Business & Tech

Big Score for Lakewood Hardware

The store hires Darryl Archer, a 28-year employee of Ingersoll Hardware, following the Westlake staple's closure after 100 years in business.

Clarification: Ingersoll Hardware in Westlake closed its doors began liquidation in November and closed in January.

As far as hardware stores go, Westlake's loss is Lakewood's gain.

In January, when  after more than 100 years in business, many of the store's employees were displaced.

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At 52 years old, the store's manager Darryl Archer — who'd worked there for 28 years — found himself unemployed.

Then, he found himself a new home in Lakewood.

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Archer began his second hardware store gig when hired him this month.

"It's nice to be back in this business," he said. 

With the big-box-store hardware stores to compete with, it hasn't been easy for the local mom-and-pop shops.

"We make the customers feel welcome," Archer said. "They can get in and get out. You can't get that at the big boxes. We've got the odd, hard-to-get things for these homes, because they're not brand new."

Glenn Palmer, the owner of Lakewood Hardware, was at Ingersoll the day it closed in November.

"I went out there to pick up some stuff and I watched how hard he worked, knowing full well he didn't have a job tomorrow," he said. "He was loyal to the bitter end. How do you not love that guy?"

Archer said he's seeing some similar faces at his new home in Lakewood.

"There are customers from Westlake, Rocky River and Bay Village coming in here, who I waited on for years," he said.


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