West St. Paul is losing its last local hardware store

The last local hardware store in West St. Paul is preparing to close, leaving the field open to the big- box retailers along Robert Street.

Suburban Ace Hardware, across Robert from Signal Hills Shopping Center, will soon follow Langula Hardware Hank's exit into local lore after serving the city for more than half a century. Langula closed earlier this year.

Suburban "is going the way of other [small] retailers. It's a sign of the times, unfortunately. People love that store," said Jim Hartshorn, city community development director. But the locally owned Suburban Hardware sits within 2 miles of Menards, Lowe's and Home Depot stores on Robert, as well as a SuperTarget, a Wal-Mart and a Kmart.

"We were the answer people," owner Ted Honsa said. "We would tell you what to do and how to do it." Besides rewiring lamps and fixing screens and weed whips, Honsa's store carried quality products and tried to fill niches --like stocking certain metal fasteners, like metric and foot-long bolts, ignored by big competitors.

A neon sign on the store's back wall reads: "World's Biggest Bolt Department." Honsa said people have come from as far away as Minneapolis and River Falls, Wis., to get bolts and other specialty items he carries.

"I have $130,000 worth of bolts, and you could come in and get one for 10 cents" without having to buy a pack of 10, Honsa said. However, such specialty items may sell only once in several months, compared with many times a month for the items stocked and sold at lower prices by big-box competitors, he said.

Honsa said he lost some customers to the big stores' low prices. That became a fatal trend when combined with the major slowdown for plumbers, electricians and other construction tradesmen that were major customers, he said.

Honsa, who has run the store for 17 years, said he wants to close before its declining income can't cover rent and other bills. The 56-year-old store is holding a liquidation sale that will last a few months, he said.

Customers lament the loss of their last local hardware store, which means going to St. Paul or Inver Grove Heights to find a similar place.

Joseph Schuster, 73, has been a Suburban customer since it opened in the mid-1950s, when he came in with his dad.

"I'll miss the friendliness and helpful staff," said Schuster, who was picking up some odd-sized furnace filters. "If they [Suburban] don't have it, they can always get it."

There's not much a city can do to help local businesses survive big-box competition, Hartshorn said. "The Menards and Lowe's of the world have a right to be open as well," he said.

Although some studies indicate small businesses contribute more than big-box stores to a community's economy, a University of Minnesota researcher who has studied the question doesn't see much difference.

The major difference is that local business owners usually will spend their profits where they live, compared with big-box presidents, who often live elsewhere, said Bruce Schwartau, a U of M Extension educator at the Center for Community Vitality in Rochester.

"What we miss," he added, "is the local hardware owner is more concerned about what happens to his neighborhood and business community, and probably people in that community feel vested in that hardware store."

But some big stores, such as Menards, also contribute to community needs, he said. Schwartau said Robert Street's big retailers attract regional shoppers, some of whom also visit local restaurants and other businesses.

He said his analysis of state records of retail sales tax receipts shows that West St. Paul, with about 19,000 residents, draws more than three times more building material sales per capita -- $2,643 a year -- than the average city of its size, which sees about $796 per capita.

Jim Adams • 952-707-9996