Hardware store closing after six decades in downtown Merced

The announcement was plain and simple.

A recent social media post read that after sixty-three years, Parker’s Hardware on 18th Street in Merced was closing. Sixty-three years is a great run for any business.

For a small hardware store in this age of big box home improvement centers, six decades is nothing less than phenomenal.

One customer wrote on Facebook, “I remember going there as a little girl with my dad. He always said if you can't find it anywhere else you can find it at Parkers.”

Another person, not on social media, lamented, “You go to those big stores and you’ll spend way too much time finding what you’re looking for. It can be very frustrating.”

The small hardware store has been part of Americana for over two centuries. Back in the 1990s, the television comedy Home Improvement added a hardware store to the mix of humorous locations where the characters of Tim and Al could be funny.

While the show played it for laughs, Harry’s was a place where folks could gather, buy all kinds of home supplies, and get some “how-to” advice.

Growing up in upstate New York, I always felt the local hardware store seemed to have it all.

The Western Auto in my hometown had bolts, nails, tools and everything in between. I got my first fishing pole, model car kits, and even home versions of TV game shows from that store.

It was the same place my dad would buy paint and window caulking for the house, or where my mom would get light bulbs and floor wax.

All of it came from the locally owned hardware store in my hometown. As a young father, I took my daughters to a locally owned hardware store. I was interested in the tools. My girls were interested in the penny gumball machine near the front of the store.

Merced Mayor Matt Serratto sees a local retailer with such longevity as Parker’s as a treasure for downtown. “Locally owned businesses are the backbone of a community,” he said.

Two years ago, the Mayor, County Supervisor, and State Assemblyman, drew attention to family-owned retailers by staging a raffle and hot dog roast at the store. The event was also put on to welcome back to Merced Derek Parker, whose family used to own the business.

At the time, Derek moved back to Merced from Sacramento to accept the post as the City’s Fire Chief.

At that time, the Mayor said of Parker’s, “Few things in this world are cooler than an old-fashioned hometown hardware store.”

After the store closes at the end of June, the focus will be on finding a new retailer to take over the space.

That will be a challenge as more retailers locate away from the downtown core.

But regardless of what becomes of soon-to-be former Parker’s Hardware, local customers can take some satisfaction in being part of the incredible six-decade run of this family owned business.

Local retailing has seen a lot of change in sixty-three years. To stay in that game for all those years speaks to the successful mix of giving customers what they need and keeping them coming back time after time.

To paraphrase the woman who remembers accompanying her dad to the store as a little girl, “you could find it at Parker’s.”