Blain’s Farm & Fleet

This review is for their auto garage. My girlfriend took her car there to get an alignment. They tried to tell her she needed new tire rods before they could do it. Didn’t do that, took it home, and the tire rods were fine. Took it back and they told me 60−90min. 2.5 hrs later they finished. What a joke. Never again

Well pull your pickup in the parking lot and yell «yee-​haw»! I just love the country fried atmosphere of this family owned chain. The store is clean and staffed with friendly people. I like when people look you in the eye, ya know? The store has an assortment of agricultural items as one would expect. And yes for all of us Duck Dynasty fans, items are available. Although you will find more of a selection at the local Wal-​mart. Who knew? I located unique John Deere items– shirts, key chains, and toys. They have a good selection of girls jeans, as well as, Cubs, Bears, and Farm All items. I was disappointed that they did not carry George Strait Wranglers. But the assorted rain wear, shoes, caps, and shirts made up for most of the disappointment. This is a store that the whole family can enjoy. They even carry $ 3.00 DVD movies! So, make this a frequent trip for family ffun or a solitary outing. You never know what you might find!

Do NOT take your car here. I’m sorry for this review, really I am. This review is going to be longish, but I hope that this experience never happens to anyone else so please read if you consider taking your car here.
I had a bad battery on my car. After I had it jumped, it started so I took it to F&F as they are open the latest in town. I figured no one could really screw up a battery — it’s probably the easiest thing on the car to do. After they replaced it, I was driving home on RT 50 (luckily this all happened before I got back on the highway) and my car overheats. They didn’t even notice that my car was overheating even though they had it running for me. Okay, that’s easy to overlook I guess. I put some water in it until I could buy some more coolant. Get back on the road, then all of a sudden I couldn’t press the gas petal. When I did, nothing happened — the car didn’t accelerate or anything. I made it to the deserted mall parking lot and called my husband. We had it towed to Midas the next morning and they told me that they’ve never once had to replace this part on a car. It’s the cord that’s attached from the engine (I think???) to the petal. They said it’s one of those things that don’t break, but I just figured HUH well that’s my freaking luck! One more thing to note, this part is so freaking rare to replace that I had to be without a car for two days while they ordered the part.
Couple months go by and the battery dies a-​freaking-​GAIN. This time a jump won’t even take, so I’m not able to drive it back in. I call F&F and they say that there’s a warranty on the battery so have AAA tow it back to them. They replace the battery. I get back in my car, and I smell the nastiest, most chemical smell that you’ve ever smelled in your life. I thought I was going to suffocate from the fumes. I get out of the car until the smell dissipated, then get back in after a few minutes passes. I try the pedal again, and what’do’ya know? It doesn’t work again.
I don’t get mad really. I know that things go wrong and I usually give people the benefit of the doubt. At this moment, I am livid. Freaking pissed, about to flip my lid.
I go back in trying to be as calm as possible and not break down in tears or start yelling. The guy comes back out and looks at my car and tells me it’s nothing that they fix so I have to have it towed out. I’ve already used AAA twice for this problem, so I just call a local tow guy. He tows it back to Midas. Midas tells me that it’s not my fault or anything that I’ve done wrong. When they installed the battery, they used the cord (whatever it’s called) as the grounding so it was burning right through the cord — hence the smell.
Here’s the only reason they get 2 stars versus 1. Midas called them and told them had their technicians not installed the battery wrong, the cord wouldn’t have broken. Farm and Fleet paid for my towing, for the labor and for the part (for the 2^nd fix.) I have a feeling that the first $ 300 I paid wouldn’t have been owed, but at this point it’s too late. I’m without a car for another 2 days — for a total of 4 days. 4 days I had to borrow my mom’s car to get to work.
Instead of going to Farm & Fleet because they’re open late, just miss an afternoon of work to go to a real auto shop. That way you won’t miss 4 days of work and save yourself a lot of frustration.

