© 2026 Robert Sickles
I regret it, but I have often succumbed to the addictive allure of the Big Box. I know I have some friends and relatives who won’t want to read this because they work or shop at places like Home Depot or Lowe’s. It’s just me… I have a sentimental longing for the “Mom & Pop” hardware store of old, many of them long gone. I would have said that they'd survive better in small towns, but I know that it only takes one megastore down the highway to wipe out several main street businesses. Anyway, three hardware stores I have loved come to mind.
SEATTLE
For generations, the Tashiro family ran Tashiro Hardware in Seattle, located in what is now called the International District, the neighborhood and business center for many Asian and Pacific Island communities. The store was down the street and around the corner from lots of exotic restaurants, curio shops, herbalists, grocers, and a park where the dragon parade starts on Chinese New Year.
I met Frank Tashiro at his store in the early 70’s when I was involved in fine woodworking and musical instrument making. I barely noticed if it was a hardware store like others, with plumbing and electrical parts, cleaning supplies, and paint. I went there to see the man himself, as Frank was such a compelling individual, a true Japanese craftsman, knowledgeable in the ancient arts of blacksmithing, toolmaking, and woodworking. He inspired my reverence for tools and wood! If I asked a question, he enjoyed answering with a deeper question designed to break my dependence on conceptual thinking, or redirecting in such a way as to throw me off balance. I think we were performing aikido rather than talking.
I learned that in Japan, the skilled carpenters and cabinet makers started as apprentices who spent most of their beginning year learning to sharpen tools before they were even allowed to cut a board. The old carpenters in Japan can build a structure with little use for nails, just using extremely precise interlocking joinery, designed to flex and stay upright even during earthquakes. Their ingenious work is all performed with an array of simple handsaws and chisels! Naturally, Tashiro’s store featured Japanese tools of the highest quality like I’d never seen, and which I still prefer.
Frank was not just a shopkeeper; I will always think of him as a great teacher and a wise philosopher. Recently, I thought to look him up on the internet, expecting to find an obituary. I read in one article that he was in his nineties in 2012, but nowhere was a mention of his passing. Tashiro’s Hardware is no longer open, but maybe Frank is still out there, opening minds and imparting wisdom!
BELLINGHAM
Years ago, up in the Northwest corner of our state, my son-in-law told me about a business he knew I’d like, and introduced me to Bellingham’s Hardware Sales. It’s not only a kick to shop at a throwback to the good old family-owned hardware store, it’s even a kind of adventure just to snoop around. The well-staffed and sprawling aisles cover a couple of city blocks.
I was fascinated by the novel system they have for communication from cashier to manager. The business office overlooks the checkout area from a mezzanine with a sliding glass window. When there are special orders or receipts to send upstairs, the clerk announces on the intercom something like “Will-Call for XYZ Construction.” The mezzanine window slides open and a fishing pole pokes out, from which someone lowers a basket to the clerk so she can drop the paperwork in it. And I thought the pneumatic tube system was funky!
Browsing around the various sections, I realized where I needed to shop if I should ever require a hex nut the size of a salad plate, or the wrench needed to turn it. It seems that people in Bellingham just need gigantic stuff.
OLYMPIA
One good thing I can say about Ace or True Value hardware stores is that, in spite of being nationwide chains of franchises, they are not cookie-cutter in design. Here in Olympia, the old Olympia Supply, now an Ace franchise, is like a smaller version of Bellingham’s Hardware Sales. It’s another place to have an adventure among meandering shelves and find what you need, plus who-knows-what else. For some reason, there's a really big spool of 2½” sisal hawser rope. An impluse item, of course! Actually, I thought of that when a neighbor was talking about creating a handrail for the steep trail throught the woods to the beach at their rustic camping property.
At one time, Olympia Supply would have been centrally located for the town’s population, but now it seems a little out of place in the business district, some distance from the nearest residential areas. The bright blue building is positioned between a city park and a couple of nice restaurants, and in the shadow of the State Capitol. When I find the time to drive down there to buy $6.95 worth of faucet parts or whatever, it looks pretty lonely and low-key—I always hope that there are enough loyal customers to keep it going, and that the city finds a way to give such a business a boost instead of taxing and zoning them out. Then, on the other hand, if they were busy all the time, they might think of moving or modernizing. That could be a great loss, in my opinion. As it often comes of things I value, “progress” looks like a wrecking ball.
And yet, it’s so hard to resist… those Big Box prices are generally lower. Damn!
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As days go by.....
I like these reminiscent pieces the best, Bob. And the smells inside an old hardware store are still as memorable as the village bakery.
I love a good hardware store. So do many of my friends who are former Girl Scouts. I’m grateful to my granddaddy who taught me how to use tools and build things and mom who taught me how to fix things rather than throw them out and buy another one from the big A. The biggest box stores lure me in with their low prices and seemingly endless choices. But more often, I can’t find what I need, I can’t find an employee let alone an employee who knows how to find something I need, and most days they’re out of stock of what I have come for. So I go to the big A. They have everything and where I live. You can often get things the following morning – it’s almost creepy. So when I have a moment, I LOVE going to my local family owned hardware store.. mine always has a large urn of coffee with ample supply of sugar and powdered whitener plus a stack of Styrofoam cups. Ready at 7 AM for the contractors, there’s enough left for me 10 AM that I always have a cup. How convivial to banter about nuts or nails over a cup of Joe. LOL. I hardly have time to finish my cup before knowledgeable help arrives. If it’s lumber I’m after I love going in the back where I can get advice on what dimension suits my current project. And if I only need a small piece, I can take a leftover cut gratis. They often say take a few more if ya want young lady. It’s awfully nice to be called young lady even though I’m over 60! “Mom” is often behind the cash register and I feel happy checking out without the regular frustration at the big box self-serve lanes, ugh.
So I’ll give a shout out to my downtown NYC favorites: Gelman Hardware off Astor Place (long gone) Warshaw Hardware on third Avenue and H. Brickman and Sons with three downtown locations plus another uptown. Ace has replaced Sons, but they’re still the same old Brickman’s. Kaminstein Bros, open in 1919 at Cooper Square but they fell victim to skyrocketing rents. Checking the spelling of Kaminstein I read some fascinating background in the historical archives that I found on the WWW.
I live an hour north of the city now and I highly recommend Beckerle was six locations in Rockland County. My home store is Haverstraw, where they have the all day coffee urn, but I’ve been to all four. if you’re passing by one, it’s always a good time to stop in for the box of nails you need to replenish or the 3 to 2 plug adapter that they no longer stock at Target. They do have a choice of three, count ‘em 3, extension cords in their electrical department. And eek,. Who wants to go to Home Depot or Lowe’s for one item that they probably don’t stock any longer?
Sorry I’ve bent your ear so long, but it was a welcome opportunity to reminisce about hardware stores on the page and to recollect about the friends and family that go along them in my mind.
Thank you Robert