Hardware Store Counts 55 Years of Successes

Holding ‘country store’ values close, the Johnson family knows how the hardware business has changed

Larger chain stores sell more products and see more traffic, but Fayetteville’s Johnson Hardware stands as a 55-year-old success for the Johnson family.

Founded in 1944 by William “Blondie” and Mildred Johnson, the business is operated today by the couple’s son, Harold, and his wife, Ruth. Harold Johnson boasts that he carries the largest stock of faucet stems in the state, but that doesn’t mean everything’s starkly modern here.

Handmade signs direct customers down the aisles and computers haven’t replaced the need for handwritten notes here. Recognizing it serves a narrowly tailored niche of the hardware business, Johnson Hardware delivers personal service to its customers.

Over the years, the shop has made more than 3,000 payrolls on time, and Johnson says that fact defines the shop’s success.

“People know they can depend on us,” Johnson says. “We know their names and about their families. Sometimes, when a customer is sick, we go see them in the hospital.”

Working for the family business since he was 14 years old, Johnson, now near 70, remembers the way things began for his family’s shop.

It opened as Johnson Plumbing and Heating on Feb. 17, 1944, founded by his father and mother who were, respectively, a plumber and a schoolteacher. Their office was in the basement of a large rooming house on the corner of Block and Church streets in Fayetteville.

Johnson says it was his grandmother who actually got his parents started in business. Believing that a telephone number was the only thing a person needed to open a business, she ordered one for the young Johnsons’ new business.

Phone number 1060 connected customers to the store, and the shop was an immediate success, Harold Johnson says. World War II was on and many materials were rationed or unavailable, making the supply shop popular.

Aside from running the plumbing and heating business, “Blondie” Johnson helped write some of the Arkansas plumbing codes.

The founders’ sons, Harold and Lewis “Hot” Johnson, began working in the business after school, on weekends and during summers as apprentices. The brothers bought the business from their parents in 1965, allowing “Blondie” Johnson to retire from the plumbing business to fulfill his long-time dream of becoming a farmer.

Through the years, the Johnson family business grew. The acquisition during the ’70s of Fayetteville Sheet Metal Works expanded the Johnsons’ services.

Splitting the plumbing and heating businesses into separate entities also gave the Johnsons more business opportunities. Although the businesses are no longer financially associated, Harold Johnson says the family ties remain.

Although multi-generational family businesses were once common, they’re becoming scarce. Johnson employee Brett Rester feels the influence of the family’s tradition in his position at the hardware store.

“It’s homely, like working for grandma and grandpa,” Rester says. “Also, the same customers come in every week, so it’s like family.”

Rester, who’s now worked for the Johnsons for four years, began working for the store after school during his high school years. This summer, on break from his studies at the University of Arkansas, Rester works full-time building screens, filling store orders and performing customer service.

Building screens for windows and doors is one lesson Rester learned from Harold Johnson.

Rester notes only one drawback about working for such a small, close-knit business.

“There are only four of us here, so there is not much of an opportunity to take off when I want to,” Rester says.

Employees of Johnson Hardware who have come through the store were valuable to the shop, Johnson says. Many of the employees began working while in high school and some continued through their college years.

“This job is great for students because there are no Sundays or nights to work,” Johnson says.

Continuing an old-fashioned style of family service, Johnson hangs on to some of the things passed on by other businesses. For instance, computers take care of most offices’ responsibilities, but Johnson Hardware still depends on hand-written notes and an old cash register to take care of the paperwork. However, Johnson admits he uses his computer at home to surf the Internet.

“There is just so much information on there,” Johnson says.

Finally, Harold and his wife, Ruth, bought Lewis Johnson’s share in the early ’80s. At the time, the Johnsons thought their sons might continue the business when they retired.

That didn’t happen, however. One son took over the sheet metal business, another manages Johnson Plumbing and Mechanical, and the third works as a lawyer in Little Rock. There is no family left to run Johnson Hardware after the Johnsons retire.

“I imagine we’ll end up selling to somebody,” Johnson says, “but it will have to be someone special … like family.”

Although the future management of the shop is questionable, Johnson says he enjoys his work.

Johnson manages his shop with friendly service, but he realizes that his store is one of the last country hardware stores around.

“I can’t imagine trying to raise a family off this business,” Johnson says.

Thoughtfully tugging at his white hair, Johnson lays out his hypothesis about the future of hardware stores.

“Mom-and-pop” grocery stores can no longer survive, Johnson says, so those proprietors resorted to opening their own grocery convenience stores. Although the smaller stores are opened under the names of large chains, the managers still make some decisions about what to carry.

Johnson describes a similar future for privately owned hardware stores.

Small, very specialized hardware stores will serve a niche missed by larger hardware chains, Johnson says.

Even now, Johnson Hardware relies solely upon word-of-mouth rather than purchasing advertising because, he says, the shop couldn’t compete with the deep pockets of the chains. A large general inventory that a chain carries would also be difficult for a small privately owned business to match.

While Johnson can see that the hardware business is still changing, there are a few things he has learned to count on himself.

The Do-It-Best Corp., begun in the ’40s as a cooperative purchasing entity for hardware stores, is a necessity for Johnson’s business.

Another dependable aspect of his career stems from running the businesses as a family.

“Always having someone there and interested,” Johnson says, is the best aspect of a family business. However, the other side of owning a business with relatives can be tough sometimes.

“You can’t ever get away from the business, if your family is involved,” Johnson says.

Kirby Johnson, Harold Johnson’s son, now runs Fayetteville Sheet Metal Works. Dealing mostly with commercial work, making bids and covering paperwork, Kirby Johnson’s responsibilities today differ from his days as the owner’s son.

He learned at age 12 what working with family members meant. Johnson Hardware was on U.S. Highway 62 when Kirby Johnson worked there after school.

“Nasty jobs fell to the owner’s son. It was just expected,” Johnson said. “I was not too good to do anything.” Stocking and helping customers combined for Johnson’s job at the shop, and he continued these duties until he was 15. Working construction jobs in the summer, Johnson still worked after school at the hardware shop.

“It was neat being 12, working and getting paid,” Johnson says. “I was the only kid in junior high with spending money.”

Putting together family ties to build a business seemed to work for the Johnsons, and Harold Johnson credits traditional working values for his family’s success. Johnson, who recently became a great-grandfather, calls himself simply “a good old boy.”

A black-and-white photo hangs in Johnson Hardware featuring the family and a line of uniformed employees standing in front of the shop in the ’50s. Although the era of family businesses has faded, the family values and traditions of the Johnsons still operate at Johnson Hardware.