The Last of the Independents

Chain stores have driven most neighborhood hardware stores out of business

By D. Brian Burghart

When Bob Taylor purchased Shelly’s True Value Hardware store in the Greenbrae Plaza in Sparks in 1980, he had no idea that he would end up fighting for his livelihood against giants.

How could he have? Back in those days, hardware meant nuts and bolts instead of computer parts, and most neighborhoods had stores that specialized in screws, paint and widgets. Back in 1980, there were only four stores in the Home Depot chain, all near Atlanta. But just as Goliath was a baby in someone’s arms, today Home Depot has more than 930 stores, three of them in Reno. Last year, the chain did about $38.4 billion in sales.

Some would argue that this kind of success is as red, white and blue as the True Value sign above Taylor’s door and that the only thing America likes better than democracy is free-enterprise competition.

Taylor’s only got the one 3,000-square-feet store. It’s the last independently owned hardware store in Reno or Sparks proper, although there is still one in Lemmon Valley. Taylor said that True Value is a purchasing co-op made up of around 10,000 independent operators, not a chain.

As Taylor and his four employees watched the mega-chains like Home Depot and Eagle Hardware (now Lowe’s) open in the Truckee Meadows, he got worried. As he watched the stores that used to be his competition close their doors, he got scared. Then, when P&S Hardware on Keystone Avenue shut down, he got panicky. And it’s not just small stores who’ve closed. Just last week, Supply One announced plans to close some stores in 60 days.

So, Taylor decided to do something. Out of anger, confusion and desperation, he put up a sign.

The red, white and black placard, which is designed to look like a “Going out of business” sign reads: Don’t allow the Going Out Of Business signs to go up here. Shelly’s has been your family-owned neighborhood hardware store since 1944. We are now the last one left. All seven of the others have been forced out of business by the big box stores. We are heading for the same fate. ... We, like you, are too proud to beg. But this is an earnest plea for your support. Without it, we will be extinct.

True Values
One customer, Wes Handy, has been shopping at Shelly’s since 1951. He said that he could remember the year, because it coincided with the year he got married.

“I shop here because it’s handy,” he said. “The people are awful helpful. They’ve got what I need, and I like the people who run it.”

Taylor’s first association with the store came in 1972, when he was transferred to Sparks to work at Grant’s department store.

Taylor, who’ll be 62 in November, said his family fell in love with the town, but after 14 months, his company transferred him to El Centro, Calif.

“My two oldest were tired of being the new kids in school every year,” Taylor recalled. “Carl Shelly needed to retire, and I needed a job. It was through our friendship this thing evolved. I ended up buying the store from him that way.”

Home Depot has its advocates as well.

William and Beverly Watson come all the way from Doyle, Calif., to shop at the Home Depot on Northtowne Lane.

“They’re nice here,” said Beverly.

“They always have what I want, and the prices are always fair,” adds her husband.

Indeed, it’s the combination of the products you used to find in lumber yards, hardware stores and plant nurseries that has been so successful for Home Depot. Shoppers can generally find what they want, and with the large-scale purchasing discountsany that the chain can pass along to the consumer, many people find the one-stop shopping very convenient. If other proof were necessary, the chain employs more than 201,000 workers.

Home Despot
Home Depot spokesman Chuck Sifuentes said that many independent hardware stores thrive when a new Home Depot opens its doors.

“Many times when Home Depot comes into communities, Home Depot will draw more attention to home improvement and create an environment where more people are working and doing projects at their homes,” Sifuentes said. “We have found that there’s a spill-over effect to the independent retailers. So those independent businesses, like the True Values, if they find niches in the market that we aren’t addressing, then they become successful, and they prosper.”

He said those niches sometimes include things like small-engine repair shops, repairing or making window screens, repairing or making windows.

On the other hand, he is not apologetic about the chain’s huge prosperity. Nor should he be. It’s practically a Horatio Alger story to have gone from no stores in 1978 to more than 930 stores with an average of 130,000 square feet and 40-50,000 products per store last year.

“Shoppers make their choices by the way they spend their money,” Sifuentes said. “They’ll go to the places where they find the greatest value and greatest selection.”

It’s all about good clean, live-and-let-live competition between rivals, Sifuentes said.

But there’s a new threat on the horizon for guys like Taylor. Home Depot is test driving a new concept called Villager’s Hardware, the first of which opened in New Brunswick, N.J., last year. The new concept seems designed to kill what is left of independent competition.

“Villager’s Hardware is a test right now,” Sifuentes said. “We have four stores on the East Coast. It is probably more your traditional hardware store, 40,000 square feet, and it has typically the things you would have found in an old True Value or Ace Hardware store. If it’s successful, we’ll look at increasing the number of Villager’s we have.”

Sign of the times
Taylor says his sign has worked wonders for business.

“I couldn’t be happier with the response,” Taylor said. “Sales are up. This is my third month in a row with a sales gain over last year, and I’ve had consistent sales losses for two years.”

Taylor echoed some of Sifuentes’ sentiments. The only way to stay open is to zero in on Home Depot’s deficits and fill those niches.

He said he’s doing just that, making shopping easier for women who might be intimidated by the hardware giants, keeping a good stock of the hardware basics, maintaining excellent merchandise knowledge and customer service.

Still, the view through Taylor’s tinted glasses is anything but rose-colored, and he knows that it’s going to take more than a sign to win this David vs. Goliath battle.

“All we wanted out of the sign was to ask people to come here first,” he said. “A loyal customer may need lumber, so he’ll go to the big store and pick up his lumber. But while he’s there, he’ll pick up his paint, his caulking, and his brushes. The message we wanted to convey was ‘Come down here first, get what we do have, and then go down there.’ And that’s been happening. I don’t think there is any fighting those big-box stores. They out-money everybody—for advertising, for size, for selection of merchandise. I don’t see anyway to fight it, except to be a good operator.”