Out of retirement, into the hardware
By Codi Yeager
Sun contributor
Margaret Hodge has found her dream job. “I get to hang out with men all day long and then not have to clean or cook for them when I go home at night!” jokes the owner of Anchor Hardware, a small, jack-of-all trades store on M-22, just north of the Empire village.
The interior feels homey and familiar. Was it the bright, cheery walls with rows of gloves and shiny tools, the colorful candy twists on the counter, or the faint scent of sawdust? Something reminded me of school projects and tree houses.
Margaret’s grand tour of the place, through a twisting maze of shelves and rooms, yielded an impressive inventory of everything from gardening supplies to cooking pots, nails, screws and bolts.
“I’m trying to cover all of my bases. Everyday somebody asks for something I don’t have. … I’m sure that even happens at Lowe’s.”
When Margaret first opened Anchor Hardware two years ago, she tried to stock one of everything on her walls. When that item sold, she would replace it with two more.
“Now, I’m restocking by the boxful,” she explains. “Every time the truck comes in, I add a few items [to the inventory] that somebody has asked for, or something new that I think will go over well.”
Margaret’s young business is thriving on the strength of strong, local support.
“Everyone is so glad I’m here that people come to me with a piece of fish or some berries,” she laughs. “People just run in and say, ‘We are so glad you’re here. Don’t go away!’”
This show of gratitude reflects not only a need for fishing licenses and garden hoses, but also the vacuum left by the closing of Empire’s old hardware store, in 1999. As the Glen Arbor Sun reported in October, 2000, the Salisbury family sold the popular hardware store, which sits at the foot of Front St. and kitty-corner to the Friendly Tavern, to Saginaw-based Wolohan Lumber Co. in 1995. Its doors closed four years later, leaving a gaping hole in the community.
Margaret felt the void herself, which eventually compelled her to open Anchor Hardware.
She had run an ice cream and gift shop in the same building for nearly 20 years, but sold it when her husband’s health declined. When the new owners failed to keep the business afloat, Margaret reacquired it. She knew that she didn’t want to be in the food business again, and she had to fix the building, which had fallen into disrepair.
“I was trying to clean and fix this place, so I was running to the hardware a lot, and that’s when it occurred to me that (a hardware store) might be a good business.”
The only experience Margaret had with hardware was as a bookkeeper years ago at Ace Hardware.
But she went with her gut. “I put (the store) together based on life experiences. And every day somebody tells me something new that I didn’t know before, about some product or from what they’ve experienced.”
By returning to a local hardware store based on the needs of locals, Margaret not only serves the community, but also ensures that her business survives — the fatal flaw of Empire’s last hardware store once it was acquired by hands outside the community.
“You get a big corporation like Wolohan and they want to make money every quarter,” Margaret says. “That doesn’t happen when you live here. You make it in the summer, and you hope you have enough to go through the winter.”
So far, Anchor Hardware has made it. Every morning Margaret comes to work, flicks on the lights, unveils the flag and hopes that she is meeting the community’s needs.
If everything goes as planned, Margaret says she hopes to return to retirement in three or four years and then travel.
“Someday [the store] will be for sale, but I want it to be a stand-alone business. I want it to grow into a business where someone can hire an employee and make a living.”
In the meantime, Margaret is happy where she is, save for all the dusting.
“I’m just taking it a day at a time.”