Front and Center: Longtime Becherini Scale Center owner leans toward retirement

After spending much of his Montana youth cleaning machinery fouled with animal parts, Grant Becherini was certain his career prospects lay somewhere – anywhere – other than with the family business of selling and maintaining weight scales.

He initially imagined himself as a rancher, but soon discovered “you either have to marry into it or inherit it.”

So he switched his focus to teaching science and math.

That goal was temporarily dry-docked by a four-year stint with the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War.

Once discharged and degreed, Becherini took a teaching post in southwest Montana. But the pay was so meager that “if you didn’t hunt and fish, you’d starve,” he recalled.

And after just one year, Becherini found himself without a contract.

Meanwhile, the scale industry was transitioning from levers to electronics, a technology Becherini learned in the Navy. So when his father invited him to join the family business at 317 E. Sprague Ave., Becherini accepted, and never regretted his decision.

Now nearing retirement, Becherini reflected on more than four decades devoted to inconspicuous equipment that area residents encounter almost daily.

S-R: You grew up in Montana. What first brought you to Spokane?

Becherini: My dad started with Toledo Scale Co. in Billings in 1950. In 1962, they asked him to take over this territory, so we moved here my senior year in high school.

S-R: What were your interests back then?

Becherini: I originally thought I wanted to be a Montana rancher, so I started out studying animal science at Washington State (University). Then I switched to range management – BLM-type stuff. But I didn’t get along with the botany, so I changed my major to general physical science – chemistry, physics, geology, math – and eventually earned a degree to teach that.

S-R: Why did you leave school to join the Navy?

Becherini: Every senior in my fraternity got their notice to report for (military) induction in 1967. I enlisted so I’d have more choices. I was fascinated with submarines, but couldn’t do that because of my glasses. So I chose anti-submarine warfare, which allowed me to fly, and I loved it. I would have stayed in the Navy, but I wanted to finish my degree and teach.

S-R: Then you returned to Montana?

Becherini: Yes, I took the job in Twin Bridges. But the pay was terrible, and their policy was to replace 70 percent of their teachers every year to keep wages at entry level. I was their seventh math and science teacher in eight years.

S-R: What did you do when they didn’t renew your contract?

Becherini: I sent letters to about 200 school districts throughout the West, but there was nothing available. Meanwhile, this business was transitioning from mostly mechanical scales to electronic circuitry. My training in the Navy was electronics, so my dad said, “Come work for me.” I started as a technician, and five years later he retired and I bought the business.

S-R: Why had you resisted joining the family business before that?

Becherini: When we lived in Montana, my dad was on the road at least four days a week. And from the time I was 11 or 12, every Saturday we’d go to a meat-packing plant and I would tear down one of the mechanical scales and clean it with lots of solvents. It was totally distasteful.

S-R: What was the company’s focus when you joined Becherini Scale Center in 1973?

Becherini: We were probably 80 percent retail – grocery stores, mainly – with the rest industrial. My dad’s forte was retail, so he turned the industrial accounts over to me and I started growing that side of the business. I sold the first electronic counting scale to Jensen-Byrd in 1975. But retail remained the major portion of our business until the mid-’90s.

S-R: Then what happened?

Becherini: Safeway, our No. 1 customer, took over their own service work. That put a huge dent in our business. And equipment became more reliable, so it needed less service. But we kept expanding the industrial side.

S-R: How are the two markets different?

Becherini: Industrial is more subject to peaks and valleys, whereas retail is pretty steady. Since most of our business is industrial now, the recession really hurt. But we’re finally coming out of it.

S-R: What lessons did your father teach you about the business?

Becherini: Honesty first. And remember that customers aren’t always right. Show them what they really need up front – educate them – and they’ll remain good customers.

S-R: Are there other local companies that do what you do?

Becherini: Yes, but their main focus is heavy-capacity truck scales for the grain industry.

S-R: What’s the range of scales you service?

Becherini: Everything from person weighers in doctors’ offices to the 120,000-pound truck scales at the Colbert and Valley transfer stations.

S-R: Are some customers attached to their traditional mechanical scales?

Becherini: Yes, some farmers and small industries. We just worked on a Fairbanks-Morse scale from the 1920s or ’30s at Crown Foods up on Northwest Boulevard. He switched from an anodized aluminum platter to a stainless-steel one, and it weighed so much more that we had to adjust the scale.

S-R: Are the industrial scales people typically encounter today pretty reliable?

Becherini: Yes, and they’re self-diagnostic. For instance, the scales at the transfer stations have 12 load cells, and if one isn’t working properly, the computer sends an error code.

S-R: How much does one of those scales cost?

Becherini: $70,000 or $80,000, not including the foundation. By the time you put everything together, they’re probably $150,000.

S-R: How accurate were the old Toledo lollipop-shaped scales?

Becherini: They were probably accurate within an ounce at 100 pounds, because they relied on pendulum technology instead of springs. The limitation on the lollipop scales was how many marks you could fit on the dial. The standard was 1,000 divisions, or one-tenth of 1 percent.

S-R: What do you like most about your job?

Becherini: I get to see every type of industry there is, because scales are everywhere. We go places that most people have no idea even exist – like Goodrich, which manufactures pads for aircraft brakes, and Inflation Systems in Moses Lake, which makes propellant for airbags.

S-R: What do you like least?

Becherini: The administration. Large corporations have people who specialize in different tasks. With a small business, you have to be a jack of all trades.

S-R: What’s the future of this industry?

Becherini: Probably more consolidation. And finding good workers is getting tougher. They have to be willing to crawl down inside a truck scale at a grain plant, and yet be conversant with computer systems. It’s hard to find a geeky person willing to put up with the nasty side of the job.

S-R: What’s ahead for your company?

Becherini: I’m ready to retire, so we’re pursuing a sale that I hope to complete in the next year or two.

S-R: And then what?

Becherini: I’d like to stay on for a while if I can get rid of the administrative chores. I enjoy selling things, talking to people and solving their problems – that’s the fun part.

S-R: On a scale of 1 to 10, has this been a good career?

Becherini: Yes, definitely a 10. We didn’t get rich, but we’ve raised a family and had a good time.