A downtown hardware store is shutting down as the new owners of a grocery store finish renovations that will include an expanded hardware section.
“Well, I’m supposed to close on the 21st of March,” says Craig Good, owner of Good Hardware for the last 18 years.
Good is liquidating his inventory and shutting down his store in the Foodland shopping center, but he’s not getting out of the hardware business. At least not yet.
“The new store, they’re shooting for early April,” Good says. “They’re trying to get as close to April 1 as possible.”
Good will be moving to the new, larger hardware section in the same building. He’ll operate the store as manager, not own it. That’s fine with him.
“I didn’t really see any reason to invest a small fortune only to try to retire in 10 years and still owe another 10 years on the investment,” Good says.
That small fortune would include the expense of remodeling most of the west end of the Foodland building that’s owned by the Juneau-based Rosenberger family. Good will have more space and more employees as he shifts from True Value to the Ace hardware line. Missing, though, will be his longtime hardware diva Terry Toon, who handled customer inquiries for unique parts and hardware solutions.
“A lot of people have been giving me credit for being the go-to guy here. But she was a notch above me,” Good says. “I may have paid the bills, but she ran the store.”
Toon recently took a job at Western Auto in Lemon Creek.
Tyler Myers, president of the Washington-based Myers Group that owns Foodland IGA, declined to say how much they paid to buy out Good’s business, but he says they wanted to keep Good there, somehow.
“We think Craig’s got a great reputation in town. He’s very personable person and he’s got a lot of skills and knowledge,” Myers says. “I think he’ll be a great asset to the store. Hopefully, it will feel to a lot of people that there hasn’t been a lot of change other than the store in a different spot, it’s bigger, and it has maybe a little deeper assortment.”
Meanwhile, consultant Richard Rabb has set up a table at Good Hardware. Rabb represents Colorado-based GA Wright Sales, a firm that’s in the business of closing down businesses. Rabb is helping Good get the most cash for his inventory, and do it quickly.
“I may have a retail background,” Rabb says. “But it’s an art form to close a store, and make it efficient and profitable.”
Merchandise and even some of the fixtures are discounted every week. Rabb’s promotion keeps customers returning until the doors close for good at Good.
“The whole purpose of the contest is to have people come in often,” Rabb says. “When they come in often, they’ll find something else that they’re going to need, especially as prices change. You may not want it today. But two weeks from now, it may be a different price, you may want it.”
Customer Bob Zukas says Good traditionally has things “that they don’t have in many of the other stores in town.”
Zukas now lives in the valley, but he used to regularly come into the hardware store while repairing his older downtown home.
“Things were breaking and this was the most convenient and only location that I could get to quick and easy for a lot of that stuff,” Zukas says.
Good says he started helping at the old Lyle’s Hardware on Front Street as a college student. When those owners retired, he opened his own store.
“A lot of people like to meet and interact at the hardware store, probably to a similar degree the produce section at the grocery store. It is a very social environment,” Good says. “I like being downtown. I like rubbing elbows. I like being able to walk to the coffee shop. I like being able to chat with people on the way.”
And, Good says he’ll likely continue putting out the coffee and tin of cookies for his old customers in his new store.