People have been going to Connelly Hardware in Washington Square for 72 years, but it has now closed.
The hardware store, which had been in business since 1951 and was owned by a family, closed in March because of tough times for local companies caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and more online shopping. In the last week of the month, it will have a closing sale.
“Even before the pandemic, we were already seeing a drop in business, mostly because of Amazon,” said Brendan Connelly, who has been running the store his grandfather started for 18 years, most of those years with his mother Kathy Kenney. “That happened so much faster with Covid that it’s hard to imagine.” We only have 40% of the business we did five years ago.
Connelly said that even though the store was making less money, its costs, like real estate taxes and insurance, stayed the same or went up.
John Connelly, Kenney’s dad, bought the building at 706 Washington Street in 1951. It was called Carlow’s Hardware at the time, but he changed the name to honor his family.
“Thank you so much to all of our customers for being loyal and coming back over the years.” We know a lot of our customers by name, which is different from many shops. Brendan Connelly said, “We’ve known them for a long time.” “For 15 or 20 years, we’d see people once a week or even every day. It’s sad that those connections will no longer exist. That’s the worst thing about it. I wish we could do it again. We just can’t, though.”
From April 30 to May 3, the store will be open again for a “going out of business” deal. Things will be 50% off, and “mistake paint,” which was mixed wrong, will be sold for $5 a gallon.
He wants to sell the building after that.
