End of an era: Somers closes
Aubuchon to expand into space, hires Somers Hardware staff
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Aubuchon Hardware regional manager Marc Bellavance looks over the interior of the former Somers Hardware that shows evidence of a major renovation underway to convert the space to an expansion of Aubuchon's next door. The floor will be new, but Aubuchon's is keeping the antique pressed tin ceiling. Below, a sign from the former owners in the window of Somers Hardware bids customers farewell. STEFAN HARD/TIMES ARGUS |
Toolbox
By SUSAN ALLEN TIMES ARGUS STAFF - Published: October 7, 2009
MONTPELIER – After more than 70 years of selling everything from kitchen appliances to power tools to traditional children's toys, Somers Hardware on Main Street has closed its doors.
A hand-written goodbye sign was taped to the front window reading, "Thank you for your years of support."
Inside, workers were already renovating the space to accommodate the expansion of Aubuchon Hardware, located next door to Somers and owner of the Dickey Block, into the Somers' location.
Aubuchon Regional Manager Mark Bellavance said the original look of the building will be kept as much as possible, including the tin ceiling, and new oak floors are being installed.
"We're going to try to keep the old look to the store," said Bellavance, who lives in Hardwick.
In addition, Somers' owner Don "Tippy" Ruggles Jr. and at least one employee from Somers have been hired to work at the newly renovated Aubuchon store.
"Being able to say that 'Tippy' Ruggles has decided to join our staff in Montpelier is tremendous," said company CEO Bill Aubuchon III in a statement sent to The Times Argus.
The closing of Somers, officially named F.I Somers & Sons Co., Inc., signifies more than just the loss of a business. The central Vermont community had rallied behind the small, locally owned store for years, even protesting plans by Aubuchon in the mid-1990s to evict the business from the Dickey Block location – plans Aubuchon, also a family-owned business since 1908, dropped.
That loyalty came in part from Somers' longtime staff, customer attention and quirky business style. For example, Somers would often loan customers a tool or appliance before charging for the item to ensure the piece was the right tool for the job or the appliance fit the kitchen.
"It was one of the few places you could go and hear a real Vermont accent," said Elizabeth Inness-Brown, author of the short story collections "Satin Palms" and "Here," who now teaches at St. Michael's College in Colchester.
Inness-Brown, who lived in Montpelier when she first moved to Vermont, cited Somers in a brief piece that appeared in Vermont Life Magazine last year on "Why do I live in Vermont?"
"Down at Somers Hardware on Main Street in Montpelier, the guy talks to me as if he knows I know what he's talking about, not down or up but to me," she wrote.
She said Tuesday that the store was special in that the staff helped customers solve their hardware problems.
"I remember after the flood going there and buying a ladder that we still have. It was one of those places where you could go and say I have this problem," and they would work with you to solve it, she said. Told of the closing, she said, "I'm very, very sad."
Montpelier Mayor Mary Hooper said she was also saddened by the closing.
"It's been a wonderful part of our community for decades," she said. "It's a place to not only buy important household goods, but it was a place to find out what was going on in the community, to bring in your bits and pieces and have them magically reassembled into a working … something.
"They provided a great service to the community," she said.
Suzanne Eikenberry, executive director Montpelier Alive, a downtown promotional organization, agreed that Somers' style was unusual. But, she added, Aubuchon also goes the extra mile for customers.
"We haven't completely lost that service. It's just more formalized now," she said. "Aubuchons is similar. It's not quite the way Tip would have done it … this is just a more formal way of doing that, really."
Eikenberry said that while she was sorry to lose Somers, she was pleased that the downtown still maintained a hardware store. She said the vitality of any downtown is improved with a hardware and a grocery store, which Montpelier maintains.
"Changeover in business is natural. Where I would be concerned for the whole downtown was if I saw a bunch of businesses going out and nothing coming in," she said. "If we were being left without any hardware store, that would be a concern for me."
Bellavance said he was keenly aware of the community's support for Somers, and was happy that Ruggles was staying with the newly renovated Aubuchon.
"I approached him and he felt the time was right," Bellavance said.
He said Aubuchon bought out Somers' remaining stock and will continue to carry some of the lines Somers sold, including the pipe threading materials. Other items, including the toys, will be given to charities like Habitat for Humanity and the United Way, he said.
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