Quinlan’s winning hand is full of Jax

Jim Quinlan got a taste of retail while running Ames Surplus, his parents’ military surplus store in Ames, Iowa. At 18, he was the store manager and sole employee, but by that time he’d had six years of experience in the store. He was ringing up customer purchases at age 12.

Today, he helms Jax Mercantile, with six stores along the Front Range from Fort Collins to Broomfield. The seventh is in Ames, which makes perfect sense since that…