Reinventing Northwoods Hardware
From staff reports
A town without a hardware store — in a community filled with do-it-yourself craftsmen and builders — is a family without a water source. Her citizens would have to drive for 30 miles to buy the simplest of supplies — continually thirsty.
Thankfully, Glen Arbor has avoided that pitfall. Jeff and Georgia Gietzen and Steve and Dee Shuker closed earlier this month on their acquisition of Northwoods Hardware, on M-22 just south of town. They were introduced in February by the wise realtor Rob Serbin, who saw ownership sparks in the eyes of both couples. Serbin had sold the Gietzens their home, and helped the Shukers sell theirs.
“After our initial meeting, we each wrote down our values, our perspectives, and what was important to us in owning this business,” recalls Georgia. “Obviously we’ll but heads from time to time, but if you partner with someone, you need to share similar values.”
By March, the two couples considered themselves best friends.
The Gietzens and Shukers had looked at other businesses in Glen Arbor, but they ultimately decided they wanted a year-round business, and the hardware store appeared to boast potential.
“What any community needs to be viable year-round is to be able to purchase food, groceries and hardware,” explains Georgia. “Utilitarian needs.”
“We thought it was important that folks wouldn’t have to drive to Traverse City,” Dee chimes in.
The Gietzens have vacationed in the Glen Arbor area for years, and their daughter Gillian graduated from The Leelanau School a year ago. Georgia owns a specialty food, wine and cheese shop near Grand Rapids. For their part, the Shukers honeymooned here, and have been year-around residents for 15 years. Prior to this, Dee had a gardening maintenance business called Northern Garden Care, and Steve was a sales representative for a wholesale grass seed company for 20 years.
“I love to work with my hands,” says Steve. “I’d much rather have a hammer or wrench in my hand than a computer keyboard at my fingertips.”
Northwoods will soon sell useful household items such as office supplies, manila folders, business envelopes and printing paper. And a future expansion may be in the cards, says Steve. So might shipping services with FedEx or UPS. In the meantime, the four new owners in light green “Northwoods Hardware” t-shirts will provide the kind of personal service that one can’t find at a Lowes or other big-box stores.
“We want to be the community’s hardware store,” says Georgia. “As the building trade falls off, hardware stores are reinventing themselves for consumer goods. Do-it-yourself stuff. We’re reinventing the hardware store.”