A family tragedy spurred the creation of a new store in Baker City.

“This is in memory of my son Travis,” said Donna Cook, who opened Direct Hit Outlet and The Squeaky Stirrup Feb. 7 at 2120 Broadway St.

Her son, Travis Talbott, died in a car accident last September, a day she remembers receiving “the worst phone call of my life.”

She and her husband, Doug, were retired, but her son’s death made her seek more family time.

The store is a partnership between Donna and Doug Cook, Dylan and Emily Glock, and Dusty Glock.

“We just wanted to open a family business,” Emily Glock said.

The first floor is the Direct Hit Outlet, which will feature a rotating inventory of overstock and return merchandise they buy from Amazon and Home Depot.

“We buy it by the semi load so the inventory will always be changing,” Emily said.

Items are priced lower than in the brand-name stores.

“Whatever their price is, we’re maybe 60 percent of that,” Donna said.

And they never know what treasures will show up on the truck.

“We get a manifest but it’s usually wrong,” Dylan said.

See more in the Feb. 21, 2018, issue of the Baker City Herald.