ASHFIELD - Sometimes it's quiet inside the Ashfield Hardware Store, just you and the squeaky wood floors, the galvanized steel watering cans, the cat, Ellie Mae, hammers dangling on display, piles of steel bolts and a plastic Godzilla. But much of the time people file in and out, children and dogs in tow, always with questions for owners Nancy J. Hoff and Laura J. Bessette, and usually with time to chat. The comfortably cluttered store is housed in a big wooden building painted rustic red with a welcoming front porch now slanted from 135 years of foot traffic.

Despite the vintage building, Ashfield Hardware is new in town. Hoff and Bessette celebrated their one-year anniversary on July 4 [1997]. Three hundred people stopped by for ice cream and socializing. It was a year that was more successful than they had hoped, both said. In an era of chain-store bargains, with every third car on I-91 seemingly headed for Home Depot, Ashfield Hardware 30 miles from anywhere is a hit.

"It's a godsend. It really is," said Norm Russell, a town resident who daily stops by for cat food, guinea pig food, tools, or a 75 cent scoop of ice cream. "Their prices on the things I buy and really pretty reasonable." Hoff is the hardware expert. She teaches woodworking and cabinetry at Mohawk Regional School. Bessette repairs pricey Birkenstock shoes in the store basement.

They moved to Ashfield in 1995 from Goshen, where Hoff had served on the Board of Selectmen and the School Committee. In 1996, former building owner Nancy Taylor closed the store where she had sold more flowers and antiques than hardware. Hoff bought it from Taylor in the spring of 1997 for $125,000. Many townspeople, Hoff said, will always remember the store in its earlier days as Keyes Hardware, owned by Harold Keyes.

Asked how business is going, Hoff said, "It's been great from the day we opened." "We were more than pleased," said Bessette. "It has been kind of overwhelming." The two women credit their success to the public's need for something real. "I think society has stretched itself pretty far with the chain store mentality," said Hoff."They're craving something authentic." Customers are invited to write down items they would like to see sold in the store.

The store seems to have something for everyone, like a $7.99 basic hammer and a $30 one with an elegant leather handle. "If people need flamingoes, we have them," Bessette said of their traditional lawn ornaments. They are open six days a week with Tuesdays off, because, Bessette said, "Toilets always break on Sundays."

Hoff tries ro stock items made in Massachusetts and in the United States as a whole, but also buys the Third World bargains. Of the price battle Hoff said, "I personally don't think people are saving money by driving to Home Depot or Walmart. If they want to believe that myth, they can."

Despite their success, the storekeepers are not sure if their business is self-sustaining. "We don't know yet," Hoff said. They anticipated that they would spend the first three to five years re-investing in the store. Meanwhile, they have made a commitment to the town, and they are finding the townspeople are making a commitment as well to shop locally.

One of the satisfactions, Bessette said, is finding yourself in the center of town life. "We know when somebody's horse has died. When the sheep are out. When someone has passed away," she said.

And every day, she said, someone says to them, "I'm so glad you're here."

Back to the "Brief History of Ashfield" page.