, it and just recently it broke, and it's we're I mean, I have I think four pads waiting till the people's yards dry out to get in and put pads in. So, it's starting as good of a year as we've had. Yeah.

Sheds As Affordable Housing And Zoning

Cord 41:11

So, um that's what it seems, you know. I think that there's while we can be, you know, some people and I don't know, I certainly don't mean to be negative, but while we can evaluate something and say, well, here's the downside, you know, I think um the sort of the trends that are going in the other direction are the fact that uh sheds and portable buildings continue to be the most viable way that they're effectively now being thought of as permanent structures. They're not. We know that they're not. They are on skids, they can be moved, all those things, but they are being treated in a way um by the consumer now in a way that effectively thinks of them as being permanent. And so, you know, in that space, and of course, you know, um uh especially if you're building on site, I guess some guys do, you know, actually fully have a uh a permanent, you know, shed going in right onto a pad. But I guess my point is the consumers are really starting to blur the lines between what that means anyway, these days, gosh, you know, at least in our area, it would be rare that you were to sit purchase or sell a home that had a shed on it that was not assumed, presumed, was a part of that property, right? That's not even at this point, not even really a question. They're being treated in that way, of course, as they get bigger and more elaborate, um, you know, that happens as well. But um, and I think that that trend is going to remain because uh, you know, custom stick built um you know structures on foundation structures, I mean, I there's just there's no there's no great path for those to be price competitive with portable buildings. So, you know, as you kind of you know talk about maybe that demand curve got a little high during COVID with that extra money sloshing around and then maybe dipped in as and is uh uh you know kind of flattening back out, um, you know, the overall pressures of just actual uh housing, additional dwelling units, storage units, uh recreation units, I d I just don't see those structures. I don't see a lower percentage of those structures being uh being fixed in the future. Right? Like as we move forward, they're going to continue to technically be portable structures that that you know that this industry produces. So, um in any case, maybe hopefully we ended with a rosy with a rosy evaluation there.

Matthew Troyer 43:54

Well, I think I think the just the affordability crisis. That is going on, I think, is forcing some people so because you can't build much around here for 350 to 400,000. Well, all of a sudden, a $60,000 shed that's like, and I'm talking $60,000 finished, you know, a 14 by 30 to live in, all of a sudden that becomes a very attractive factor for some of your 20, mid-20s, and early 30-year-olds that don't want saddled with a $4,000 a month payment, uh, mortgage payment. And I think it's yeah, we're overbuilt. There's more there's more supply here than there is demand currently, but it'll it it'll all come out in the wash.

Cord 44:44

You know, it's it'll and a lot of those, a lot of those wind up, um, a lot of those central PA sheds wind up kind of everywhere, you know. I mean, a lot of those wind up wholesale and moving, you know, hundreds of miles. Um, so you know, being overbuilt there has its challenges, but also that tends to you know kind of flatten itself out um as it spreads out as well. But I think what you're saying, and I mean I know and I've continued to be an advocate for this, is it actually needs guys like me and you, a zoning, you know, a zoning person and a city councilman to be actively saying we actually need to be practical about this, right? We need to say that actually you can make that uh uh 14 by 30 just as safe, right, as you can any other, I mean, certainly as you can a mobile home, but in a lot of ways they have better options to be fixed than a mobile home does in the first place. Um you know, so um but uh but anyway, my you know, we have to be open to that. I was actually, you know, kind of having this conversation and a gentleman, one of the other gentlemen on the city council with me, um, he actually built a tiny home on a foundation as an example of what like would be acceptable. Now he started this project like eight years ago and like just got it finished and it cost him a hundred and forty-five thousand dollars. And I'm like, but you're missing the you're missing the point. You're missing the point, you know. Like that's good. It's good that you know you came up with something that fits our current zoning and that you know matches up with whatever this idealized version of what housing is supposed to be is, but you're not actually solving anyone's problem. You know, like building $145,000, I mean, where we are, that's you can actually just buy a ranch style house that's you know 900 square feet. You can just you can go buy that for $120,000. You can save yourself $25,000. It's an older home, but now you've got $25 less in it, and you can remodel. You know, the it's exactly what you're saying. You have to figure out how to deliver those solutions at that $60,000, $65,000, $70,000 mark. Um, and it starts to make a lot of set good sense for people. And guys like me and you have to, you know, force local government to be practical, you know, not to not to be some country club where we only accept a home that is built in this very, very particular way that you know you can get ninety-eight percent of the safety, reliability, longevity out of a well-built portable structure, as you can, you know, a home that's on a foundation. So yeah, yeah.

