A Store With Staying Power -- Kirkland Hardware: A Store With Staying Power

KIRKLAND

Kirkland's only remaining hardware store is likely to stay just that.

"We're going to be here at least three more years," said Randy Ekins, manager of Kirkland's True Value Hardware. "We've got a lot of options."

For countless Kirklanders, that's good news, meaning a steady supply of stainless-steel screws, lawn fertilizer, paint, light bulbs and the thousands of other items that make up the soul of a hardware store will continue to be available downtown.

A flurry of anxiety over the store's future was caused by the October sale of the hardware site to Don Stabbert, one of Kirkland's major developers, and led to speculation the store would close.

Ekins, 35, whose father, Dick, bought the store 25 years ago and served on the Kirkland City Council, said it's far from clear whether the store will have to close or move.

"We're negotiating with him (Stabbert) to try to stay in this location," said Ekins.

But it's not as if the store hasn't survived challenges. Its existence mirrors the challenges downtown Kirkland has faced.

The Ekins family first ran the store in what's now a pancake house next door. At the time, the city supported three hardware operations - the Ekinses', McEvoy-Rogers Lumber at what is now the Plaza on State Street condominium complex, and what seemed like an eternal part of Kirkland, Mariner Bryant's hardware store on Kirkland Avenue.

Over the years, McEvoy-Rogers closed, Bryant retired and later passed away, and his old house on Waverly Way is about to be torn down to make way for a new one.

When an Albertsons store at 424 Kirkland Ave. moved out, Kirkland Hardware moved next door to take its place.

Ekins remembers moving everything in shopping carts and wondering then what they'd ever do with all the new space. Now it's too crowded.

At that time, the store was a Coast-to-Coast franchise. Ekins grins when he says that a sign of a longtime Kirkland resident is someone who still makes out checks to Coast-to-Coast, even though his store became a True Value branch about 15 years ago.

There have been some hard years, caused in part by what Ekins calls the "delayed Eagle effect," when an Eagle hardware megastore opened in Bellevue, and by the closure of the across-the-street Safeway.

"We immediately dropped 500 customers a month when Safeway closed," said Ekins.

But now, business is coming back.

"We're doing real well, with all the people around," said Ekins, explaining that the thousands who have moved into the new condos and apartments downtown have sparked a retail resurgence.

But the business is different from that of 25 years ago, with sun-deck gardening containers and closet organizers replacing lumber and other staples of homeownership.

"We sure don't sell as many riding lawn mowers as we used to," he said.

Still, the Kiwanis Christmas-tree lot is open for business in the parking lot, just as it's been for decades. And the screws are still in their nifty little pull-out bins with flip-up lids about halfway back on the right side.

They're not shrink-wrapped. If you want to buy just one screw, you can. Some things never change.

Peyton Whitely's phone message number is 206-464-2259. His e-mail address is: pwhi-new@seatimes.com