SOUTH LYON — The community is losing a longtime family-owned hardware store.Peter’s True Value, 415 E. Lake St., will close by the end of September and is currently holding a liquidation sale.
“We’ve been very successful and people here supported us, but we’ve had difficulty getting employees and more customers are shopping online,” owner Peter Grebeck said. “Online takes from small business brick and mortar. That’s why more and more stores and closing and it will only get worse. We’re saddened by this decision.”Grebeck put the building he has owned for the last 15 years up for sale nine months ago, and recently found a buyer, Patio Plus Outdoor Furniture, which will move from Northville into the South Lyon building this fall. Grebeck began a 20% off liquidation sale on Aug. 8, taking customers by surprise.
“I’m sorry to see them go,” Richard Strausbaugh said while shopping in the store on Aug. 11. “They always had whatever I was looking for. They are what a hardware should be.”
Valerie Munro, a longtime customer and owner of a landscape business, wondered where she would get extra chains for her chainsaw and who would fix equipment she formerly had repaired at Peter’s True Value.”I never shop online, I have to look at things in person and hate mailing things back,” she said. “I don’t know what I’ll do … A place like this, they help you. I will miss this place.”The store has undergone several changes over the course of about 140 years. Shawn Shull, manager of Peter’s True Value since Grebeck bought the former Ace Hardware 15 years ago, noted the property was established as a feed store circa 1885 and then became South Lyon Lumber around 1968 before evolving into a hardware store.
Shull, who has been a hardware manager for 33 years, will continue in the role as manager of Peter’s True Value at 3455 W. Highland Road in Highland, which has been open since 1983, Grebeck said. Three additional employees of the South Lyon store will relocate to the Highland store, too. Grebeck plans to continue discounting items at the South Lyon store until the end of September and will take any unsold items to Highland.Patio Plus Outdoor Furniture which has been in a plaza at 42367 W. 7 Mile in Northville for 20 years, plans to close its store there this fall and reopen in the South Lyon location next February, secretary Aaliyah DeBono said, adding, “It’s definitely a good move.”
Contact reporter Susan Bromley at sbromley@hometownlife.com or 517-281-2412.
This article originally appeared on Hometownlife.com: Peter’s True Value hardware is closing in South Lyon. Here’s why and what’s next.
Reporting by Susan Bromley, Hometownlife.com / Hometownlife.com
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