Matthew Troyer 47:38

And it the an eye-opening thing for me in the zoning world was you have to look at your little town in a hundred years. Yeah, like that's kind of the lens you have to look through when you're making decisions, for sure. The big ones, and the jury's still out, I guess, if a town would be well served to litter everything, litter everything with shed. So, it I it has its place, but we gotta get this affordability, like the housing crisis and uh the like the yeah, it it's like you said it best earlier in the podcast, the states are what they are, but your locals are what actually benefit your life. Because like your senator and your um congressman or woman, they're not gonna they're not gonna affect your life really uh one way or another. But your locals, the people that you can wave to at the restaurant in the morning for breakfast, those are the ones that can actually have a positive effect and actually change someone's life. So that's right.

Cord 48:47

And the zoning man is always the most powerful man in town. I know that firsthand. So, you can't fool me, Mr. Troyer. I know I know the power that you wield out there.

Matthew Troyer 49:01

I'm still learning. It was only an um a little over a year now that I've that I've been doing it. So that's funny.

Cord 49:12

Well, uh, it has been a true pleasure uh to get to know you, a true pr pleasure to have a conversation. I think uh obviously uh Middway Farmacy is such a great idea, you know, from all from all angles. Um and hopefully that is something that that uh people will start to adopt and start to really think about, start to implement in their own communities. Uh so you were telling me the best way um to kind of connect with Middway Farmacy, to connect with you on these ideas is actually the Middway Farmacy Facebook page. Um and just to spell that for everyone one more time, that is M-I-D-D, Double D W A Y, Middway Farmacy, F-A-R-M-A-C-Y. So, uh go check out Middway Farmacy on Facebook. I know that I'm going to uh get off this this interview here, this podcast, and immediately go give you a follow and uh and check out everything that you've got going on there. Uh any other way that you would like to like for people to uh reach out, an email, phone number, what's the best way, Matt?

Matthew Troyer 50:22

Yes, an email um mthw_ troyer@ yahoo.com. So again, mtthw_ troyer@ yahoo.com. And if you do get to the Farmacy page and it's only has like four likes, that's because it only has four likes. It's just new.

Cord 50:43

It's new, yeah. Let's go give you a like just start a follow. Um really boost it up. So, we're counting on you, uh, Shed Geek uh listenership to go and support Matt and uh and get that page rocking and rolling. Um and we will we will take those links and go ahead and put those into the newsletter as well so that you can click through and send Matt uh an email or go and follow the Middway Farmacy Facebook page. Mr. Troyer, thank you so much for being a guest. Uh I truly had a great time with you. Uh uh love your insights, love your spirit, uh, and love what you're doing uh for your community out there in Beaver Springs.

Matthew Troyer 51:23

A pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me. And from the bottom of my heart, anybody that wants to do this, I'm not trying to sell something, reach out. I'll help you in any way I can, and hopefully I can save somebody from having to learn the same lessons I learned. I'll make it as easy on anybody that wants to do this as I possibly can.

Cord 51:43

Awesome. Thank you so much, and we will see you next time for another episode of the podcast.

OUTRO 51:53

Thanks again, Shed Pro for being the Shed Geeks studio sponsor. If you need any more information about ShedPro or about Shed Geek, just reach out. You can reach us by email at info@shedgeek.com. Or just go to our website, www.shedgeek.com, and submit a form with your information, and we'll be in contact right away. Thank you again for listening, as always, to today's episode of the Shed Geek Podcast. Thank you and have a blessed day.