This text was obtained via automated optical character recognition.
It has not been edited and may therefore contain several errors.

---

Business editor
Lisa Monti
(228) 896-2311 or
lamonti@sunherald.com
Permits, D-2 Motley Fool, D-3 Personnel file, D-5
www.sunherald.com
THE LIST
Top business books
the LIST-
Business Week?s list of top-selling business books is based on a survey of chain and independent booksellers:
?	1. Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson
?	2. Fish! by Stephen C. Lundin
?	3. Fast Food Nation, by Eric Schlosser
?	4. A Passion to Win, by Sumner Redstone
?	5. First, Break All the Rules, by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman
?	6. Now, Discover Your Strengths, by Marcus Buckingham and Donald 0. Clifton
?	7. Use the News, by Maria Bartiromo, with Catherine Fredman
?	8. The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell
?	9. Gung Ho! by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles
?	10. The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, by John C. Maxwell
by Lisa Monti
Business
Scene
Fitness guru won?t talk shop
?y think I made Richard
Four generations strong
Bay family business builds customer base with service.
Editor?s note: This is the first in an occasional series featuring local businesses that are mainstays in the community.
By LISA MONTI
THE SUN HERALD
BAY ST. LOUIS ? On any
given workday there?s a steady stream of pickups and other vehicles sidling up to the loading dock that?s the entrance to WA McDonald & Sons, a 9&-year-old building materials company a few blocks from downtown Bay St Louis.
Contractors and do-it-yourselfers, along with customers in need of batteries, bug spray or a shower rod start filing in as soon as the store opens its glass doors at 8 a.m.
Six days a week (half a day on Wednesday and Saturday), McDonald?s longtime employees, all wise in the ways of construction and repair, mix paint, load lumber, cut screen and weigh nails for customers the/re likely to know by their first names.
They also guide the inexperienced to just the right products and procedures. On a recent Saturday morning an employee deciphered a problem and prescribed a solution for a novice repairman.
?Exactly,? the customer said, shaking his head. ?Yeah, exactly.?
Jim McDonald is the third generation
PHOTOGRAPHS BY CARA OWSLEY/THE SUN
Jim McDonald, left, owner of W.A. McDonald & Sons, makes a special order for Buddy and Mary Jane Hemphill of Pass Christian of McDonald's customers say the store carries hard-to-find items.
to run the business, which he owns with his wife, Winnie. TTieir daughter Missy Blanchard helps manage the day-to-day operations and is one in a string of relatives who have worked in the rambling store or in the building next door where the lumber is housed.
Jim McDonald keeps copies of a one-page history of the family business on hand for customers who are curious about the long-running operation. Bragging rights include being the oldest Purina Feed dealer in the state.
W.A. McDonald, Jim?s grandfather, opened for business in 1904 at a nearby location, and years later handed the
American flags and thick rolls of duct tape, that building block of home improvement The items are stacked on shelves and hang from the ceiling and just about every inch of wall space.
A sign hanging over the counter sums up the McDonald family?s business philosophy: ?An immediate sale is a temporary advantage ... but a satisfied customer is a permanent asset?
Florence Young of Bay St Ixiuis guesses she?s shopped at the store all her life. ?I used to come with my grandmother. She did all of her shopping here,? she said. ?Monday was her day off to pay her bills and McDonald?s was
than 25 years ago. ?They let me 1 account when I first started out? said. ?They?re real good people, the main tiling.?
Lisa Monti can be reached at 896-1 or at lamonti@sunherald.com.