Broward County might not seem a place with strong consumer demand for gun safes, equestrian helmets, chicken wire, saddle soaps and fortified deer chow.

But decision-makers at Tractor Supply, a 2,108-store chain that bills itself as the nation’s “largest rural lifestyle retailer,” have identified a local market for its unique blend of countrified goods and services.

For it’s first Broward location, the company selected a spot about as far from the county’s urbanized core as possible: 20100 Pines Blvd. in Pembroke Pines, about a mile east of U.S. 27, where South Florida’s suburban sprawl abruptly ends and the Everglades begin.

Employees wheel out a gun safe to be loaded into a customer's truck at Tractor Supply Co. in Pembroke Pines on Friday, Dec. 15, 2022. The national chain opened its first Broward County store earlier this month, catering both to consumers on farms and urban residents who enjoy the outdoors.
Employees wheel out a gun safe to be loaded into a customer’s truck at Tractor Supply Co. in Pembroke Pines on Friday, Dec. 15, 2022. The national chain opened its first Broward County store earlier this month, catering both to consumers on farms and urban residents who enjoy the outdoors.

That’s on par with the publicly traded chain’s location strategy. Nasdaq’s Tractor Supply page states that stores are “typically located in towns outside of urban areas and in rural communities.” That explains the chain’s tagline, “For Life Out Here.”

To be sure, there are farms in the new store’s vicinity: large swaths of grasslands populated by grazing cows visible from U.S. 27, Flamingo Farms in Davie, equestrian farms in Southwest Ranches, landscape nurseries and a palm tree plantations.

Animal figurines can be purchased at Tractor Supply's first Broward County store in Pembroke Pines. The store caters to consumers on farms and urban residents who like the outdoors.
Animal figurines can be purchased at Tractor Supply’s first Broward County store in Pembroke Pines. The store caters to consumers on farms and urban residents who like the outdoors.

“While we do not have any exact numbers on these kinds of businesses, we know that the west side of Pembroke Pines, Southwest Ranches, and in the areas adjacent to U.S. 27 there are many farming areas, nurseries, groves, and several working horse and livestock ranches,” said Patty Archer, president of the Miramar-Pembroke Pines Chamber of Commerce.

According to a United States Department of Agriculture fact sheet released in 2020, Broward had 640 farms in 2017. They’re mostly small affairs — 558 of them are 9 acres or less. And the total acreage of all of Broward’s farms combined is just 6,738, or just over 10 acres apiece on average.

But Tractor Supply, headquartered in Brentwood, Tennessee, doesn’t just sell products to people who live on farms.

Product categories reach beyond “Poultry & Livestock” and “Farm & Ranch” and include gear for anyone who enjoys spending time outdoors, including barbecues and patio heaters, lawn mowers and gardening accessories, camping, hiking and fishing supplies, gun safes, children’s outdoor play toys, boots and shoes and work attire from companies like Dickies, Blue Mountain and Columbia Sportswear.

Nicole Vasquez loads a sack of chicken feed in her cart while her son, Kaleb, 5, plays with the stuffed pig he picked out at Tractor Supply's first Broward County store in Pembroke Pines.
Nicole Vasquez loads a sack of chicken feed in her cart while her son, Kaleb, 5, plays with the stuffed pig he picked out at Tractor Supply’s first Broward County store in Pembroke Pines.

Throw in miscellaneous offerings like snacks, holiday decor, truck bed boxes, paint, ladders, air guns, chain saws, blow torches and orange traffic cones, and your family can browse for hours as long as ya”ll don’t mind listening to modern country music over the store’s PA system.

Just don’t expect to find tractors. While tractor tires, trailers and hauling attachments are available, the only tractors offered at Tractor Supply stores are the toy ones.

Feel free to bring the dogs. The Pembroke Pines store has a large section of pet supplies, including bowls, leashes, collars, toys, beds and food, and will soon include a veterinarian clinic, PetVet Clinic, with no appointment necessary for microchipping, vaccinations, fecal testing, plus flea and tick medicines.

And for $9.99, you can take advantage of the store’s Pet Wash station to get them shiny, clean and new again. The station is equipped with elevated wash bays, grooming tables, specialty shampoos, brushes, combs, towels and a professional-grade dryer.

The new Broward store is the chain’s third in the South Florida metro area. Two stores are located in Palm Beach County, in Loxahatchee Groves and Riviera Beach. That county is home to nearly 1,300 farms occupying 487,945 acres. Average acreage per farm is 376, according to the USDA.

Traders apparently are sold on the chain. The company’s stock price has quadrupled since 2013, from $46 a share to nearly $220 today. In October, Zacks Equity Research assigned the firm one of its top growth scores, saying its projected 11.4% earnings-per-share growth and its projected 23.8% cash-flow growth for the year both crush the industry average.

Ron Hurtibise covers business and consumer issues for the South Florida Sun Sentinel. He can be reached by phone at 954-356-4071, on Twitter @ronhurtibise or by email at .