A fixture in Ladner Village for more than 30 years will soon be closing its doors.
Ladner Village Hardware owner James Price, who has owned the Delta Street store for the past 16 years, is shutting it down and heading into retirement.
He has no fixed date for the closure, but estimates it will be take at least two to three months to clear out the store’s inventory.
“My main supplier of product is closing operations and I won’t have a primary source for goods. There are other small suppliers, but the main supplier who sells me all my seasonal goods that I rely on has decided to close up shop,” said Price.
Price said his customers have been very loyal and he’s thankful for the relationships he has built over the years.
“I can write a book of all the people who turn up,” he recalled. “You have people who turn up because they have a nut or a screw they need. We have people who turn up because they are looking for a place to get a dance floor. I had someone who pulled up in front because they thought they were having a heart attack and we went out and helped them. Lots of people come here for lots of reasons and that’s part of the charm of having a hardware store — all of the people who come in to buy all the bits and pieces. That’s the joy in doing this.”
He said Ladner is a great community to operate a small business.
“We’ve always been blessed by all of the people who make a point of coming to us and they come to us for a lot of things that we don’t have, but they know we have a broad width of product selection, so they say, ‘I wasn’t sure whether you had it but I wanted to come buy it here first if I could,’ so that’s what keeps local business afloat, the people who make a point of shopping local.”
Over the years the store has been the site of numerous commercials and TV work, was a location for the filming of Fifty Shades of Grey and was also the site of a book signing for Red Green.
“We’ve had the opportunity to do some extra curricular stuff that’s been lots of fun and added to the flavour of the store,” Price said.
Asked what might pop up when the doors close, Price said it is reasonable to assume someone else might catch the bug and want to carry on the legacy of a hardware store.
“If that person or person(s) come out of the woodwork, which I suspect they probably will, then I will do everything I can to encourage them and help them get started in their adventure,” he said.
Coming from a construction background and a carpenter by trade, Price saw the business as a good fit when the opportunity presented itself.
“I knew about the product on the shelves and I didn’t want to end my career out in the cold of the winter or the heat of the summer,” he said. “It’s a great opportunity to help people. That’s where we get the most pleasure from throughout the day. People bring us a problem — something that is not working — and they are looking for a solution. We help them find the solution and then they go home happy.”
