WHO IS THE PRECISION OPTICAL: THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE BUSINESSMay 19, 2021News
Precision Optical – Owner, Pete Heinrich
Written by Stacy Thomas
Photo by Angela Bliss
When you’ve been in the same business for almost forty years, you learn a thing or two. And for Pete Heinrich, owner of Precision Optical, it’s been all about good customer service since the very beginning.
“People will talk about my personality, they say I’m a nice guy, I’m usually pretty kind, and that’s the thing that I like, that people think of me that way,” says Heinrich. “But that’s what I like to do all day long, is be nice to people, and this occupation really does afford me that luxury. And I have not gotten sick of this job. Even after doing it this long.”
Heinrich has been an optician since his early twenties when he first started working at a shop in North Vancouver, where he grew up near the Seymour River (one reason why he liked Squamish so much when he first moved here; it reminded him of his youth).
He started working Saturdays in the store where his girlfriend worked, then he was promoted to full-time, then within weeks of starting he was offered a management position. He turned down that promotion because he felt he wasn’t ready, but he did take training from a highly educated mentor, and now, forty years later at the age of 62, he’s the brand-new owner of Precision Optical, in the position of being able to impart his own knowledge and experience to his employees.
When Heinrich met his wife, a Squamish native, in 2002, he quickly fell in love with the area and made the move the following year, commuting to North Vancouver for five years until he started working at Precision in 2008, for original owner Tom Huggins. Huggins opened the store in 1979, making it one of the oldest retail businesses in Squamish – a history that Heinrich is proud to be part of. Huggins retired in 2017 and Heinrich took over, and the transition has been smooth.
“I didn’t think that I would be owning a business at that stage in my life. I was creeping up to sixty at that point,” Heinrich says. And he couldn’t have chosen a more tumultuous time to take over a retail business, with online shopping changing the landscape of retail, and then a global pandemic to boot. But he’s taken everything in stride and credits his experience and his staff for his success.
“Retail has changed so much in the last five years, that you really have to think on your feet more,” Heinrich says. “In the past everything was more cookie-cutter in terms of how retail worked, especially in the optical industry, but it’s changed quite a bit because people have more options now in terms of where they can buy their glasses – there’s a lot of online competition. I think that’s sort of exciting, because it means I have to come up with different ideas to combat that.”
It really comes down to solid, reliable customer care, Heinrich says. After forty years of working directly with the public, he still believes that friendly, sincere customer connection is the single most important thing in retail and is what sets Precision Optical apart, as it did in the days when Huggins was store owner. And Heinrich’s genuine love of people is what keeps bringing them back, be they old-time regulars or new transplants to the area.
“Little boys and girls do not stay up at night dreaming about becoming opticians,” he laughs. “Most opticians sort of fall into the job. But I have really loved it. I’ve been doing it for a really long time, and it’s been good for me and kept me happy.
“The last year has been a little bit of a challenge. But we’ve done better than I thought we would. We held our own, just opened the door and hoped for the best and it’s worked out really good.”
When not in the shop, Heinrich can be found with his wife walking their two German Shepherds and elderly MinPin, volunteering, and enjoying everything that Squamish life has to offer.
Precision Optical – Owner, Pete Heinrich
Written by Stacy Thomas
Photo by Angela Bliss
When you’ve been in the same business for almost forty years, you learn a thing or two. And for Pete Heinrich, owner of Precision Optical, it’s been all about good customer service since the very beginning.
“People will talk about my personality, they say I’m a nice guy, I’m usually pretty kind, and that’s the thing that I like, that people think of me that way,” says Heinrich. “But that’s what I like to do all day long, is be nice to people, and this occupation really does afford me that luxury. And I have not gotten sick of this job. Even after doing it this long.”
Heinrich has been an optician since his early twenties when he first started working at a shop in North Vancouver, where he grew up near the Seymour River (one reason why he liked Squamish so much when he first moved here; it reminded him of his youth).
He started working Saturdays in the store where his girlfriend worked, then he was promoted to full-time, then within weeks of starting he was offered a management position. He turned down that promotion because he felt he wasn’t ready, but he did take training from a highly educated mentor, and now, forty years later at the age of 62, he’s the brand-new owner of Precision Optical, in the position of being able to impart his own knowledge and experience to his employees.
When Heinrich met his wife, a Squamish native, in 2002, he quickly fell in love with the area and made the move the following year, commuting to North Vancouver for five years until he started working at Precision in 2008, for original owner Tom Huggins. Huggins opened the store in 1979, making it one of the oldest retail businesses in Squamish – a history that Heinrich is proud to be part of. Huggins retired in 2017 and Heinrich took over, and the transition has been smooth.
“I didn’t think that I would be owning a business at that stage in my life. I was creeping up to sixty at that point,” Heinrich says. And he couldn’t have chosen a more tumultuous time to take over a retail business, with online shopping changing the landscape of retail, and then a global pandemic to boot. But he’s taken everything in stride and credits his experience and his staff for his success.
“Retail has changed so much in the last five years, that you really have to think on your feet more,” Heinrich says. “In the past everything was more cookie-cutter in terms of how retail worked, especially in the optical industry, but it’s changed quite a bit because people have more options now in terms of where they can buy their glasses – there’s a lot of online competition. I think that’s sort of exciting, because it means I have to come up with different ideas to combat that.”
It really comes down to solid, reliable customer care, Heinrich says. After forty years of working directly with the public, he still believes that friendly, sincere customer connection is the single most important thing in retail and is what sets Precision Optical apart, as it did in the days when Huggins was store owner. And Heinrich’s genuine love of people is what keeps bringing them back, be they old-time regulars or new transplants to the area.
“Little boys and girls do not stay up at night dreaming about becoming opticians,” he laughs. “Most opticians sort of fall into the job. But I have really loved it. I’ve been doing it for a really long time, and it’s been good for me and kept me happy.
“The last year has been a little bit of a challenge. But we’ve done better than I thought we would. We held our own, just opened the door and hoped for the best and it’s worked out really good.”
When not in the shop, Heinrich can be found with his wife walking their two German Shepherds and elderly MinPin, volunteering, and enjoying everything that Squamish life has to offer.
