In a blow to the neighborhood commercial corridor, Glen Park Hardware is closing after just six months under its most recent ownership, a limited liability corporation named Rikbull with a mailing address in San Carlos in San Mateo County.
As indicated by the nine signs in the store window, everything is 50% off; store hours are Saturday 9-5 and Sunday 9:30-5.
A much-loved part of the neighborhood for 61 years, Glen Park Hardware has been on a downward slide since Hal and Susan Tauber retired in 2016.
Over the past three years inventory has become increasingly sparse and store hours have been reduced. Many neighbors have grumbled about the lack of products on the shelves.
A former employee has said that Lisa, the current manager, told them that the store has been sold, but the Glen Park News was unable to confirm this.
Four owners in 61 years
The building the store occupies was built in 1900, according to San Francisco records.
There has been a Glen Park Hardware store in the space at 685 Chenery Street for 61 years.
Ed Josephson owned the store from 1963 until 1978. Glen Park Perspectives, a precursor to the Glen Park News, featured a profile of Ed Josephson upon his retirement (see p. 8).
The business was purchased by Hal and Susan Tauber, who ran it for 38 years until they retired in 2016.
The Taubers had trained as teachers but were unable to find full-time work in the late 1970s, a difficult economic time in California. They bought the business from Josephson in 1978.
Hal worked in the store for free that summer, learning the business and how to help customers. By the time they were ready to retire, when both were 70, Glen Park Hardware was one of a very few small, sole-proprietor hardware stores left in the City.
The business was then purchased by Aaron and Simar Esquivel in 2016 under the name of Letterman Holding Company.
At first Aaron frequently worked in the store and was available for questions and to talk with customers. Over the course of the last several years he spent less time there and the amount and variety of inventory in the business diminished. There has also been turnover in staffing. Some of the store’s newer workers appeared to have little training about the business or what was available in the store.
On February 9, 2024 the business was sold to Rikbull. Who exactly owned it was never entirely clear, despite Glen Park News attempts to interview staff.
When it changed hands, the Glen Park News interviewed a woman who gave her name as Lisa and declined to give a last name, who described herself as the store’s “project manager.” She told the News she would be there once a week, on Saturdays.
That iteration of the business lasted only for six months.
During those six months, staff came and went and the store shelves became increasingly bare. The week of July 22nd, the store announced it was closing and a sign offered 50% off all items.
What will become of the space – an important focal point of the neighborhood where one could once buy anything from lightbulbs to paint to saws and garden equipment – is unknown.
What does seem certain is that a hardware store in Glen Park cannot generate enough income to support staff and absentee owners. Whether anyone today is willing to work six days a week and close to ten hours a day, as the Taubers did for 38 years, is unclear.
