Store Tour
This is the entrance to our store. We are located in Centralia, Washington, a small city in the southwest portion of Washington State.
When someone visits Madsen's the first time, we often hear, "Wow. I can't believe it. This has to be the world's biggest saw shop." Perhaps it is, because inside you'll find over thirty thousand square feet of products for professional saw users. While we target pro saw users, we think anyone who appreciates quality tools and durable outdoor wear will find something to like at Madsen's.
From Interstate 5, our facility is easy to get to from either direction. We are also not far from the Centralia/Chehalis airport. It is only about two miles away. If you choose to fly in, give us some notice and we will arrange for transportation to our store.
This is what our store looks like after a snowfall. It doesn't snow often in Western Washington, but there are a few weeks each winter when we get some snow. Because we are at a low elevation and not far from the ocean, most of the time snow doesn't stay around very long.
When the weather is like this, warm work clothes and boots are on everyone's list.
This is how our store looks most of the time. This photo was taken in the morning just after we opened. As you can see, we have plenty of easy parking. Stop in for a visit. The coffee pot is always on.
Here are a few pics taken inside our store. You'll see we stock deep and complete inventories of products for professional saw users.
We are an authorized dealer for Stihl and Husqvarna power equipment.
This our saw display. As you can see, we have a wide variety of pro saws from both Husqvarna and Stihl to choose from.
This is a part of our hickory shirt floor stock. We stock both zipper and button front hickory shirts in sizes: S - 4XL. We have tall sizes, too.
Need hi-visibility work wear? We've got it. Choose from T-shirts, sweat-shirts, vests, rain-wear, and more!
These are logger's jeans. We stock over 2000 pair. Are you a big or tall person? We can fit you!
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These are our sales and service counters. We have plenty of stools for customers to relax on while they get what they need or wait to for a repair to be completed.
The low counter in the foreground is a service counter. The others are sales counters. All counter tops are made of steel and are "saw friendly." No one growls when you place a saw on one of our counters.
Our shop is open, and while it is an area that is open to the public, it is easy to see equipment being serviced.
Even on busy days, check out lines are rare. Waiting wastes your valuable time and we know it!
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Here's what it looks like inside our warehouse. Our large inventory insures we offer you a good selection. You don't want to hear, "We can get that for you." When you come to get something you need, you want to leave with it!
As you can see, buying truckload quantities is no problem for us. Buying in bulk is the secret to low prices. It often enables us to deal directly with manufacturers, eliminating middlemen and their markups. When we save, you save.
This is a portion of our guide bar inventory. We regularly carry over a thousand bars for Stihl and Huqvarna pro saws. We also carry a good selection of bars for harvesters.
We stock mix oil and bar & chain oil in many sizes including fifty-five gallon drums. If you buy for a crew, ask us about drum pricing.
Our warehouse is neat and efficient. Handling inventory is like logging -- the more you have to handle the logs, the higher your cost. The higher your cost, the more you have to charge. Simple rule: You have to be efficient to offer low prices!
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Most shops place their service area in the back of their facility -- forcing customers to walk through the store. That is not the way we do it. Our service counter is the first thing you see when you walk into our store.
Yes, our shop is always neat and clean. We didn't tidy up for this photo. We try to be the kind of shop we'd want to take our own power equipment to for service. We believe people like bringing their equipment to a clean, well organized, and efficient shop.
The saw racks shown on the left were specially designed to hold saws with long bars. Saws with bars up to 36" will nest with saws entering the rack from the other side. This makes is easy for us to store over two hundred saws. Saws waiting for service are on the top shelf and those that that are ready to be picked-up are on the lower shelves.
A neat feature about these shelves is they are designed to collect oil that drips from the stored saws. Oil never drips on to a lower shelf and a saw never sits in oil, even if it leaks. The shelf is "V" shaped, so oil collects in the center of the shelf where it is absorbed. The rail along the edge and the angle of the base metal also helps keep saws from falling off the shelf if they are bumped.
This is one of our chain cutting benches. The tool Bob is using is an old chain spinning-press that was once used by Oregon Cutting Systems to manufacture saw chain. Oregon replaced these machines years ago with automatic assembly machines. We obtained two of the manual machines after Oregon retired them, and today we use them to spin rivets in joints when we make up a loop of chain. The result is our joints are sometimes hard to find because our rivets look so good.
One of the ways we keep our shop clean is by test running saws while standing on this grate. Below the grate is a large catch-pan that collects oil drips from saw engines. This catch-pan guides oil into a small container that can be seen on the left side of the photo.
All of our grinding and welding is done in a special room. This helps us contain the mess from these operations. We don't do anything that is dusty or smoky in our main shop. For crew comfort and health, this room is also equipped with a dust collection system.
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This our shipping area. From here, we take your order, pack it in a box, and get it on its way to you as quickly as possible.
Our shipping line is efficient. It works like an assembly line. Usually, an order is picked by one person and processed by another. This helps minimize mistakes and insures that your order is accurate.
Boxes are packed on these tables and then placed on the rollers.
On the last station, packages are weighed and get a mailing label. The yellow machine on the end is a semi-automatic banding machine.
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This our boot area. We have hundreds of pairs of work boots. We carry Red Wing., Danner, Viberg, Xtratuf, and many more.
We also have many styles of caulked boots.For the best fit, come in and let us fit you.
While you're here check out our boot testing area. Here you walk on logs and learn how boots feel in the woods, before you buy them!
While many of our customers wear calked boots, we sell regular work boots, too. Here is a some of our Danner and Red Wing floor inventory. Also, if you need special boots we don't have in stock, we are happy to place special orders.