I am the only person in my family who doesn’t drink and yet I managed to smash a glass and lose my keys at a family wedding on the weekend. Then yesterday, I lost my sunglass clip. Today, I was retracing my steps from my communal garden to the bank and decided to stop in and get another key cut at Gandy’s Home Hardware. When I got there, the door was locked and there was a sign on it: in receivership. Another one in a long line of small family owned businesses that have been forced to close shop, because of high rents and competition from the big box stores.
Over the many years I have lived in Kits I have gotten my keys cut there, bought various screws, glues, paints, cleaning supplies, small appliances, garden soil, and the list goes on. The customer service there was always superb. You’re lucky if you can even find a staff person in the big box stores.
When I refinished some furniture a few years ago, I had no idea what I was doing. The guys at Gandy’s talked me through the process the whole way. At one point I brought one of the shelves I was staining into the store and they all gathered around giving me pointers and feedback.
As I was taking a picture of the store today, a guy pulled up on his bike and tried the door. When I told him they were in receivership he was visibly upset. “Too many people shopping at big box stores,” I said. “I can’t just ride over to Home Depot,” he said. Nope, and can’t just pop over for advice or to get my keys cut anymore.
Losing my keys and my sunglass clip is inconvenient and maybe even expensive to replace, but it doesn’t compare to the loss of my favourite hardware store.
I moved away from 4th Avenue in the fall of 2007 and I can’t believe how much has changed in the last 4 years. Goodbye Videomatica…
Michael, Hollywood Theatre is gone now too. And many others. http://compostdiaries.com/2010/05/08/lamenting-the-loss-of-the-livable/
Try Home Depot,
walk a mile to find out it’s the wrong section, then ask a friendly staff member,
who usually know nothing.
Hi spring and company
thanks for your compassionate blog post. It was a sad day when I had to lock the door for the last time. It was a very difficult time for us owners to allow the closing to come to fruition. It has been a very difficult time economically as we were doing well then the last two years have been fraught with steep declines.
We scrounged for every penny we had to purchase gandys six years ago, as it was either buy it at that time or lose my job as I had worked there since 1994. now with pressure from my bank to come up with more equity we just could not find the money to finance further unfortunately
All is perhaps not lost as it appears owner of blight’s HH on 17th and dunbar may be close to purchasing and re-open soon. I firmly believe if we had deeper pockets we could have weathered this low but hopefully Jeff from blight’s is able to keep it open. He is an amazing guy and my friend and will be an excellent businessman for this fragile community
take care
David