For over one hundred years, Ritters True Value Hardware has been in business in downtown Mechanicsburg.
Now, both the former and current owners of the store are ready to see it change hands, and hoping that it will remain in operation.
The current owner, Jack Winchell, is looking to retire and sell both the building and the Ritters True Value Hardware business (as well as a separate business, Ritters True Value Hardware Lemoyne, in an unconnected sale) after putting 48 years of work into the store.
His friend, employee and previous owner, Jack Ritter, has put in an even longer career: he took over the business from his father, who in turn took charge of the store from Ritter’s grandfather, who founded it 112 years ago.
As for who will own it next? There has been some interest already, Winchell said. But both men have their preference for what the buyer would do:
“We’re hoping maybe to sell it to someone who maybe would keep it going,” Ritter said. “The property is very valuable, and it has a parking lot, so it has other options for other uses. But we’re hoping [they will] keep it at a hardware store.”
A pair of Jacks
Ritters True Value Hardware currently carries an inventory of over 25,000 items, and in its 112 year history has outlasted numerous other hardware stores. But it all began as a modest storefront on West Main Street in Mechanisburg, in a building that was once a grocery store.
“This store started out very very small, the living room of a home actually, and then it just expanded from there,” Ritter said. “The family was behind it and kept it going, and that’s where the success came from.”
Ritter’s own son decided to pursue other career opportunities, and so when he was ready to step back from running the store, Ritter offered to sell it to Winchell, one of his longtime employees.
“Mr. Ritter has given me an awesome opportunity here,” Winchell said. “This was not what I intended to do with my life. I didn’t grow up in Mechanicsburg. But after living in Mechanicsburg and being part of this store, I’ve just fallen in love with it. And I love to be in Mechanicsburg.”
Ritter, who is also serving in his sixth term as mayor of Mechanicsburg, was eager to go into the family business at an early age. But finding an heir, so to speak, is more difficult today.
“I think young people maybe don’t want to work that hard at a hardware store, don’t want to work in retail,” he said. “There’s other things out there that they’re maybe more attracted to. But it’s very rewarding to have a family business that’s gone on over the years, and have an established name.”
Winchell discussed his plans to retire and sell the business with Ritter early on, and the latter gave his approval.
“I think it’s a good decision on Jacks’ part,” Ritter said. “It’s totally his decision, but I wasn’t holding back on him at all. ‘I’m behind you. I’m here to help you.’”
The two men described a familial relationship with one another which had developed over nearly five decades.
“We’d get together periodically, take our wives out to dinner together, do that kind of stuff,” Winchell said. “Years ago we had German Shepherds at the same time, each take them out and run. For years I lived above on the other side of the store. We just always got along like that.”
Changing times.
A lot can change for a business in a century.
In the aftermath of World War II, Ritter’s Hardware sold everything from appliances to lawn tractors to Woolrich clothing. Since then, not just the inventory, but the building itself have changed. What was once a tiny store front was expanded to take up half of the building, and then expanded further when Ritter’s grandmother sold her half to the business and combined the full area for commercial use.
Years later, Ritter’s father would buy the five-story building next door and demolish it to make a parking lot - a move that Ritter credits entirely for the survival of the business.
“If it wasn’t for that parking lot, we wouldn’t be here today,” he said. “That was our savior- parking, downtown.”
In the following decades, there were several further additions and tweaks - “three full remodels, several minor adjustments here and there” according to Winchell - in order for them to maintain what he called “an old fashioned hardware store that’s bright and modern.”
“I think that freshness is important," Ritter said. "People appreciate that freshness look. They often complain about old hardware stores, where you have to walk over boxes and stuff. We try to keep things clean, keep it very shoppable. We like to keep it inviting and pleasant.”
“I think small business also becomes a way of life.”
But depending on their buyer, all of that may change.
“My goal is a buyer that is going to continue on as a hardware store, and hopefully as a True Value store,” Winchell said.
“I would like to see someone maybe with a family, who’s interested in the hardware business, and wants to be part of Mechanicsburg,” Ritter agreed. “We’re hoping to sell it to someone who maybe would keep it going. The property is very valuable, and it has a parking lot, so it has other options for other uses. But we’re hoping to keep it at a hardware store.”
Winchell observed that the experience of shopping at a local hardware store could offer something far different than their massive competitors like Lowe’s or Home Depot, something far more personal. Neighborhood customers become regulars; regulars become friends. People walking their dogs through the neighborhood stop in to get their pet a treat - that, or their dogs pull them in out of habit. Local teens get summer jobs, or work evenings; some, like Winchell did, make careers out of it.
“I think small business also becomes a way of life,” he said. “You live that life being a small business owner, especially at a hardware business, where you may have someone on a Saturday evening call you because they has a pipe that’s burst, or some kind of emergency. In a small town like this, you’re here to help them. It does become a way of life.”
“They call you as a friend and as a business,” Ritter added. “If they call you at an odd time, ‘hey, can you help me with ... ?’ Yeah. Meet you at the front door. People say ‘you do lots of services that no one else does. If that doesn’t continue, we’re really going to miss that'.”
To this day, the store offers services like glass cutting, keymaking, engraving, lamp repair, paint mixing, window and screen repair, fixing small appliances - specialty services that are offered during both weekday and weekend hours, more conveniently than many specialty stores who do similar work.
Also, Ritter added, unlike a large warehouse store, “you also don’t have to worry about being run over by a forklift truck.”
Deep roots
For any potential buyer, there are already some pretty sweet perks of which they might take advantage. One is that the building includes two upstairs apartments with current tenants - including Ritter and his wife in one apartment.
For another thing, Ritter - who completed hiking the entire Appalachian Trail in 2008 and now, at 82 years old, has no plans yet of slowing down - has offered to stay on as an employee, should the new buyer be interested.
“I have a lot of options and they’re on the table right now,” Ritter said. “My services are offered.”
Of course, there’s no guarantee that a new buyer would keep Ritter as an employee, or a tenant - or even keep his name on the business.
Should he not be needed, Ritter has plenty of avenues of interest to pursue. He expressed gratitude for his good health, family and friends, and interest to continue pursuing hobbies such as historical research, magic and membership in numerous civic groups in addition to hiking.
Ritter balked at the suggestion that the Ritters True Value Hardware, his family’s legacy which he helps uphold to this day, had gone on to become something of a Mechanicsburg institution.
“I don’t know,” he chuckled. “There’s different institutions. A prison could be an institution.”
But as he continued, the mayor wiped a tear from his eye.
“But we have deep roots here in Mechanicsburg," he said. "I think people who live here several years develop those roots, and bind the town together.”
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January 20, 2020 at 05:00PM
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A century-old Mechanicsburg hardware store is up for sale: Small family business 'is a way of life.’ - PennLive
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