Recordpub.com - Kent Hardware to close; firm dates to 1884

By Matt Fredmonsky

Record-Courier staff writer

One of downtown Kent’s oldest-running businesses is preparing to close its doors and will hold its last full day of business Saturday.

Kent Hardware, at 225 S. Water St., is preparing for a liquidation sale that will begin Wednesday. The store has operated in downtown Kent in two different locations since 1884.

Wayne Demmer, the president of Demmer Hardware, which owns the business, said he expects the liquidation sale to take up to four weeks.

“We have some things we need to take care of for the business and also for the family,” Demmer said. “There are challenges, and there are also community challenges, I suppose, with all the talk about redevelopment and how that would impact our particular location. This is just the best solution.”

In 2007, the city purchased the building, through the Downtown Kent Corp., from the Demmer family for two reasons: To prepare for redeveloping the block bordered by Haymaker Parkway, South Water, Erie and South DePeyster streets and to help the company get out of some equity debt.

Though the store is leaving, the city has no immediate plans for the site or building, said Kent Economic Development Director Dan Smith.

Smith said the city remains in talks with the county and its private development partners on plans for a hotel conference center and a courthouse in the block.

“We had shown plans where the hardware store could have stayed,” Smith said. “In all likelihood now, the property will be folded into the redevelopment block.”

Kent Hardware started in a storefront on North Water Street, where Home Savings Bank is located today, in 1884. Demmer Enterprises bought the operation in 1969 from the Getz family and moved to its current location — a former A&P grocery store — in 1977.

Demmer said after Saturday, the store will remain closed until the liquidation sale begins Wednesday.

“We’d like to thank the community for their patronage and friendship over the years. The knowledge that we will no longer be seeing them on a near daily basis has really been the hardest part of the decision,” he said. “We’d really love to see as many of them as we can during the sale, if for no other reason than to thank them.”

Smith said the family, which also runs a hardware store in Massillon, had been looking for a buyer to keep the business going.

“But the current business model of Lowe’s and Home Depot makes it extremely hard for a local hardware store to survive,” Smith said. “It’s a stark reminder that if we don’t support local businesses, they won’t be able to continue. Everybody says they don’t like the big boxes ... but the actions need to match the rhetoric.”

18.	Posted by moroniohio1 August 14, 2009
	Ahhh, the ignorance that appears on these boards continues to astound me. It is no wonder this city has such a hard time attracting development. First, Kent Hardware is a victim of the reality of capitalism: people will usually shop where it is most convenient and where the cost is lowest, especially when the ecomonomy is the way it is. This has nothing to do with the federal government (though Obama Derangement Syndrom is funny...must be related to the Bush Derangement Syndrom I saw so common that blamed him for every problem under the sun!) or even the city government. If you actually read the article, you will note the city's purchase of the building helped the company get out of some debt; in other words, it probably extended their life. Second: go back to the mayor system? Hardly. A city manager is an actual professional in managing a city where a mayor is an elected person who likely has very little prior relevant experience if any. There's a reason so many cities across the country did away with the traditional mayor systems and got city managers. Third: has anyone noticed that downtown is actually making a slow recovery? Does anyone remember the Phoenix project? It's not going to be overnight and it's not going to be free of setbacks like this, but downtown is hardly dead. Bottom line is unless downtown offers convenience (i.e. parking) and items that cannot be found elsewhere at a much lower cost, it will always suffer like this. "Buying local" sounds nice, but when you're on a budget and can save a significant amount by going to Wal-Mart or Lowes, that's all you really think about.