Who's Behind the Counter: Scott Carothers at Bay Country Rentals

Following his in his father’s footsteps, Scott Carothers, along with his younger brother Bruce, has been in the rental business for over 30 years. Productively operating out of Reisterstown leasing power tools and party equipment, his biggest regret might be the name of his store, . Unlike its other locations in Pasadena, Bel Air and Aberdeen, there isn’t really a bay nearby.

Nonetheless, Caruthers has enjoyed living and raising a family in Reisterstown. He sat down with Patch to talk about the keys to success in his particular business, his effective working relationship with his brother and more.

Patch: What do you like about working within the Reisterstown community?

Scott Carothers: We love this community. It’s been great. The community has changed over the years. When we first moved here, I’d guess that about two-thirds of the people were in the trades—electricians, masons, carpenters or something. It’s much more a bedroom community now than it used to be. A lot of people go off to the city to work and they just live out here. It’s always been a good community. Our kids were raised here and went to school here. It’s the kind of place that’s easy to raise a family.

You guys being in business for over 30 years, what’s enabled you to stay running for long?

Well, we don’t have a lot of debt. The thing that probably helps us the most was we bought this building so we do not have the constant raise in rents and stuff like that that other areas have experienced…And, we’ve never been folks to take a lot of money out. We’ve made a decent living that’s allowed us to support our families but we’ve never put the business in jeopardy with a lot of debt and a lot of exposure.

What about the service you provide itself. Why has that withstood some bad economic times?

As far as the customer service end of business, this is a service business. It’s real important to us to give a high level of service to people. We’ve always looked for niches. The original package business plan was to be about 50-50 tools and equipment and party goods. That’s pretty much the way it is even today. Now, we’ve changed some of the things that we carry. Like right now, contractors are not working—especially small contractors—who we tend to help the most.

But, people are still graduating, having birthdays, getting married, so our party goods are quite strong. The dollars in party goods are still as strong as they were before the crash. Now, tools and equipment, they’ve taken a big hit.

I noticed you open at 7:30 a.m., why open the extra couple hours early?

Some of that has to do with the fact that because people are traveling to go to work more distances. If I’m here a little earlier they can shoot by and drop something off or pick something up that they need. Contractors go to work really early…it’s important to be open early.  

After a full day of work, what’s the first thing you like to do when you get in the door to kind of kick back?

We have a routine when I go home. I have two dogs and as soon as they see my car drive up in the driveway I hear the barking. We go to the room where we love puppies and they just sit there and I take them out and we feed them. It’s relaxing with the dogs. My wife works too so she’s usually cooking dinner and stuff like that. After that maybe we’ll have a glass of wine and sit and talk for a bit like grownups.

What’s the most obscure item you’ve either rented out to somebody or that someone’s called and asked for?

We used to rent a two-man bucksaw. You’ve probably seen them if you’ve ever watched that lumberjack contest show on ESPN2. It’s a five foot saw with a handle on each end. WE used to rent that. That’s probably the most unusual thing.

Some siblings probably don’t work well together, but you and your brother have been in this together for so long. What’s the key to that working relationship?

Don’t be redundant. We don’t get in each others’ way. He handles certain things and I handle other things. We trust one another, so we don’t have an issue of I have to watch he’s doing. He handles taxes and sales tax and stuff like that. I handle insurance and hiring and firing and things of that nature. I trust his judgment. If he says this is the way we ought to do it, that’s the way we do it. Don’t misunderstand, we’ve had our disagreements over time and I’m bigger than him so I always get my way. I’m kidding.