Shelton Battery remains charged up for 50 years

Shelton Battery, 3731 S. Valley View Blvd., recently celebrated its 50th anniversary. In true Las Vegas fashion, the company threw a party with food, showgirl mannequin dealers, free hats and T-shirts, restored vintage cars and, of course, a Dolly Parton impersonator.

According to the Small Business Administration, within the first five years, small business failure rates are estimated between 50 to 80 percent. The locally owned family business has defied the odds in this gambling town.

Owner Carl Watson, 81, downplayed the achievement.

“We grew pretty much with the town, but not like Caesars Palace grew,” Watson said.

Watson moved his young family from Grafton, Ill., to Las Vegas in 1958. He worked as a shill at the Horseshoe Casino for $1 an hour. He later moved next door to the old Boulder Club and tried his hand at dealing craps.

In 1966, he jumped at the suggestion of a fellow dealer, John Shelton, to quit working for others and open a business together.

“I didn’t know anything about batteries — nothing,” Watson said.

Shelton had prior experience working in a tire store in California, and the two budding entrepreneurs figured batteries were something that everyone would always need.

They started Shelton Battery at 10th and Fremont streets, renting an old service station next to Atomic Liquors for $250 a month. The first company purchase was $40 for a 1938 Ford panel truck used for deliveries.

“We did a lot of business with the used car lots starting out,” Watson said. “We’d deliver a battery to a used car lot and install it for $6.95, and that was with a guarantee.”

They sold every battery, every day.

“We had no hours. We just worked until the last customer,” Watson said. “A lot of times, I’d take the battery out of the delivery truck and sell it because it was all I had left.”

After the morning delivery of new batteries arrived, he would replace the truck battery. This continued until the fledgling business had enough revenue to acquire a battery inventory.

Within six months, Watson bought out Shelton and became the sole owner.

Starting a business from scratch with a wife and four young children depending on him, Watson was determined, yet fearless.

“What I enjoy about it is the freedom you have,” Watson said. “You have a lot of freedom to show up when you want. You just work all the time. If you aren’t working, you are thinking about it.”

Watson remembers many a sleepless night when he couldn’t turn off his mind about the business.

“I’d wake up at 2 o’clock in the morning and start thinking about all the things I’d have to do,” he said. “I’d just get up and go to work. There weren’t any customers, of course, but there was a lot of things to do besides wait on customers when we first started.”

Shelton Battery moved to its current location in 1983, and the business evolved from mainly a retail counter and servicing used car lots to providing batteries to fleets.

“We deal with paving companies, cement companies, cab companies, hotels, a lot of golf courses and golf repair shops,” said Jeff Watson, Carl’s son and general manager of Shelton Battery.

The store still maintains a retail counter that prides itself on service to the customer.

“I really enjoyed taking care of the customers and making sure they got what they needed at the right price,” Carl Watson said.

He said he built the business with little to no advertising. “I always believe, rather than spending thousands (of dollars) a month on advertising, that if you treat your customers right, they will tell their neighbors,” he said.

Call 702-362-8180 or visit sheltonbatterylv.com.