Caribou Jack cuts the ribbon in Pocatello’s Historic Downtown

POCATELLO — Caribou Jack, a new hardware store in Pocatello’s Historic Downtown, cut a ribbon at its new location Friday in front of a crowd of onlookers.

Robert Lau is the owner of the new store. This is the second Caribou Jack location he has opened, the first being in his hometown of Soda Springs. He opened that store in 2010 and then expanded it to have a barbeque restaurant in 2017.

Before Lau was a business owner, he had a career in the corporate world for 16 years. Before he bought his hardware store, he’d always been interested in do-it-yourself work and remodeling projects. Opening a hardware store seemed the next logical step.

“I was looking for a change from the corporate world to something with, you know, that I could have more say in what I was doing,” Lau said.

Another advantage of owning a business is Lau has been able to teach his children how to work hard. His oldest son is 23 and he was at the ribbon cutting as a representative of Gozney Pizza, which was serving food at the event.

There were representatives from a number of other companies at the event, including Traeger Grills, Milwaukee Tool, PPG Paints and Valspar.

Caribou Jack carries a wide range of hardware products like automotive, plumbing and electrical equipment. They also have paint products, a sporting goods department as well as lawn and garden goods. On the second-floor mezzanine, they carry cooking and grilling products.

While the Pocatello location is still waiting on some cooking products to come in, its hardware stock is fully ready for shoppers to browse and make their selections.

Besides the major outlets in Pocatello, Lau said that Caribou Jack is the only store in Pocatello with an entire floor dedicated to cookware supplies. He also said that while it’s a challenge, his prices are competitive with those major outlets.

“If you took a shopping basket of 20 random items you would find that we would be very competitive singularly. It’s always tough to say on any one product,” Lau said. “We’re very competitive all the way around the store. I think you would find pricing to be fairly well in line with what you would find anywhere else.”

Lau also said shoppers can find a more personable experience at Caribou Jack than they would at a major outlet. He said that he’s seen comments on Facebook about how good the service is at Caribou Jack.

“We try to greet everybody when they walk in the door,” Lau said. “That really is part of our hallmark. We try to be of great service and friendly every time somebody comes in the door.”

The business is located at 20 North Arthur Avenue in Pocatello.