Tessier's General Store Online - An Old Fashioned Paint and Hardware Store

In 1963, there were 175 independent hardware stores listed in the Providence Yellow Pages.
"Now there are 15," says Harry Adler, of Adler's hardware.
Three of them are surviving and even thriving at a time when such giants such as The Home Depot and Lowe's crush competition, and when consumers can buy nuts and bolts in blister packs at big pharmacies, supermarkets and, of course, Wal-Mart.
Adler's was founded in Providence in 1919, Tessier's in Pawtucket in 1920, and Mercier's in Warren in 1923.
The stores are still owned and operated by descendents of the founders in the stores' original buildings. Each has comfortably worn wooden floors and narrow aisles between shelves packed with the things that make the world work. But each store has set a course different from the others.
"You have to find your own niche," says Bud Tessier, who runs Tessier's General Store. One thing they all have in common, he adds, is that they're not burdened with rent or mortgage payments because their stores have been in their families for more than 80 years. His son, Ed Tessier, mentions something else they may share: agility.
Harry Adler and his cousin Marc Adler were 10 years old when they started part-time work for their fathers in the store their grandfather had founded. For Harry, that was 42 years ago. When he graduated from Roger Williams College in 1977, he started full-time work at the store. Marc was a certified public accountant until 1987 when he joined his cousin at Adler's, selling hardware and Army-Navy surplus gear.
"The arrival of The Home Depot forced us to look really hard at our business and to think about what they are good at and where their weaknesses lie," Harry says. "We re-jigged our store to fit what they weren't good at."
At the time, a trade magazine reported that women buying decorating products were dissatisfied with The Home Depot shopping experience.
"I gave the article to Marc and we talked about how we could reinvent ourselves to be a viable business," Harry says. "At that point, we were a hardware store on one side and an Army-Navy clothing store on the other side."
Their first move was to create a full-service paint department. "Most hardware stores sell paint, but, traditionally, they don't sell as much as paint stores," Harry said. "The reason for that is that they don't have a dedicated service area for paint. Painting contractors want a knowledgeable staff waiting in that department to service them."
The Adlers built a paint department, "about the size of two telephone booths," and Harry Adler became its staff. "It really took off," he remembers, "but we had made one strategic error: I was the only person staffing it. I hired a woman, and since then, I've always hired women to work in the paint department because other women who are shopping for color like having someone with whom they can talk about color."
When a local competitor went out of business, the Adlers hired the other store's decorating manager. She broadened the Adlers' selection of window treatments and wall coverings. By 1995, paint sales in one month exceeded sales of Army-Navy clothing for the entire previous year. In 1996, the Adlers dropped apparel and expanded the decorating department to include displays of decorative hardware. With four other independent retailers from around the country, they formed a cooperative and hired a chemist to create their own line of paint. Today, more than 50 stores in the U.S. and Canada sell the C2 brand. Today, Adler's decorators make house calls throughout the state and as far away as western Massachusetts, offering advice on colors, wall coverings and window treatments.
In 3,800 square feet of retail space, Adler's still carries a full selection of traditional hardware and tools among its inventory of 15,000 products. At a service bar in the paint department, contractors sip coffee and joke with employees as the cans of paint are shaken. "I think the thing people feel here," says Harry Adler, "is that it's got a good vibe, and that's the one thing we've got over the big-box stores."
One of the first things a customer sees upon entering Mercier's Hardware is the display of peanuts. "That's right," says Gary Wagenbach, "we sell nuts and bolts. We've got Bristol County pretty well hooked on the nuts." Wagenbach owns the store with his wife, Paula, whose grandfather started the business as a grocery store that also carried some hardware. The Wagenbachs' son, Joe, has been working at the store since 1978. His parents took over the business in 1984, and that's when Paula started working there. "My father told me that women don't work in hardware stores," she remembers.
Mercier's is near the Warren waterfront. Its wooden floors are creaky, and the Wagenbachs and their two part-time employees are generous with smiles and advice. The store has about 2,700 square feet of display space, says Paula. Neither she nor her husband say they know how many items they stock in their inventory, and their son Joe says, "I don't want to know."
Because the store is so close to the water and the heart of the state's marine industry, its selection of marine goods is extensive, from the smallest stainless-steel fasteners to foul-weather gear. If a customer wants something that the store doesn't stock, Mercier's marine-supply distributor can deliver it the next day, says Joe.
Although Mercier's customers include some boat builders and town agencies, the bulk of its business comes from homeowners, 50 percent of them from Barrington, says Gary.
"It's the older people who are keeping me in business," he says. "We live in a throw-away society. The younger people throw away things that can be repaired." Mercier's repairs windows and screens, cuts and threads pipe and repairs lamps. "We do a lot of jury-rigging for people," says Gary.
The peanuts? They are from Virginia, Gary's home state. "One day, I went down for a class reunion," he recalls, "and I placed a big order. When UPS delivered them, my son said 'What have you done? Mom is going to shoot you. What are you going to do if we don't sell them?' Well, we'll have to eat 'em, I said. Within two weeks, we had to order more."
Tessier's General Store carries an inventory of more than 40,000 products, about as much as a big-box retailer in a fraction of the display space, 2,100 square feet. The aisles are so narrow that a broad-shouldered customer walks sideways around one display, but the shelves are filled with old-fashioned goods as well as high-tech products.
Bud Tessier, the founder's grandson, runs the business with his sons, Ed and Eric. They have two other full-time employees and a part-timer. The Tessiers divide the year into five sales seasons and rotate the inventory to match the season. When Bud joined the business 37 years ago, the average profit margin throughout the hardware industry was 50 percent. "Today, it's 5 percent on some things and as much as 40 percent on others," he says.
Tessier's buying patterns have also changed, the result of customer demand. Bud points to a display of tape measures near the register. "When I was young, there would have been one 25-footer," he says. "Now there are 10."
Storewide, Tessier's inventory turns over eight times a year. Items that turn more frequently are stocked more heavily. Business-to-business transactions account for more than half the store's sales: 40 percent to contractors and 25 percent to the City of Pawtucket, manufacturers and other retailers. About 30 percent of sales are to homeowners, many of who have been coming to the store since Bud was a boy.
A new segment of Tessier's market, the Internet, accounts for 5 percent of sales, and it is growing, says Ed Tessier. At their eBay store, the Tessiers are selling apparel: special gloves for firefighters, work clothes and high-tech underwear. They are selling the items to customers throughout North America, Iceland, Germany and Britain. Ed is considering whether he should develop the store's own Web site or to remain on eBay.
His brother Eric is still considering his vocational options, but Ed plans to stick around. "This is our life," he says.
What about the future of the independent hardware store? "Who knows?" Ed answers. "We might be the survivors and the big guys will go out of business. Sometimes, the big corporate guys don't catch on to change as quickly."