At the age of 21, with his wife & six month old daughter by his side, Joe Dupuis, decided to start a vacuum store by the name of HILLYBILLY VAC SHACK. The world has never been the same since. That six month old baby, his daughter Sajauta, who is 25 years old today, now helps her father run this booming (not so little anymore) business.

When Joe had been selling vacuums for the Fairfax company, he would get asked the same questions over and over. Do you sell used vacuums? Do you take trade-ins? Do you repair vacuums?

After thinking this through Joe decided to start the store out of an old house on a very busy intersection with over 40,000 cars going by daily. He still remembers people driving by and laughing. He didn't know if they were laughing at the store, the HILLYBILLY VAC SHACK name or just him. So he determined that he'll see who laughs last.

To his astonishment, in his first month, he had difficulty keeping the stock on the floor and he was up to his elbows in repairs. He literally had to hire a full time repairman because he just couldn't keep up with the work even though he was putting in an average of 12 to 16 hours per day.

Little did he know the City of Regina was abuzz with the name "HILLYBILLY VAC SHACK".

Everyone he spoke to said the name was unique and very easy to remember. In fact a lot of people laughed when they first heard the name because it was so neat. Some said it was even a little crazy, but a "fun" crazy... not an insane crazy!

After being at that location for 3 years he was forced to move because, due to it's excellent location, it was found to be an excellent location by the City, too, for a fire hall which still sits there today.

Luckily Joe found an old house up for sale only a half block west. It ended up being better because parking was more easily accessible and customers could see the front and the back of the store.

By the time 1982 rolled around, Joe had three full time employees and 4 part time. To drum up business, Joe had all kinds of different ideas including delivering coupons door to door, going to trade shows and putting vacuums on the sidewalk for "sidewalk sales".

One day he got an idea to put a mechanical gorilla outside his store. Immediately people noticed and would come in and tell him.

Then one day, on a whim, Joe thought if a mechanical monkey could attract that much attention, why not try a "live" gorilla. Of course, with our frigid Canadian winters, it would be difficult to put a REAL gorilla out on the sidewalk, but why not try a person in a gorilla "suit"?

Now, one must remember that back then there were very few mascots. The only local ones that Joe remembers were the A&W Root Bear and Gainer the Gopher (the local football mascot). Of course since then, there have been a plethora of mascots that have come to fruition. Back then though, no one had ever seen a walking, waving, jumping & grunting gorilla advertise for a retail store let alone wearing a sign saying "HILLYBILLY LIKES YOU"!

The very first day a teenager stepped out into the simian garb he was told by a police officer to "get off the sidewalk"! Joe, sensing that it was one of his competitors who had complained to the police, told the teen to go "right back out on the sidewalk and that he was not doing anything unlawful"! What harm, he mused, could a gorilla do by waving at passers-by? If anything that gorilla put alot of joy in people's hearts. The police never bothered him again until about twenty years later (We'll get to that part soon). Joe smilingly chuckled that perhaps it was a descendent of the first officer who had told the gorilla to "get of the sidewalk" the first time! Like father like son, Joe laughed.

Well the response to the lovable gorilla was UNBELEIVABLE! Business became so full of busy...ness that Joe had to hire even more people and had no choice but to expand his building in 1991 to what it is today. Today because the building has quadrupled there is alot more room...however Joe is again contemplating expansion because they are again...running out of room!

Now picture this, the HILLYBILLY VAC SHACK at this time (the 1980's and 1990's) is known all across Saskatchewan and some of Canada.

In 2002 for reasons unbeknownst to Joe, HILLYBILLY VAC SHACK gets charged with "causing a distraction" for having flashing lights in the window. This was quite a shock to Joe as their had always been lights in the window to help guide the farmers who came in from out of town...and no one had ever complained.

So, off to court Joe went...with the gorilla by his side. To his astonishment all the media were there: TV, radio and the newspapers. ALL of the media!

Amazingly Joe & the gorilla got the same support and honks from passing vehicles that they got at the store. It appeared that everyone was on HILLYBILLY's side.

And no one in the entire world had EVER taken a gorilla to court before!

After some anxiety about what would happen, Joe was notified by the crown prosecutor that the charges had been dropped.

Victory at last!

Whew! The ordeal was over. Or so he thought.

Interestingly a couple of months later one of the teenage gorillas showed up to work by the only means of transportation he had that day, rollerblades!

Little did the 15 year old in the gorilla suit know it would alter the course of world opinion...forever.

Unbeknownst to Joe, 15 minutes later that same teenage boy would be charged by a police officer for the same charge "causing a distraction"! Joe couldn't believe it! The other three gorillas working that day weren't charged and yet the "rollerblading" gorilla was.

Well, this time Joe decided to fight it in court. The gorilla extravaganza ended up being on the CBC National news, CBS and the New York Post to mention a few. He was even interviewed by a National radio host and teased by Canadian politicians! HILLYBILLY VAC SHACK had become an international icon!

In this "Year of the Monkey" ongoing saga of twists and turns everyone was numbed to hear that the "young offender gorilla" was pronounced GUILTY! Yes you heard right! The HILLYBILLY VAC SHACK gorilla was now labeled a criminal! No one could believe it! And this was supposed to be Canada "The Land of the True North Strong and Free"?

So Joe and the gorilla are doing the only thing a true red blooded gorilla would do. They are appealing! A court date still hasn't been set. But if you keep in touch by watching our website we will keep our HILLYBILLY GORILLY FANS IN TOUCH. We will never let our fans down!

The HILLYBILLY VAC SHACK website is always growing...just like the business.

Joe says the first 25 years are just the beginning. Now armed with over a quarter century of valued experience and hard earned information, Joe plans to forge ahead in the vacuum industry in every way by "super educating" his customers.

Joe has always enjoyed teaching and knows in his "heart of hearts" that if a consumer can be educated PROPERLY about a product, that consumer can then make a logical choice based on facts and not just blind trust.

Not only does HILLYBILLY VAC SHACK look forward to marketing even more in the domestic and commercial market, it also foresees engaging in specialty items such as robot vacs, medical vacs, and battery vacs etc. etc. etc. There are no limits to the amount we can help people in the vacuum industry says Joe.

Joe also has had entrepenurially spirited people ask him why he hasn't considered franchising. Joe admits that over the years he had considered it but only feels that now is the best time since the HILLYBILLY GORILLY is INTERNATIONALLY recognized and a SOLID foundation of conscientous hardworking loyal staff have been put into place. These winners literally took decades to find. Good people are very hard to find and unless there is a true opportunity, even more difficult to keep. Joe truly believes he couldn't have found and trained better HILLYBILLY personnel on the planet. They are all handpicked and LOVE working at HILLYBILLY. And most importantly Joe knows that these good people will support our new HILLYBILLY VAC SHACK franchisees like members of their own family.

Now also that Joe has his beautiful daughter, Sajauta backing him 100% and other supportive shareholders who have faith in the HILLYBILLY VAC SHACK system, he can now dedicate his "time for those adventurous fun loving entrepreneurs who want in on the HILLYBILLY VAC SHACK franchising opportunity. For those souls who love the idea of having a business of their own helping people, Joe has a special spot in his heart, and is always open to hearing viewpoints from those who wish to join the HILLYBILLY VAC SHACK franchise opportunity on the road to success.