Let me start by saying that I didn’t think I would ever go in this store. I’m a transplant to the area, been here about 4 years now, and didn’t think I would ever need anything for a tractor, hunting, or to purchase motor oil in bulk. My husband however is a regular here and one day I decided to go with him. It’s mostly an alpha man’s heaven (video games and basic electronics aside) HOWEVER I really was surprised. There are some home goods that are decent (a little better than what you can find at Wal-​Mart), clothing departments for infants-​big and tall men, mostly carhartt, Lee, and Real Tree, but there’s also a selection of Columbia for the family and I found a super nice coat for myself that I purchased (imagine that!?). Also, they carry a large selection of Carter’s for baby/​toddlers and I found the sweetest dress and sweater for my daughter, oh and three pairs of Levi’s for my son.
Not to mention the nut roll that was on sale for $.59…$.59! :)
OK, so all in all this place is pretty sweet and even though I wouldn’t stop there on a shopping trip with my girlfriends I will definitely be tagging along more often with hubby.

The Kankakee Blains Farm and Fleet store is a great place to shop. They have a great selection of housewares, clothes for the whole family, sporting goods and tools, They have welders, paint, automotive parts and feed for cows, chickens and other farm animals. But wait, there’s more! They a great selection of snacks and other food items. Lots of yard care products. They also have a great selection or outdoor power products.
They are one of a very few stores who still repair small engine equipment in house, even Sears has closed almost all their repair centers. Blains Farm and Fleet can even order parts for a variety of equipment and It’s cheeper then other places. The repair service is great as they check out the whole unit, not just a quick fix send you on your way type place.
Where else can you get tires on your car, buy a bicycle, get a shovel, buy some horse feed, get some footwear and buy some snacks? NOWHERE!
As I saw on a shirt there, At Blains Farm and Fleet,“If we don’t have it, You don’t need it”.

Excellent selection of very fresh candy and nuts, lawn equipment, tools, and men’s work, outdoor, and Harley Davidson clothing. Their tire prices are on and they do quality routine auto mechanical work. Staff are available for questions. A very good store.

No gentleman farmers here…
I went into this place mid-​afternoon last Monday to purchase some mulch. As expected the price was really really low for what I wanted — cedar mulch only.
Several other items were on my to-​do list and I wandered around filling up my shopping cart accordingly. Each time I asked for help the very young female staff had to ask someone else — they were in training and it was not their fault. But it was still a time-​waster for me.
At the register I was told to leave the one cart inside and go pick up the mulch outside. No one was attending the outside and therefore I had to make some semi-​educated guesses as to what to purchase.
Outside I loaded 10 bags into the shopping cart myself, and carefully navigated the cart to the other side of the building to enter and then back down to the cash register to pay.
The young cashier was quite nice and asked if I needed help getting it to the car. Normally I would say no – but I was just diagnozed with a hernia and told her that circumstance. She called twice for assistance from one particular person to no avail. There were several others lurking in the front of the store who could have given a hand, but didn’t.
Worse, I pulled the car up outside the exit door and began loading the ten bags myself. Struggling, a male customer passed by and said «those bags are slippery» laughed an dkept walking. Then another middle aged man in a pink shirt pretended as though I was invisible. He immediately turned to the right to avoid eye contact and evidently to assuage his non-​guilt. Two elderly women looked at me in horror «this was MY fault» I wondered silently. It seems these Good Old Boys in the sticks haven’t any manners and deserve their reputation.
I doubt I will be going to Farm and Fleet again. It is advertised as friendly and helpful but none of that was apparent to me.

«If we don’t have it, you don’t need it.»
That use to be their motto, may still be. Farm and Fleet, on Route 50 in Bradley IL, just north of the Bradley exit from I-​57, is the closest Farm and Fleet to Chicago, I believe. Why care? Because this is where you get solid, durable clothes cheap. This is where the farmers and construction workers shop. Flannel shirts, heavy duty coats, industrial strength blue jeans, real work boots, insulated everything. They have the brands for this serious stuff too — Columbia Sportswear, Carhartt, Levi’s, Lee, Arctic Quest, Milwaukee Motorcycle.
They’ve got lots of other stuff — like feed for your horses and weed killer for your driveway. And, typically, lots of Illini outerwear. (They’re close to halfway on the drive from Chicago to Urbana, with a dozen fast food restaurants nearby.)